April 2009 Selection: Still Alice

Sorry if I skipped a few months.... In January, February, and March, we read "Loving Frank", "Not a Genuine Black Man", and "Reaching Out". This month we are reading "Still Alice", a very moving novel about a woman who learns she has Alzheimer's disease. The library will be closed from 9:30 to noon this Friday because of the inauguration of our new president. So don't come early. The doors should reopen at noon, just in time for our meeting!

November-December Selection

Our next meeting is Friday, December 5th (we are combining November and December meetings).
We will be discussing an American classic: The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. We will start the meeting a little early, at 11:30 am, to watch part of the movie. Then we will have our usual discussion at noon.

Book Group Expo 2008

The third annual Book Group Expo will be held in San Jose on October 25 and 26. I think many of you in the SCU Book Group would find this expo interesting and a lot of fun. It's a rare opportunity to hear a large group of authors discuss books and writing in a varied selection of "salons" on interesting topics. I (Alice) attended the first two expos and thoroughly enjoyed them. For detailed information see http://www.bookgroupexpo.com/

October Selection: On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan

We will meet on Friday, October 31 (Halloween!) to discuss On Chesil Beach.

Here's a review of the novel published in Booklist:

In his previous novels, McEwan has measured the effect of the cataclysmic moment on personal lives. And he has never shied away from full-tilt exploration of the tensions inherent in human sexuality. These two predilections merge, almost gently, in his new novella, which, despite its short length, is anything but small in its creative concept and the consequent poignancy it arouses in the reader. This achingly beautiful narrative, which seamlessly flows between the points of view of the two primary characters, peers behind closed doors, but never lasciviously, at a young married couple on their honeymoon night. The time is the brink of the 1960s, but the young couple's virginity, and their stiltedness in general and certainly with each other (McEwan makes certain to take several glances backward to fill in their separate biographical and psychological profiles), seems a remnant of Victorian times rather than anticipating the free and easy sexuality of the decade to come. The cataclysmic moment here is simply a case of premature ejaculation during the couple's first lovemaking; and from that incident, which under normal circumstances, with normally accepting and loving individuals, would have been a minor glitch in their marital history, immediately arises a deep misunderstanding that proves disastrous to the marriage. Conventional in construction and realistic in its representation of addled psychology, the novel is ingenious for its limited but deeply resonant focus. --Brad Hooper Copyright 2007, Booklist( March 15, 2007 )

September Selection: Digging to America by Anne Tyler

Our next meeting will be Friday, September 26. We will be discussing Anne Tyler's novel Digging to America.

Excerpt of a review in Library Journal:
"At a point when foreign adoptions are being contested and immigration continues to be problematic, Tyler seems to once again have her finger on the pulse of America. Two families meet at the airport as they await the arrival of their Korean-born daughters. The Iranian American Yazdans immediately set about Americanizing their daughter, while the Donaldsons do everything to help their child keep her Korean heritage. Leaning on each other for support as their daughters grow, these families have all the quirks one expects from Tyler's novelsincluding love to be found in the place one least expects it. When love becomes conflict, when a second adopted daughter fails to live up to the perfection of the first, we see mothers clinging even more tightly to roots that can only be severed and causing what in the hands of a lesser novelist would be an irrevocable rift."

For an interview of Anne Tyler discussing Digging to America, click here

August Selection: Peony in Love, by Lisa See

There won't be any meeting in July.

Our Selection for the month of August is Peony in Love, by Lisa See, a wonderful novel set in seventeenth-century China. According to Publishers Weekly, "See's fifth novel is a coming-of-age story, a ghost story, a family saga and a work of musical and social history... See (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, etc.) offers meticulous depiction of women's roles in Qing and Ming dynasty China (including horrifying foot-binding scenes) and vivid descriptions of daily Qing life, festivals and rituals. Peony's vibrant voice, perfectly pitched between the novel's historical and passionate depths, carries her story beautifully-in life and afterlife."

For an interview with the author, go to: http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=1171

What do you think? We welcome your comments about the book!