2010 Schedule
(As currently formulated)
Meetings on Sundays at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
Scroll down for the voting record and further down for nominating and any other
information that has since been supplied about each title.
27 June: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
(Cornelia Carlton).
Venue: Lesley DuTemple, Rd. 2, Eagle River
Refreshments: Tiffany Dawson and Marcia Mason11 July:
Fordlandia by Greg Grandin
(Larry Molloy).
Venue: Community Building, Eagle Harbor
Refreshments: Bonnie Hay, Mary Lou Lenz, Elaine
Wildman
1 August:
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (Joanne Bollinger).
Venue: Mason home on Lighthouse Road.
Refreshments: Sarah Kelly, Nancy Molloy
15 August:
The Guernsey Literary
and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie
Barrows (Ginny Jamison).
Venue: Marta home on Road 9, Eagle River.
Refreshments: Sue Riedel, Clarice Ruppe
22 August: Poetry Night.
Venue: Van Pelts, Marina Road
Refreshments: Sue Church (1 more needed.)
29 August: The
Whistling Season by Ivan Doig (Marcia Mason).
Venue: Strohl home in Bete Grise.
Refreshments: JoAnne B. (need one more)
12 September:
1421: The year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies
(Paul Freshwater).
Venue: Freshwater home on M26, Eagle
Harbor.
Refreshments: Mary Beyers, Mary Thomas
Nominations and Votes for the Summer 2010 Schedule
(e-mailed to webmaster)
30 March, Voting has begun on the nineteen titles listed below.
You can cast up to six votes.
You can scroll down to see the nominators' remarks along with any new
information about the titles.
Votes are tallied (twenty two persons voted, the
last being cast on 10 April.
Rank Votes
1.0 13 The
Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
3.0 10 The Help by Kathryn Stockett
(Cornelia Carlton has volunteered to lead.)
3.0 10 Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (Joanne
Bollinger has volunteered to lead.)
3.0
10 Fordlandia by Greg Grandin
5.5 09 The Guernsey Literary
and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie
Barrows (Ginny Jamison has volunteered to lead.)
5.5 09 1421: The year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies
7.5 07 Crashing Through:
The Extraordinary Story of the Man Who Dared to See
by Robert Kurson.
7.5 07
Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding
Philosophy through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
9.5 06 This House of Sky
by Ivan Doig
9.5 06 Them by Joyce Carol Oates (Elaine Rysiewicz
has volunteered to lead.)
11.5 06 The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
11.5 06 The Art of War by Sun Tsu
13
05 The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
(Mary Lou Lenz has volunteered to lead.)
14.5
04 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
14.5 04 The Red Azalea by
Anchee Min (Elaine Wildman has volunteered to lead.)
16.5 03 The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
(Elaine Wildman has volunteered to lead.)
16.5 03 Zero by Charles Seife
18 02 The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels
19 01 The Humans Who Went Extinct by Finlayson
The Nominations
Received 1 March, 2010: Elaine Wildman writes: Here's my
nomination for next summer's discussions.
The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak, the tale of a
girl growing up in Germany -- age 5 as Hitler is coming to power. The
description of life among poor working class families who are not interested
in politics and struggle with the impact of Nazification, mobilization and
war is well done. Societal treatment of Jews is covered both in the
family's hiding of a Jew in their basement and description of groups or them
being marched to a labor camp. Another view of how modern war affects
non-combatants.And, from Lesley DuTemple: I
would add that The Book Thief is a good book, but it is a young adult novel,
so anyone looking to buy it needs to look in the children'ssection of the
bookstore. Not a comment against the book,just a tip on where to find it.
That's where it will be shelved.
Karen Powers writes: I want to 2nd the nomination
for The Book Thief . Excellent book.
Entered 9 March, 2010: Clint and Mary nominate Crashing Through,
The Extraordinary Story of the Man Who Dared to See, a 2007 best seller
by Robert Kurson. Physics and optometry can explain what happens when light
enters the eye and impinges on the retina and can even modify that process
via telescopes, magnifiers, spectacles, lens implants, etc. But what happens
behind the retina, so to speak, is not well understood. Much was contributed
to this understanding by the experience of Mike May who , blinded at the age
of three and after a full and successful life. regains his sight via stem
cell therapy. His story, so well told in this book, makes it clear there's a
lot more to 'seeing' than what meets the eye.
11 March, 2010: Elaine Wildman re-nominates The Red Azalea by
Anchee Min. This is a gripping autobiography
by a woman who grew up in China under Mao's Cultural Revolution. The
responsibilities she carried as a small child, her school experiences
where she is led to denounce a favorite teacher, and the oppressive
physical and psychological conditions in the farm labor camp tell us
again that a human spirit can survive with cheerfulness and optimism in
spite of unspeakable adversity. Jeanette Walls (The Glass Castle )
had it easy in comparison!
