We had a great time presenting book suggestions last night. Many thanks to Joy for hosting and for making her heavenly BYU brownies!
Voting will take place anonymously online and will close at noon on June 4th. Winners will be announced at book group that night and will then be posted on the blog. If you didn't receive an email with a link to the ballot to vote, please let me know. Here are the nominees...
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Recommended by Barb
In Being Mortal,
bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his
profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process
of its ending.
Medicine has triumphed in modern times,
transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to
manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the
goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of
the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients
into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking
for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors,
committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating
procedures that in the end extend suffering.
Gawande, a
practicing surgeon, addresses his profession’s ultimate limitation,
arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and
families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling
models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores
the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks
or months may be rich and dignified. Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal
asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to
the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end. (282 pages)
Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen by Bob Greene
Recommended by Lauren
In search of "the best
America there ever was," bestselling author and award-winning journalist
Bob Greene finds it in a small Nebraska town few people pass through
today—a town where Greene discovers the echoes of the most touching love
story imaginable: a love story between a country and its sons.
During
World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled
through North Platte, Nebraska, on troop trains en route to their
ultimate destinations in Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town, wanting
to offer the servicemen warmth and support, transformed its modest
railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen.
Every day of the
year, every day of the war, the Canteen—staffed and funded entirely by
local volunteers—was open from five a.m. until the last troop train of
the day pulled away after midnight. Astonishingly, this remote plains
community of only 12,000 people provided welcoming words, friendship,
and baskets of food and treats to more than six million GIs by the time
the war ended.
In this poignant and heartwarming eyewitness
history, based on interviews with North Platte residents and the
soldiers who once passed through, Bob Greene tells a classic,
lost-in-the-mists-of-time American story of a grateful country honoring
its brave and dedicated sons. (264 pages)
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Recommended by Lauren
In "The Great Divorce, "
C.S. Lewis's classic vision of the Afterworld, the narrator boards a
bus on a drizzly English afternoon and embarks on an incredible voyage
through Heaven and Hell. He meets a host of supernatural beings far
removed from his expectations, and comes to some significant
realizations about the nature of good and evil. (146 pages)
Bonds That Make Us Free: Healing Our Relationship, Coming to Ourselves by C. Terry Warner
Recommended by Lauren
Life can be sweet.
Our relationships with friends, spouses, colleagues, and family members
can be wonderfully rewarding. They can also bring heartache,
frustration, anxiety, and anger. We all know the difference between
times when we feel open, generous, and at ease with people versus times
when we are guarded, defensive, and on edge. Why do we get trapped in negative emotions when it's clear that life is so much fuller and richer when we are free of them?
Bonds That Make Us Free
is a ground-breaking book that suggests the remedy for our troubling
emotions by addressing their root causes. You'll learn how, in ways we
scarcely suspect, we are responsible for feelings like anger, envy, and
insecurity that we have blamed on others. (How many times have you said,
"You're making me mad!") Even though we fear to admit this, it
is good news. If we produce these emotions, it falls within our power to
stop them. But we have to understand our part in them far better than
we do, and that is what this remarkable book teaches.
Because the
key is seeing truthfully, the book itself is therapeutic. As you read
and identify with the many true stories of people who have seen a
transformation in their lives, you will find yourself reflecting with
fresh honesty upon your relationships. This will bond you to others in
love and respect and lift you out of the negative thoughts and feelings
that have held you captive. You will feel your heart changing even as
you read.
"It would not be accurate to describe this book as
supplying the truths upon which we must build our lives," writes author
C. Terry Warner. "Instead it shows how we can put ourselves in that
receptive, honest, and discerning condition that will enable us, any of
us, to find these truths on our own."
Finding these truths is the key to healing our relationships and coming to ourselves, and
Bonds That Make Us Free starts us on that great journey. (336 pages)
...And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer
Recommended by Jenny
A groundbreaking bestseller with two and a half million copies in print, "...And Ladies of the Club"
centers on the members of a book club and their struggles to understand
themselves, each other, and the tumultuous world they live in. A true
classic, it is sure to enchant, enthrall, and intrigue readers for years
to come. (1184 pages)
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Recommended by Heather
Hetty "Handful” Grimke,
an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life
beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke
household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she
is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by
the limits imposed on women.
Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in
motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten
year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable
journeys over the next thirty-five years, as both strive for a life of
their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a
complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the
uneasy ways of love.
As the stories build to a riveting climax,
Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self
in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal,
unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her
place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the
early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.
Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the
record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters,
both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte,
who courts danger in her search for something better.
This
exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with
unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through
women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will
leave no reader unmoved. (384 pages)
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Recommended by Heather
Seabiscuit was one
of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and
the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more
coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise
to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged
racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:
Charles
Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to
the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he
needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a
mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard
to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his
jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye,
half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of
bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a
neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports
icon. Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race. (457 pages)
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Recommended by Heather
In 1956, Stevens, a
long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip
through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into
the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world
wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.
Ishiguro's dazzling novel is a sad and humorous love story, a meditation
on the condition of modern man, and an elegy for England at a time of
acute change. (258 pages)
Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack
Recommended by Tami
Award- winning author
Josi S. Kilpack introduces a new series of culinary cozies that is sure
to tantalize mystery lovers. In this debut volume, cooking aficionado
turned amateur detective Sadie Hoffmiller tries to solve the murder of
her beautiful young neighbor a single mother who was mysteriously lured
from her home while a lemon tart was baking in her oven. At the heart of
Sadie s search is the woman s missing two year-old child. Whoever took
the child must be the murderer, but Sadie is certain that the police are
looking at all the wrong suspects including her! For an added treat,
original mouth- watering recipes for Sadie s Lemon Tart, Homemade
Alfredo Sauce, Carrot Cookies, Brownies, and Granny s Gingerbread Bundt
Cake are sprinkled throughout the book. (361 pages)
Matched by Ally Condie
Recommended by Tami
Cassia has always
trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read,
what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen
at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he
is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an
instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her
it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the
happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop
thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to
doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible
choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a
path that no one else has dared to follow. (369 pages)
Contact by Carl Sagan
Recommended by Kira
It is December 1999, the
dawn of the millennium. A team of international scientists is poised
for the most fantastic adventure in human history. After years of
scanning the galaxy for signs of somebody or something else, this team
believes they've found a message from an intelligent source--and they
travel deep into space to meet it. Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan
injects Contact, his prophetic adventure story, with scientific
details that make it utterly believable. It's a Cold War era novel that
parlays the nuclear paranoia of the time into exquisitely wrought
tension among the various countries involved. Sagan meditates on
science, religion and government--the elements that define society--and
looks to their impact on and role in the future. His ability to pack an
exciting read with such rich content is an unusual talent that makes Contact a modern sci-fi classic. (580 pages)
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Recommended by Kira
Every Thursday morning
for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired
teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed
female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality
squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of
the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the
girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and
immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their
stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature. (356 pages)
Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board by Bethany Hamilton
Recommended by Jodi
They say Bethany
Hamilton has saltwater in her veins. How else could one explain the
passion that drives her to surf? How else could one explain that
nothing—not even the loss of her arm—could come between her and the
waves? That Halloween morning in Kauai, Hawaii, Bethany responded to the
shark’s stealth attack with the calm of a girl with God on her side.
Pushing pain and panic aside, she began to paddle with one arm, focusing
on a single thought: “Get to the beach....” And when the first thing
Bethany wanted to know after surgery was “When can I surf again?” it
became clear that her spirit and determination were part of a greater
story—a tale of courage and faith that this soft-spoken girl would come
to share with the world.
Soul Surfer is a moving account of
Bethany’s life as a young surfer, her recovery after the attack, the
adjustments she’s made to her unique surfing style, her unprecedented
bid for a top showing in the World Surfing Championships, and, most
fundamentally, her belief in God. It is a story of girl power and
spiritual grit that shows the body is no more essential to
surfing—perhaps even less so—than the soul. (240 pages)
The Memory Book (Also published as
The Day We Met) by Rowan Coleman
Recommended by Jodi
A beautifully written, heartwarming novel about mothers and daughters, husbands and wives.
The Day We Met asks: Can you love someone you don’t remember falling in love with? A
gorgeous husband, two beautiful children, a job she loves—Claire’s got
it all. And then some. But lately, her mother hovers more than a
helicopter, her husband, Greg, seems like a stranger, and her kids are
like characters in a movie. Three-year-old Esther’s growing up in the
blink of an eye, and twenty-year-old Caitlin, with her jet-black hair
and clothes to match, looks like she’s about to join a punk band—and
seems to be hiding something. Most concerning, however, is the fact that
Claire is losing her memory, including that of the day she met Greg.
A chance meeting with a handsome stranger one rainy day sets Claire
wondering whether she and Greg still belong together: She knows she
should love him, but she can’t always remember why. In search of an
answer, Claire fills the pages of a blank book Greg gives her with
private memories and keepsakes, jotting down beginnings and endings and
everything in between. The book becomes the story of Claire—her
passions, her sorrows, her joys, her adventures in a life that refuses
to surrender to a fate worse than dying: disappearing. (375 pages)
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Recommended by Jodi
Stiff is an oddly
compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our
bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers some willingly, some
unwittingly have been involved in science's boldest strides and
weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits
the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing
story of our bodies when we are no longer with them. (303 pages)
The Unhappening of Genesis Lee by Shallee McArthur
Recommended by Joy
Seventeen-year-old
Genesis Lee has never forgotten anything. As one of the Mementi—a small
group of genetically-enhanced humans—Gena remembers everything with the
help of her Link bracelets, which preserve memories perfectly. But Links
can be stolen, and six people have already lost their lives to a memory
thief, including Gena’s best friend.
Anyone could be next. Which
is why Gena is less than pleased to meet a strange but charming boy
named Kalan who claims that they’ve not only met, but that Gena knows
who the thief is.
The problem is, Gena doesn’t remember Kalan,
she doesn’t remember seeing the thief, and she doesn’t know why she’s
forgetting things— or how much else she might forget. As growing
tensions between Mementi and ordinary humans drive the city of Havendale
into chaos, Gena and Kalan team up to search for the thief. And as Gena
loses more memories, they realize they have to solve the mystery fast. Because Gena’s life is unhappening around her. (352 pages)
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
Recommended by Joy
Beautiful, flirtatious,
and recently widowed, Lady Susan Vernon seeks an advantageous second
marriage for herself, while attempting to push her daughter into a
dismal match. A magnificently crafted novel of Regency manners and mores
that will delight Austen enthusiasts with its wit and elegant
expression. (80 pages)
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Recommended by Joy
What secrets lie behind
the doors at Misselthwaite Manor? Recently arrived at her uncle's
estate, orphaned Mary Lennox is spoiled, sickly, and certain she won't
enjoy living there. Then she discovers the arched doorway into an
overgrown garden, shut up since the death of her aunt ten years earlier.
Mary soon begins transforming it into a thing of beauty--unaware that
she is changing too. But Misselthwaite hides another secret, as Mary
discovers one night. High in a dark room, away from the rest of the
house, lies her young cousin, Colin, who believes he is an incurable
invalid, destined to die young. His tantrums are so frightful, no one
can reason with him. If only, Mary hopes, she can get Colin to love the
secret garden as much as she does, its magic will work wonders on him. (331 pages)
Dreamers and Deceivers: True Stories of the Heroes and Villains Who Made America by Glenn Beck
Recommended by Cara
Everyone has heard of a "Ponzi scheme," but do you know what Charles
Ponzi actually did to make his name synonymous with fraud? Credit for
inventing radio usually goes to Marconi or David Sarnoff and RCA--but if
you've never heard of Edwin Armstrong or Lee de Forest, you know only
half the story.
You've probably been to a Disney theme park, but
did you know that the park Walt believed would change the world was
actually EPCOT? He died before his vision for it could ever be realized.
History is about so much more than dates and dead guys; it's the
greatest story ever told. Now, in this powerful follow-up to his
national bestseller Miracles and Massacres, Glenn Beck brings ten more true and untold stories to life.
The
people who made America were not always what they seemed. There were
entrepreneurs and visionaries whose selflessness propelled us forward,
but there were also charlatans and fraudsters whose selfishness nearly
derailed us. Dreamers and Deceivers brings both of these groups
to life with stories written to put you right in the middle of the
action. You know that Woodrow Wilson was a progressive who dramatically
changed America, but did you know that he was also involved in one of
the most shocking national deceptions of all time? You know I Love Lucy,
but the true story of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball is much better than
anything they produced for television. You've heard of Upton Sinclair,
the socialist author who gained famed with The Jungle, but it was a book he wrote two decades later that proved the depths he was willing to go to maintain his reputation.
