The Hundred Year Old Man... - Nov/Dec 2016 (Updated 1/3/17)

From Goodreads:
"It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not… Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan’s earlier life in which – remarkably – he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century."

Helpful Links:
Author website click here.

We will meet to discuss The Hundred Year Old Man... on Thursday, December 1, 2016, at 7pm in the Community Room in the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands (inside Borough Hall).

Details regarding our annual Holiday Party for this meetup to follow. (Watch your email).

Updated 1/3/17 with Holiday Party:

Here are the results of the vote:
-Our favorite book with a total of seven votes (including Linda and Jo's) was: The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
- Our least favorite book with a total of three votes was: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry. It looks like we liked most of the books we read.

At the end of the year Elita (who started the book club with me) and I would always say something about the group. I continued the tradition after she moved back to her native Australia. Here is my message for this year: I want to you to know how much I appreciate every one of you and thank you for being apart of our book club. To our facilitators and those bringing snacks, those who come regularly and those who come occasionally, a heartfelt thank you. You are a wonderful group of people, smart, funny, caring, and supportive. You never make anyone feel uncomfortable if they disagree. You are always generous with your praise and go out of your way to be understanding. I am so grateful and happy to know you and I look forward to seeing you every month. The hours that we meet go by super fast and there is never enough time. I wish all of you a happy holiday and all the good things life has to offer in 2017. See you next year Love, Lori

December 1, 2016

Ines Of My Soul - Oct 2016

From Goodreads:

"Born into a poor family in Spain, Inés, a seamstress, finds herself condemned to a life of hard work without reward or hope for the future. It is the sixteenth century, the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and when her shiftless husband disappears to the New World, Inés uses the opportunity to search for him as an excuse to flee her stifling homeland and seek adventure. After her treacherous journey takes her to Peru, she learns that her husband has died in battle. Soon she begins a fiery love affair with a man who will change the course of her life: Pedro de Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro.

Valdivia's dream is to succeed where other Spaniards have failed: to become the conquerer of Chile. The natives of Chile are fearsome warriors, and the land is rumored to be barren of gold, but this suits Valdivia, who seeks only honor and glory. Together the lovers Inés Suárez and Pedro de Valdivia will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage a bloody, ruthless war against the indigenous Chileans—the fierce local Indians led by the chief Michimalonko, and the even fiercer Mapuche from the south. The horrific struggle will change them forever, pulling each of them toward their separate destinies."

Helpful links:
-Author site: click here. (from her site you can also find links to her other social media)
-NYT Sunday Book Review of novel: click here. (Spoilers Likely)
-Author's TED Talk video: click here.

We will meet to discuss this book on Thursday, October 27th, in the Community Room at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library at 7pm, located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Catching Up - Great Expectations - Sept 2016

From Penguin Random House:

"A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor-these form a series of events that change the orphan Pip’s life forever, as he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens’s haunting novel depicts Pip’s education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his great expectations. Published nine years before Dickens’s death, it remains one of his most celebrated works."

We met to discuss this book on Thursday, September 29th, at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Catching Up - At Home - Aug 2016

From Amazon:

"“Houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.”

Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.” The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has fig­ured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture.

Bill Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and he is a master at turning the seemingly isolated or mundane fact into an occasion for the most diverting exposi­tion imaginable. His wit and sheer prose fluency make At Home one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life."

We met to discuss this book on Thursday, August 25th, at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Catching Up - Still Alice - July 2016

From the publisher, Simon & Schuster:

"Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life—and her relationship with her family and the world—forever.

At once beautiful and terrifying, Still Alice is a moving and vivid depiction of life with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease that is as compelling as A Beautiful Mind and as unforgettable as Ordinary People."

We met to discuss this book on Thursday, July 28th, at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

From Amazon: "Renee is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building, home to members of the great and the good. Over the years she has maintained her carefully constructed persona as someone reliable but totally uncultivated, in keeping, she feels, with society's expectations of what a concierge should be.

But beneath this facade lies the real Renee: passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Down in her lodge, apart from weekly visits by her one friend Manuela, Renee lives resigned to her lonely lot with only her cat for company.

Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future laid out for her, and decides to end her life on her thirteenth birthday. But unknown to them both, the sudden death of one of their privileged neighbors will dramatically alter their lives forever."

2015 article about the Author click here.
Movie trailer (French with caption) click here.
2009 Publishers Weekly profile click here.