Elaine
14 March, 2010: Cornelia Carlton writes:
|
I want to suggest the book:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
In Jackson, Mississippi in 1962 three extraordinary women 's lives
became entwined and worked to change the color lines. One, a young
white recent college graduate, and two older black maids - in a
society with rigid color lines and traditions learned from birth not
only question the way it is, but speak up.
A good read! I am willing to lead the discussion.
|
17 March, 2010. Joanne Bollinger nominates two titles: I am in the
middle of reading
Fordlandia by Greg Grandin, a fascinating tale of
Ford's "ill-advised attempt" to establish a rubber
plantation in the wilds of the Amazon. Copious research
sheds light on Ford himself, his employees (a few UP
connections here) and the follies brought about by
trying to impose the Ford system on a tropical
environment. Available in paperback, at about 370 pages
of actual text plus footnotes, it is definitely holding
my interest despite its length. An aside: Alberta, Pequaming, and Iron Mountain play minor roles in the
buildup of the story.
My other submission is
Loving Frank by Nancy
Horan (I think this was a Mary Strohl suggestion a year
or so ago). A fictionalized, historically
accurate account of Frank LLoyd Wright's love affair
with Mamah Borthwick Cheney and his work during this
time, it is beautifully realized and written. Although
the story is told from Mamah's point of view, I believe
it would interest both men and women. I volunteer to
lead the discussion. JoAnne
(Pictured are Julian Carlton and Martha "Mamah" Borthwick.)
30 April,
Clint adds: An interview with the author is available
at:
http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm/author_number/1480/Nancy-Horan
pP
17 March, 2010. From Paul and Bobbie Freshwater:
We're resubmitting a tome that didn't make the cut last season, but it
made a profound impression on us:
1421, The year China Discovered America, by retired Royal Navy
submarine commander Gavin Menzies. In the early fifteenth century,
China's naval fleet was of a scale that was not surpassed until the
late nineteenth century. Thousands of huge square-rigged ships, each
with a complement of as many as 1,000 people, regularly plied the
trade routes to India and East Africa. Under Admiral Zheng He, a
Moslem from Western China and a eunich, the largest fleet ever
assembled embarked on a voyage of discovery and political advancement
which over the next three years involved the discovery and mapping of
most of the planet, from Greenland to Australia, including all coasts
of the Americas. The Chinese maps, many fashioned by a Genoese who
sailed with the fleet for several years, became top secret property of
the Portuguese Kings and were instrumental in the voyages of discovery
to the New World by later explorers such as Columbus and Magellan.
The Chinese fleet was then dismembered by politics, only to revive
briefly under a new emperor in 1434, but that's another book. Vested
historians dispute many of the author's claims, but a growing body of
archeological and DNA evidence supports them. As China emerges as the
world's next superpower, it is instructive to learn how it was when
that behemoth last ruled the economic world and the waves while Europe
languished in darkness.
17 March, 2010. Karen Powers writes:
Just finished The Guernsey Literary
and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie
Barrows. (for those with young children or grandchildren - early readers -
Barrows is the author of the Ivy and Bean series...she
helped her aunt Mary Ann finish the Guernsey book when auntie became ill).
This book takes place at the end of WWII and is
totally written as correspondence to and from Islanders who went through the
German occupation of Guernsey Island and an author from London who wants to
write about their experiences. While the book is a novel, I learned a lot
about that period of history and about the German occupation of this part of
Great Britain, which I'm certain was only lightly mentioned in my school
history classes.Ginny Jamison adds:
I would second the nomination of
The Guernsey Literary
and Potato Peel Pie Society. It is a charming story and does give a
perspective of the occupation of Guernsey by the Germans during World War
II. I would be willing to lead the discussion if Karen does not want to.
Clint adds: A good site telling about
Guernsy island, past and present and with a good map is at:
http://www.allaboutguernsey.com/guernsey.asp?page_id=55
16 March, 2010. From Elaine Rysiewicz
in Cincinnati
I would like to suggest that we read "THEM" by Joyce Carol
Oates. This story is set in Detroit and centers on working
class people as well as the elite of Grosse Pointe. This
was Oates' first novel and propelled her into the limelight
and onto her path as a major American writer. Although some
of Oates' novels reached the best seller list, I believe she
will reach acclaim as a writer of great literature.
I do warn the club members: Joyce Carol Oates is never an
easy read. She is noted for her often brutal realism.
However, her writing is superb and the issues she grapples
with are important.
Perhaps this opening paragraph from a review help members to
decide if they want to tackle this sometimes unnerving
novel.
