SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris, December 2012

This month's selection, SantaLand Diaries, is a short story that was published in David Sedaris's Holidays On Ice (as well as in Barrell Fever).  It is an account of Sedaris's time as a Christmas Elf in the SantaLand of a Macy's Department Store.

We're gathering to discuss this short story and have a Holiday Party & Book Exchange on Thursday, December 27, 2012, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue inside the Borough Hall Building.

Further details about our Holiday Party & Book Exchange will be available soon via email.  If you're not currently on the AHLEBC email list, please send an email requesting to be added to ahlebc@gmail.com.

Best wishes for a happy holiday season & a healthy new year! 

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd, November 2012

From the Harper Perennial paperback edition:

"In the heart of a civil war-torn African nation, primate researcher Hope Clearwater made a shocking discovery about apes and man. . . .

Young, alone, and far from her family in Britain, Hope Clearwater contemplates the extraordinary events that left her washed up like driftwood on Brazzaville Beach. It is here, on the distant, lonely outskirts of Africa, where she must come to terms with the perplexing and troubling circumstances of her recent past. For Hope is a survivor of the devastating cruelties of apes and humans alike. And to move forward, she must first grasp some hard and elusive truths: about marriage and madness, about the greed and savagery of charlatan science, and about what compels seemingly benign creatures to kill for pleasure alone."

For information on author William Boyd, please click here to go to his site.

We will meet to discuss Brazzaville Beach on Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands.  (Inside Borough Hall).  

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson, October 2012

From the 2011 Random House Trade Paperback edition:

"In the small village of Edgecombe St. Mary in the English countrside lives Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut.  Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, the Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: hnor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But, then his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But, village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and regarding her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition?"

For information about the author, please click here to go to her site. 

We'll meet to discuss this novel on Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue (in the Borough Hall Building), Atlantic Highlands. 

Bel Canto by Anne Patchett, September 2012

 

From the 2001 Perennial/Harper Collins paperback edition:

"Somewhere in South America at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening until a band of terrorists breaks in, taking the entire party hostage.  But what begins as a life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped."

For information on author Anne Patchett, click here for the Wikipedia bio and here for her website.

We will meet at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands in the Borough Hall building, at 7pm on Thursday, September, 27, 2012.

The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, August 2012



From the publisher/paperback edition:

On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice. To her horror, she finds that her cheerful mother tastes of despair. Soon, she’s  privy to the secret knowledge that most families keep hidden: her father’s detachment, her mother’s transgression, her brother’s increasing retreat from the world. But there are some family secrets that even her cursed taste buds can’t discern.

For author info, please click here.

We will meet to chat about this novel on Thursday, August 30, 2012, 7pm, at the Library (located at Borough Hall, 100 First Avenue).

Lucia, Lucia by A. Trigiani, July 2012

From goodreads.com:  It is 1950 in glittering, vibrant New York City. Lucia Sartori is the beautiful twenty-five-year-old daughter of a prosperous Italian grocer in Greenwich Village. The postwar boom is ripe with opportunities for talented girls with ambition, and Lucia becomes an apprentice to an up-and-coming designer at chic B. Altman's department store on Fifth Avenue. Engaged to her childhood sweetheart, the steadfast Dante DeMartino, Lucia is torn when she meets a handsome stranger who promises a life of uptown luxury that career girls like her only read about in the society pages. Forced to choose between duty to her family and her own dreams, Lucia finds herself in the midst of a sizzling scandal in which secrets are revealed, her beloved career is jeopardized, and the Sartoris' honor is tested. 

For author info, please click here for her website.

We'll meet at the Library to discuss Lucia, Lucia on Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 7pm.

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, June 2012

From goodreads: "The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience."

Related links:
Click here for the Wikipedia Biography of author Betty Smith.
Click here for the Harper Collins Publishers page for Betty Smith.

We will meet to discuss A Tree Grows In Brooklyn on Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 7pm at the Library.  (Located at Borough Hall, 100 First Avenue).

Please note that new titles for 2013 have been added to the beginning of our Available Titles Page.  Click here to be taken directly to the page or scoll up and click on "Available Titles".  The hard copy of the list is available at the Library desk.