St. Andrew's Book Club
Selections for 2007-2008
September 2007 - An Innocent Man by John Grisham
Amazon.com John Grisham tackles nonfiction for the first time
with The Innocent Man, a true tale about murder and injustice in a
small town (that reads like one of his own bestselling novels). The
Innocent Man chronicles the story of Ron Williamson, how he was
arrested and charged with a crime he did not commit, how his case
was (mis)handled and how an innocent man was sent to death row.
Grisham's first work of nonfiction is shocking, disturbing, and
enthralling--a must read for fiction and nonfiction fans. We had the
opportunity to talk with John Grisham about the case and the book,
read his responses below. --Daphne Durham
October 2007 -The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis
Alberto Urrea
"'Her powers were growing now, like her body. No one knew where
the strange things came from. Some said they sprang up in her after
the desert sojourn with Huila. Some said they came from somewhere
else, some deep inner landscape no one could touch. That they had
been there all along.' Teresita, the real-life 'Saint of Cabora,'
was born in 1873 to a 14-year-old Indian girl impregnated by a
prosperous rancher near the Mexico-Arizona border. Raised in dire
poverty by an abusive aunt, the little girl still learned music and
horsemanship and even to read: she was a 'chosen child,' showing
such remarkable healing powers that the ranch's medicine woman took
her as an apprentice, and the rancher, Don Toms Urrea, took her —
barefoot and dirty — into his own household. At 16, Teresita was
raped, lapsed into a coma and apparently died. At her wake, though,
she sat up in her coffin and declared that it was not for her.
Pilgrims came to her by the thousands, even as the Catholic Church
denounced her as a heretic; she was also accused of fomenting an
Indian uprising against Mexico and, at 19, sentenced to be shot.
From this already tumultuous tale of his great-aunt Teresa, American
Book Award — winner Urrea (The
Devil's Highway) fashions an astonishing novel set against the
guerrilla violence of post — Civil War southwestern border disputes
and incipient revolution. His brilliant prose is saturated with the
cadences and insights of Latin-American magical realism and tempered
by his exacting reporter's eye and extensive historical
investigation. The book is wildly romantic, sweeping in its effect,
employing the techniques of Catholic hagiography, Western fairy
tale, Indian legend and everyday family folklore against the gritty
historical realities of war, poverty, prejudice, lawlessness,
torture and genocide. Urrea effortlessly links Teresita's
supernatural calling to the turmoil of the times, concealing
substantial intellectual content behind effervescent storytelling
and considerable humor. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. (May 17)"
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business
Information, Inc.)
November 2007 - Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's
story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful
obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As
Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with
religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more
significant.--From publisher description
December 2007
- A
Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens—
We will meet on December 18 6 P.M. at Katrina’s.
A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost
Story of Christmas (commonly known as A Christmas Carol ) is what
Charles
Dickens described as his "little Christmas Book" and was
first published on
December 19,
1843 with illustrations by
John Leech.[1]
The story was instantly successful, selling over six thousand copies in one
week and, although originally written as a
potboiler
to enable Dickens to pay off a debt, the tale has become one of the most
popular and enduring
Christmas stories of all time.[2]
Contemporaries noted that the story's
popularity played a critical role in redefining the importance of Christmas and
the major sentiments associated with the holiday. A Christmas Carol was written
during a time of decline in the old Christmas traditions.[3] "If Christmas, with its ancient and hospitable
customs, its social and charitable observances, were in danger of decay, this
is the book that would give them a new lease," said English poet
Thomas Hood.[4]From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click on link below to read
the story online or print it out to read in a comfy chair!
