September 2014: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison + Photos from Elita's Bon Voyage Party!

From the 1995 Vintage International paperback:

"First published in 1952 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece, Invisible Man is one of those rare novels that have changed the shape of American literature. For not only does Ralph Ellison's nightmare journey across the racial divide tell unparalleled truths about the nature of bigotry and its effects on the minds of both victims and perpetrators, it gives us an entirely new model of what a novel can be.

As he journeys from the Deep South to the streets and basements of Harlem, from a horrifying "battle royal" where black men are reduced to fighting animals, to a Communist rally where they are elevated to the status of trophies, Ralph Ellison's nameless protagonist ushers readers into a parallel universe that throws our own into harsh and even hilarious relief. Suspenseful and sardonic, narrated in a voice that takes in the symphonic range of the American language, black and white, Invisible Man is one of the most audacious and dazzling novels of our century."

Biography information on author Ralph Ellison (spoilers are possible):

Wikipedia, click here.
BIO Channel, click here.
Library of Congress, click here. 

Invisible Man is longer in length than the books we usually read so that members have the time to read our monthly selection along with their personal reading, so if you're unable to finish reading the novel, please don't feel badly or let it discourage you from coming!

We will meet to discuss Invisible Man on Thursday, September 25, 2014, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands (inside Borough Hall).  

Here are photos from our August meetup on 8/28, during which we had a going away party for founding member, Elita:

August 2014: The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson + Reminders

Murder, Magic, And Madness At The Fair That Changed America

From the First Vintage Books Edition 2004:
"Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larsen's spell-binding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men - the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America's place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling. Erik Larsen has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction."

For the author's site, click here. (Spoilers may be possible). 

Reminder: Our August meeting will be the last one co-founder Elita will attend. Newer members may not know Elita very well because she hasn't been able to come recently, but she still plays a very big roll behind the scenes of AHLEBC. Also, if it wasn't for her, there wouldn't be an evening book club or evening bookclub blog! Lori and Elita started it together and without her encouragement it never would have been possible. If you have time, please stop by to say good-bye and wish Elita well. We will have cake and sparkling cider for her send-off.

Also: We have a few months in 2015 still open for members to pick a book for! They are August, October, and November/December.  (Since Thanksgiving 2015 falls on the last Thursday, we will not meet in November 2015, we will meet on the first Thursday in December 2015). Even if you don't yet have a book in mind, but one of those months works for you, please let Lori know and she can put you on the schedule. If anyone would be interested in facilitating the novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, please let Lori know. You can email her at ahlebc@gmail.com.

Our schedule for 2015 so far is as follows:

Jan:  The Invention of Wings by Susan Monk Kidd
Feb:  Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
March:  month taken, book not chosen yet
April:  month taken, book not chosen yet
May:  Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (this title may change)
June:  Possibly something by a Russian author
July:  Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Aug:  Open
Sept:  The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Oct:  Open
Nov/Dec:  Open

We will meet to discuss The Devil In The White City and say goodbye to AHLEBC co-founder Elita on Thursday, August 28, 2014, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Library branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands (inside Borough Hall) where copies of the book are available at the front desk.

July 2014: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli + AHLEBC News *Updated 7/22

Synopsis from Amazon:
"Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power.  

Astonishing in its candor The Prince even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince... a king... a president.  

When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic.  

In The Prince he envisioned would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values; his prince would be man and beast, fox and lion.  

Today, this small sixteenth-century masterpiece has become essential reading for every student of government, and is the ultimate book on power politics."

For the Wikipedia analysis of the novel, click here. (Spoilers are likely).  For the Wikipedia bio of Niccolo Machiavelli, click here. (Spoilers are possible). 

We will meet to discuss The Prince on Thursday, July 31, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall. 

We have some sad news to announce: Elita is moving back to Australia in September*. Our August* meeting will be the last one she will attend. Newer members may not know Elita very well because she hasn't been able to come recently, but she still plays a very big roll behind the scenes. Also, if it wasn't for her, there wouldn't be an evening book club. Lori and Elita started it together and without her encouragement it never would have been possible. So if you have time, please stop by to say good-bye and wish Elita well.

June 2014: The City Of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

(Book of Ember, 1)

Many hundreds of years ago, the city of Ember was created by the Builders to contain everything needed for human survival. It worked…

but now the storerooms are almost out of food, crops are blighted, corruption is spreading through the city and worst of all - the lights are failing. Soon Ember could be engulfed by darkness…

But when two children, Lina and Doon, discover fragments of an ancient parchment, they begin to wonder if there could be a way out of Ember. Can they decipher the words from long ago and find a new future for everyone? Will the people of Ember listen to them?

For the author's website, click here. (Spoilers may be possible).

We will meet to discuss The City Of Ember on Thursday, June 26, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue (inside Borough Hall) in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

May 2014: Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

From the 1996 Dover Thrift Edition paperback:
Bored and unhappy in a lifeless marriage, Emma Bovary yearns to escape from the dull circumstances of provincial life. Married to a simple-minded but indulgent country doctor, she takes one lover, then another, hastens her husband's financial ruin with her extravagance...

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1888) was brought to trial by the French government on the grounds of the novel's alleged immorality, but unlike his less fortunate contemporary, Baudelaire, he narrowly escaped conviction.

Falubert's powerful and deeply moving examination of the moral degeneration of a middle-class Frenchwoman is universally regarded as one of the landmarks of 19th-century fiction. It is reproduced here, complete and unabridged, in the classic translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, daughter of Karl Marx.

Unabridged, slightly corrected Dover (1996) republication of the translation first published by Vizetelly and Company, London, 1886.

For those reading via Kindle, this free e-edition is listed as having the same translator as the paperback above available via the library: Click here. (Nook doesn't have a free e-edition and was unable to find one with the same translator as the paperback available at the library).  To see if you can borrow an e-edition via your e-reader device, go to Library On The Go via http://www.monmouthcountylib.org/.

We will meet to discuss Madam Bovary on Thursday, May 29, 2014, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands inside Borough hall.

April 2014: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls + AHLEBC is 4 years old!

From the 2005 Scribner paperback edition:
"The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family."

For the author's official website, click here. For her facebook page, click here.

We will meet to discuss The Glass Castle on Thursday, April 24, 2014, at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall.

Lastly, a belated Happy 4th Anniversary to the Atlantic Highlands Library Evening Bookclub! (We turned 4 last month). Here's to many more years of great discussions! And a big Thank You to Elita and Lori for starting the AHLEBC! 

March 2014: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

From the Publisher:
"The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks on over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot-searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion-along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.

Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams."

For the author website, please click here. (Spoilers may be possible).

The AHLEBC will meet to discuss Beautiful Ruins on Thursday, March 27, 2014, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands (inside Borough Hall).