From a
review at http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0449206920.asp
"THEM is an
example of Joyce Carol Oates at her best. It is a beautifully
written book about a disturbing subject. Set in the turbulent '60s,
it is an earthy depiction of a young woman's struggle to rise above
the poverty and trauma of life. . .Her life is changed irrevocably
by circumstances that are well beyond her control, and continue to
affect her family through subsequent generations."
I would be willing to lead the discussion.17 March,
2010. Sue Church nominates the following four titles:
THE ART OF WAR, Sun Tsu
Written 2,400 years ago by a great warrior and
factor in creating China, This is a facinating book
on
military/political practice;" to win a hundred
battles is not the height of skill, to subdue the
enemy without fighting is".
Pretty hot stuff, huh?
THE WINTER VAULT, Anne Michaels
A meditation on loss with story focus on the
building of the Aswan dam and St. Lawrence Seaway.
I found it amazing prose and a different way of
looking at some things. A romance besides!
THE HUMANS WHO WENT EXTINCT, Finlayson
Current anthropology about the Neanderthals.
Interesting tracing their movement, skill in
surviving in a harsh world, who and
how they were. As non-fiction as anthropology can
be.
THE PLACES IN BETWEEN, Rory Stewart
A Scot travels from Harat to Kabul (his journal) and
records, in lovely prose, the people, land, history
of the area. A real feel fof being with him on this
not very comfortable but completely facinating solo
road trip.
Patricia Pelt "would like to second Sue's suggestion of The Places in Between."
18 March, 2010. Ginny Jamieson writes: Another book I recommend is
Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding
Pholosophy through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. "A sprightly
crash course in philosophy,...is both enlightening nad laugh-out-loud funny."
-Bas Bleu. The authors illustrate philosphical prinples with jokes in a way both
funny and enlightening. I would be willing to lead the discussion.
On 8 April David Owens added:
I'd particularly like to second "Plato & Platypus". I
know Dan Klein. He was in my class at Harvard. He and two other good
friends from the class wrote a musical that was produced at our 40th
Reunion. At that time his report said, "In my twenties and thirties I led a
somewhat erratic, irresponsible, and, some would say, unstable life. ..
People would ask me what the hell I was doing with my life? My defensive,
gag reply was: I'm taking my retirement early while I can still enjoy it.
Well, beware of what you desire, for you will surely get it. Which is to
say there's no retirement in my future -- only my past." Then he wrote this
best-seller!
Sounds like another classmate of ours who, in his 10th
Reunion report said, "I have been eking out a living as a freelance writer,
a profession about as practical as that of a baton twirler, a lamplighter,
or a trolley-car conductor." His name was Peter Benchley, and shortly after
this he wrote "Jaws"!
23 March, 2010. Marcia Mason nominates two titles:
I have finished reading two outstanding books by Ivan Doig. The
Whistling Season is a fictional account of an early 20th
century family in frontier Montana. It centers around a widower and his
three sons who advertise for a housekeeper. The woman they get, along with
her brother, (both from Wisconsin) doesn't cook, but she will clean. The
story is funny, endearing and historical, and is a revealing account of life
in a remote section of Montana. It is also an fascinating account of the
happenings in a one-room schoolhouse under the tutelage of an unlikely
teacher. (Don't want to give any more away.) Ivan Doig is such a magnificent
wordsmith -- his writing style is very unique -- and the story is engaging
and tender. (By the way, Joanne Bollinger recommended this book to me.)
I also read Doig's non-fiction memoir, This House of Sky,
which tells about his life in Montana (his father was a sheep rancher)
in the early twentieth century, and the reader can see how much his life
was fodder for The Whistling Season. Doig was
born in 1938, so he is a contemporary, and the way he tells his story makes
it read like a novel. Again, its descriptive language is remarkable and
engaging. Warning: I cried at the end.
Marcia Mason
24 March, 2010. Three more suggestions from Lesley DuTemple:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery is a wonderful
book.
Originally published in France, it follows the lives of 3 people in a
luxury Parisian apartment building: a 12 year old girl, the
concierge of the building, and a Japanese resident. It starts slow
but very quickly soars. A quirky, unusual book.
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel is this year's Man Booker prize winner,
as well as the winner of the National Critics Circle award. It's
historical fiction set in the time of Oliver Cromwell. It's dense on
dialogue but really moves. Keeps you turning the pages!
Zero, by Charles Seife is a non-fiction account of the "discovery" of
the number zero and it's place in mathematics, including the problems
incurred as mathematicians (under the influence - orders?- of the
church) tried to ignore its existence. Sounds duller than dirt, I
know, but it's a fascinating book and not all that l