July 2013: The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

From the 2006 hardback edition from Knopf: "From a writer 'of near miraculous perfection" (The New York Times Book Review) and a "literary intelligence far surpassing most other writers of her generation" (San Francisco Chronicle), The Emperor's Children is a dazzling, masterful novel about the intersections in the lives of three friends, now on the cusp of their thirties, making their way - and not - in New York City.

There is beautiful, sophisticated Marina Thwaite - and "It" girl finishing her first book; the daughter of Murray Thwaite, celebrated intellectual and journalist - and her two closest friends from Brown, Danielle, a quietly appealing television producer, and Julius, a cash-strapped freelance critic. The delicious complications that arise among them become dangerous when Murray's nephew, Frederick "Bootie" Tubb, an idealistic college dropout determined to make his mark, comes to town. As the skies darken, it is Bootie's unexpected decisions - and their stunning, heartbreaking outcome - that will change each of their lives.

A richly drawn, brilliantly observed novel of fate and fortune - of innocence and experience, seduction and self-invention; of ambition, including literary ambition; of glamor, disaster, and promise - The Emperor's Children is a tour de force that brings to life a city, a generation, and the way we live in this moment."

For information on author Clarie Messud:
Click here for The New York Times "Claire Messud News" page.
Click here for her author facebook page.
Click here for the Wikipedia biography.

*Please note: Copies of The Emperor's Children are limited, please return your copy to the Library ASAP once you've finished reading.  If you've been unable to get a copy, please let the Library know so you can be placed on a waiting list for the book.  Drop by the Atlantic Highlands branch or call 732-291-1956.

We will meet to discuss The Emperor's Children on Thursday, July 25, 2013, at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands (inside Borough Hall).

June 2013: Out of Mao's Shadow by Philip P. Pan

From goodreads:
"From an award-winning journalist for "The Washington Post" and one of the leading China correspondents of his generation comes an eloquent and vivid chronicle of the world's most successful authoritarian state -- a nation undergoing a remarkable transformation.Philip P. Pan's groundbreaking book takes us inside the dramatic battle for China's soul and into the lives of individuals struggling to come to terms with their nation's past -- the turmoil and trauma of Mao's rule -- and to take control of its future. Capitalism has brought prosperity and global respect to China, but the Communist government continues to resist the demands of its people for political freedom.

Pan, who reported in China for the "Post" for seven years and speaks fluent Chinese, eluded the police and succeeded in going where few Western journalists have dared.

From the rusting factories in the industrial northeast to a tabloid newsroom in the booming south, from a small-town courtroom to the plush offices of the nation's wealthiest tycoons, he tells the gripping stories of ordinary men and women fighting for political change. An elderly surgeon exposes the government's cover-up of the SARS epidemic. A filmmaker investigates the execution of a young woman during the Cultural Revolution. A blind man is jailed for leading a crusade against forced abortions carried out under the one-child policy.

The young people who filled Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989 saw their hopes for a democratic China crushed in a massacre, but Pan reveals that as older, more pragmatic adults, many continue to push for justice in different ways. They are survivors whose families endured one of the world's deadliest famines during the Great Leap Forward, whose idealism was exploited during the madness of the Cultural Revolution, and whose values have been tested by the booming economy and the rush to get rich."

**Please note:  As of 5/25, all copies of Out Of Mao's Shadow had been checked out of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monnouth County Library.  Please contact them at 732-291-1956 or stop by to let them know you would like to be put on the waiting list.  If you already have a copy, please return it to the Library asap so those on the waiting list have a chance to get a copy and read the novel before we meet this month.**

Click here to be brought to the official website for Out Of Mao's Shadow.  (Spoilers may be possible).  You can also find an author bio via this site.

We'll meet to discuss Out of Mao's Shadow on Thursday, June 27, 2013, at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall.

May 2013: A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

From the 2003 Penguin Classics paperback edition:

"'Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; - the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!' 

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine."

For brief biographies of Charles Dickens, click here or here. To visit the Charles Dickens Museum, click here. 

We will meet to discuss A Tale Of Two Cities on Thursday, May 30, 2013, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands (inside Borough Hall).

April 2013: March by Geraldine Brooks

From the Penguin Books 2005 paperback edition:

"As the North reels under a series of unexpected defeats during the dark first year of the Civil War, one man leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has taken the character of the absent father, Mr. March, who has gone off to war, leaving his wife and daughters to make do in mean times. From vibrant new England to the sensuous antebellum South, March adds adult resonance to Alcott's optimistic children's novel. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks's place as a renowned author of historical fiction."