From
the spy Alger Hiss, to the visionary Steve Jobs, to the code-breaker
Alan Turing--once you know the full stories behind the half-truths
you've been force fed...once you meet the unsung heroes and obscured
villains edited from our schoolbooks...once you begin to see these
amazing people from our past as people rather than just names--your
perspective on today's important issues may forever change. Find out why
this series has become America's new go-to history book. (320 pages)
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Recommended by Cara
When her father leaves
the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her
comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of
England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in
the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and
suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of
social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with
the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce
opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper
attraction. In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully
fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale
creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature. (521 pages)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Recommended by Rosanne
David Copperfield
is the story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy
& impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a
successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he
encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his formidable
aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep;
frivolous, enchanting Dora; & the magnificently impecunious
Micawber, one of literature’s great comic creations.
In David Copperfield—the
novel he described as his “favorite child”—Dickens drew revealingly on
his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant & enduringly
popular works, filled with tragedy & comedy in equal measure. (974 pages)
Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule by Jennifer Chiaverini
Recommended by Nancy
The New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker and Mrs. Lincoln's Rival imagines
the inner life of Julia Grant, beloved as a Civil War general’s wife
and the First Lady, yet who grappled with a profound and complex
relationship with the slave who was her namesake—until she forged a
proud identity of her own. In 1844, Missouri belle Julia Dent met
dazzling horseman Lieutenant Ulysses S Grant. Four years passed before
their parents permitted them to wed, and the groom’s abolitionist family
refused to attend the ceremony.
Since childhood, Julia owned as a
slave another Julia, known as Jule. Jule guarded her mistress’s closely
held twin secrets: She had perilously poor vision but was gifted with
prophetic sight. So it was that Jule became Julia’s eyes to the world.
And
what a world it was, marked by gathering clouds of war. The Grants
vowed never to be separated, but as Ulysses rose through the
ranks—becoming general in chief of the Union Army—so did the stakes of
their pact. During the war, Julia would travel, often in the company of
Jule and the four Grant children, facing unreliable transportation and
certain danger to be at her husband’s side.
Yet Julia and Jule
saw two different wars. While Julia spoke out for women—Union and
Confederate—she continued to hold Jule as a slave behind Union lines.
Upon the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Jule claimed her
freedom and rose to prominence as a businesswoman in her own right,
taking the honorary title Madame. The two women’s paths continued to
cross throughout the Grants’ White House years in Washington, DC, and
later in New York City, the site of Grant’s Tomb. Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule is the first novel to chronicle this singular relationship, bound by sight and shadow. (400 pages)
The Traitor's Wife: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America by Allison Pataki
Recommended by Nancy
A riveting historical
novel about Peggy Shippen Arnold, the cunning wife of Benedict Arnold
and mastermind behind America's most infamous act of treason . . .
Everyone
knows Benedict Arnold--the Revolutionary War general who betrayed
America and fled to the British--as history's most notorious turncoat.
Many know Arnold's co-conspirator, Major John Andre, who was apprehended
with Arnold's documents in his boots and hanged at the orders of
General George Washington. But few know of the integral third character
in the plot: a charming young woman who not only contributed to the
betrayal but orchestrated it.
Socialite Peggy Shippen is half
Benedict Arnold's age when she seduces the war hero during his stint as
military commander of Philadelphia. Blinded by his young bride's beauty
and wit, Arnold does not realize that she harbors a secret: loyalty to
the British. Nor does he know that she hides a past romance with the
handsome British spy John Andre. Peggy watches as her husband, crippled
from battle wounds and in debt from years of service to the colonies,
grows ever more disillusioned with his hero, Washington, and the
American cause. Together with her former love and her disaffected
husband, Peggy hatches the plot to deliver West Point to the British
and, in exchange, win fame and fortune for herself and Arnold.
Told
from the perspective of Peggy's maid, whose faith in the new nation
inspires her to intervene in her mistress's affairs even when it could
cost her everything, The Traitor's Wife brings these infamous figures to
life, illuminating the sordid details and the love triangle that nearly
destroyed the American fight for freedom. (496 pages)