http://www.stormfax.com/dickens.htm
January 2008
- Wild Life by Molly Gloss
From
Publishers Weekly
Gloss twines just enough intellectual fiber around the sleek cord of a great
adventure story to offer up a truly satisfying read. Presented as the 1905
journal of the fictional dime novelist Charlotte Bridger Drummond, Gloss's
third novel (after The Jump-Off Creek and The Dazzle of Day) tells the tale of
a self-avowed feminist and Freethinker and her sojourn in the wilderness of
Washington's Cascade mountains. Abandoned by her husband, Charlotte supports
her five boys and her housekeeper, Melba, by churning out "romantic tales
of girl-heroes who are both brave and desirable." When Melba's
granddaughter goes missing in the woods, Charlotte sets out, as would her
heroines, to join the search party. But after days of searching, Charlotte
finds herself last, for weeks managing to survive only by insinuating herself
into a family of "apes or erect bears of immense size." Knowingly,
Gloss plays with one of our deepest fears lost in the wilderness, will we be
saved?. Interleaved between Charlotte's notebook entries are passages she has
clipped from journals (e.g., of Samuel Butler, Willa Cather, Oscar Wilde) and
excerpts from her published and unpublished fiction. Inserted among these are
brief scenes portraits, really that could be construed as Charlotte's most
serious attempts to write, or as Gloss telling us what Charlotte cannot. While
Gloss generates heat and humor from the friction between early 20th-century and
early 21st-century attitudes, her prose is most satisfying when she describes
Charlotte's housekeeper ironing or Charlotte's patient suitor batting a
homemade baseball. Deep into the book, Charlotte describes the "lowbrow
scientific romances" she fancies: "[M]y preference is for the writer
whose language is gorgeous, whose characters are real as life, and whose
stories take my poor little assumptions and give them back to me
transformed." Gloss couldn't have written a better description of her own
novel: the writing is gorgeous, the characters real and vivid, and the story
transforming. Agent, Wendy Weil. (June) FYI: Gloss received a 1996 Whiting
Award, as well as the PEN Center West Fiction Prize.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
February 2008 - The
Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
“I
started The Tender Bar yesterday morning and although I had about a
hundred things to do, I just had to keep reading. It's a terrific memoir --
funny, poignant and amazing. Frankly, if someone told me I'd be enthralled with
a memoir centered around a Long Island bar, I'd say they were wrong, but J.R.
Moehringer drew me in and made me want to know everything about him, his family
and all the fabulous characters.” -Elaine Petrocelli, Book Passage
March 2008 - Lady’s Maid by Margaret Forster
From
Publishers Weekly
British novelist Forster (Georgy Girl ), whose biographies include Elizabeth
Barrett Browning , lures the reader into the attic of the famous house on
Wimpole Street, where Barrett's maid, Elizabeth Wilson, composes copious
letters to her mother in the North Country. Her correspondence, the fulcrum of
the novel, describes her daily experiences, her impressions of the large household and,
especially, her sickly but charismatic mistress. Wilson's devotion is such that
she forsakes her homeland, her family, a suitor and even her own reputation in
order to aid Miss Elizabeth and her suitor Mr. Browning when they elope to Europe.
At this point, the novel falters; Forster is not quite capable of juggling the
glamorous settings, Wilson's frustrations (the Brownings, though generous in
their affection, cannot see Wilson as other than a servant), her difficult
marriage and family life. Wilson's ambivalence about Miss Elizabeth, whom she
loves and resents, is the most interesting aspect of the novel, but despite
otherwise sensitive handling, it is almost glibly resolved in the conclusion.
On the whole, however, this is top-drawer historical fiction, akin to the TV
series Upstairs, Downstairs in its appeal and its overtures toward discussions
of class.
April
2008 - The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolman
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The title of this moving, well-crafted book refers to a
tree in the backyard of a home in Ramla, Israel. The home is currently owned by
Dalia, a Jewish woman whose family of Holocaust survivors emigrated from
Bulgaria. But before Israel gained its independence in 1948, the house was
owned by the Palestinian family of Bashir, who meets Dalia when he returns to
see his family home after the Six-Day War of 1967. Journalist Tolan (Me
& Hank) traces the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through
the parallel personal histories of Dalia and Bashir and their families—all
refugees seeking a home. As Tolan takes the story forward, Dalia struggles with
her Israeli identity, and Bashir struggles with decades in Israeli prisons for
suspected terrorist activities. Those looking for even a symbolic magical solution
to that conflict won't find it here: the lemon tree dies in 1998, just as the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process stagnates. But as they follow Dalia and
Bashir's difficult friendship, readers will experience one of the world's most
stubborn conflicts firsthand. 2 maps. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
May
2008 - Thousand Splendid Suns by
Khaled Hosseini (Author)
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his
bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistan in
turmoil. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and
Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned
illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying
the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce
a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart
and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by
rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending
war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed,
whose violent misogyny—"There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading,
no surprised yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being
beaten"—is endorsed by custom and law. Hosseini gives a forceful but
nuanced portrait of a patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly
dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male
children being their sole path to social status. His tale is a powerful,
harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives
and enduring hopes of its resilient characters. (May)