You can visit Geraldine Brooks's site by clicking here. (Warning: Spoilers are possible if you read the March page).

To view the author's profile of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott's father and the basis for Mr. March (in both Little Women and March) entitled "Orpheus at the Plow," which appeared in the New Yorker a month before March was released in 2005, please click here or here.

We will meet to discuss March on Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in the Atlantic Highlands Borough Hall Building, Atlantic Highlands.

**To view "The Atlantic Highlands Evening Bookclub Turns 3!" scroll down or click here.**

March 2013: The AHEBC Turns 3!

Taken Thursday, March 28, 2013, JW.

Three years ago this month, the Atlantic Highlands Evening Bookclub met for the very first time!  We have come a long way these last three years, been on an incredible reading journey together and had even more incredible discussions along the way.  Some have been here from the start, others have popped in and out while others are missed & thought of often.  New faces make our day!

Here's to many more years together while we follow the ever fascinating journeys the world of reading takes us on!

Before discussing our March book (Richard Price's Samaritan), we talked about our first impressions of the bookclub (What was the first book you read with the bookclub? What was your first impression after the first discussion you attended?) as well as our first reading experiences from childhood. (Updated 3/28/13)

A look back at our last three years of reading:
Selections 2010:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Woa by Junot Doaz
The Sea by John Banville
Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
The Quarry by Damon Galgut
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean 
Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

Selections 2011:
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Shack by William Young
The Help (464pages) by Kathryn Stockett
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts - Jul 
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers - Aug 
Saturday by Ian McEwan - Oct 
Room by Emma Donoghue - Nov/Dec

Selections 2012:
The Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani - Jan 
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare - Feb 
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle - Mar
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom - Apr
My Antonia by Willia Cather - May
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith - June
Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigani - July
The Particular Sadness of the Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender - Aug
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - Sept
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - Oct
Brazzaville by William Boyd - Nov
SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris - Dec (short story)

March 2013: Samaritan by Richard Price



Our book of the month for this March is Samaritan by Richard Price.

From the first Vintage Books edition, 2004:

"Ray Mitchell, a former TV writer who has left Hollywood under a cloud, returns to urban Dempsy, New Jersey, hoping to make a difference in the lives of his struggling neighbors. Instead, his very public and emotionally suspect generosity gets him beaten nearly to death. Ray refuses to name his assailant, which makes him intensely interesting to Detective Nerese Ammons, a friend from childhood, who now sets out to unlock the secret of his reticence. Set against the intensely realized backdrop of urban America, the cat and mouse game that unfolds is both morally complex and utterly gripping."

The author does not have a site, but there is a short bio at the beginning of the novel Samaritan, as well as bio information on Google which you can view by clicking here or on Goodreads which you can view by clicking here. (You may (or may not) need a Goodreads account to view this information).

We will meet on Thursday, March 28, 2013, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue inside the Atlantic Highlands Borough Hall building to discuss Samaritan. 

A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson, February 2013

From Broadway Books paperback edition dated 2000:

"Life is a work in progress, as ever-changing as a sandy shoreline along the beach. During the years Joan Anderson was a loving wife and supportive mother, she had slowly and unconsciously replaced her own dreams with the needs of her family. With her sons grown, however, she realized that the family no longer centered on the home she provided, and her relationship with her husband had become stagnant. Like many women in her situation, Joan realized that she had neglected to nurture herself and, worse, to envision fulfilling goals for her future. As her husband received a wonderful job opportunity out-of-state, it seemed that the best part of her own life was finished. Shocking both of them, she refused to follow him to his new job and decided to retreat to a family cottage on Cape Cod.

At first casting about for direction, Joan soon began to take plea-sure in her surroundings and call on resources she didn't realize she had. Over the course of a year, she gradually discovered that her life as an "unfinished woman" was full of possibilities. Out of that magical, difficult, transformative year came A Year by the Sea, a record of her experiences and a treasury of wisdom for readers.

This year of self-discovery brought about extraordinary changes in the author's life. The steps that Joan took to revitalize herself and rediscover her potential have helped thousands of woman reveal and release untapped resources within themselves."

For more on the author, visit her site by clicking here.

We will meet to discuss our second non-fiction book of 2013 on Thursday, February 28, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue inside Atlantic Highlands Borough Hall.