We will meet to discuss The Elegance of the Hedgehog on Thursday, June 30, 2016 at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall opposite Veterans Park in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

May 2016: The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

From the 2014 Algonquin Books paperback edition:

"A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over-and see everything anew."

Helpful links: (Spoilers may be possible)
Author site: Click here.
Author facebook: Click here.
NPR Interview with Author: Click here.
YouTube video link from group email: Click here.

We will meet to discuss The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry on Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall opposite Veterans Park in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

April 2016: The Boys In The Boat by Daniel J Brown

From the author's website:

"The Boys in the Boat celebrates the 1936 U.S. men’s Olympic eight-oar rowing team—nine working class boys who stormed the rowing world, transformed the sport, and galvanized the attention of millions of Americans.

The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers from the American West, the boys took on and defeated successive echelons of privilege and power. They vanquished the sons of bankers and senators rowing for elite eastern universities. They defeated the sons of British aristocrats rowing for Oxford and Cambridge. And finally, in an extraordinary race in Berlin they stunned the Aryan sons of the Nazi state as they rowed for gold in front of Adolf Hitler.

Against the grim backdrop of the Great Depression, they reaffirmed the American notion that merit, in the end, outweighs birthright. They reminded the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together. And they provided hope that in the titanic struggle that lay just ahead, the ruthless might of the Nazis would not prevail over American grit, determination, and optimism.

And even as it chronicles the boys’ collective achievement, The Boys in the Boat is also the heart warming story of one young man in particular. Cast aside by his family at an early age, abandoned and left to fend for himself, Joe Rantz rows not just for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard, to dare again to trust in others, and to find his way back to a place he can call home."

Helpful links:
Author's website click here. (Book trailer on homepage if you scroll down) Spoilers possible.
NYT Opinion/review click here. Spoilers possible.
Penguin Books readers guide (author interview, chat Qs) click here. Spoilers possible.

We will meet to discuss Boys In The Boat on Thursday, April 28 at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

March 2016: Little Bee by Chris Cleave

From Goodreads.com:

"Little Bee, a young Nigerian refugee, has just been released from the British immigration detention center where she has been held under horrific conditions for the past two years, after narrowly escaping a traumatic fate in her homeland of Nigeria. Alone in a foreign country, without a family member, friend, or pound to call her own, she seeks out the only English person she knows. Sarah is a posh young mother and magazine editor with whom Little Bee shares a dark and tumultuous past.

They first met on a beach in Nigeria, where Sarah was vacationing with her husband, Andrew, in an effort to save their marriage after an affair, and their brief encounter has haunted each woman for two years. Now together, they face a disturbing past and an uncertain future with the help of Sarah’s four-year-old son, Charlie, who refuses to take off his Batman costume. A sense of humor and an unflinching moral compass allow each woman, and the reader, to believe that even in the face of unspeakable odds, humanity can prevail."

Helpful Links:
Author website: Click here. (Spoilers are likely if you click on the Little Bee links!)
Author's twitter: Click here.
Washington Post review of Little Bee: Click here. (Spoilers!)
Author video from group email: Click here.

We're meeting to discuss Little Bee on Thursday, March 31st at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue (inside Borough Hall) in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

March 2016 marks our 6th Anniversary! We will have something (alcohol free) to toast the occasion with as well as cake to celebrate on March 31st! Please feel free to bring something savory or sweet to share with the group. 

February 2016: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

From the Penguin Books 2001 paperback edition:

"When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders.""

Helpful Links:
Author website: Click here.
Author bio: Click here.
Wikipedia author bio: Click here.
NY Times Book Review of Year of Wonders: Click here.* (Spoilers likely).*

YouTube video links included in the group email that went out on January 31:
Author interview, click here.
Story of the town on which the novel is based, click here.* (Spoilers likely).*

We will meet to discuss the Year of Wonders on Thursday, February 25, 2016, at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands opposite Veterans Park inside Borough Hall.

Jan 2016: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

From the Random House Trade Paperback 2005:

"In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, an “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she has written a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on the fan and compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together they endure the agony of footbinding and reflect upon their arranged marriages, their loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace in their friendship, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their relationship suddenly threatens to tear apart."

We will meet to discuss Snow Flower and the Secret Fan on Thursday, January 28, 2016, at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library (located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands).