LAVA Discussion Book Candidates for 2011
These candidate books come from several sources, including suggestions from LAVA members, lists of award-winning books, favorites of other book clubs, the Harvard Bookstore’s best-seller list (my personal favorite), literary blogs, etc. Several were carried over from the previous voting list. There are 22 books on this list, but we will choose only 8 of them in this balloting, which means that unfortunately many worthwhile books will be excluded from next year’s reading schedule. As before, the most popular runners-up will be included in the next list of candidates.
Why do we need to choose only 8 books to cover 12 meetings? We don’t read a book for January because that month is occupied with choosing the next list of books. In March we read the book chosen by Writers and Books for the "If all of Rochester Read the Same Book" program. In July and September we see a film at The Little Theater instead of discussing a book. Therefore we need to choose only 8 books to cover a full year.
LAVA members are encouraged to research these book candidates in bookstores, libraries, on the web, etc. Bring this list and your thoughts to the special January meeting at my house on Saturday, January 8, which will be devoted to sharing information and opinions on these books (and sharing good food).
After the January meeting and prior to the voting deadline of February 1, please "mark your ballots" and return them to me. First review the guidelines for choosing LAVA discussion books, which reflect some of the things we have learned about choosing books over the years. Then, using a system similar to the one used in the Olympics, rate each book individually on a scale of 1 to 10, using 10 to indicate books that you think would generate the best Lava discussions. If you wish, you can write your rating for each book in the margins of this document. Last year, several members rated each book as we discussed it during the January meeting and then handed their marked list to me as they left, but you can use any method you prefer as long as you get your ratings to me by the voting deadline.
The candidates are divided into three groups: shorter fiction, shorter nonfiction, and longer works. This division doesn’t affect how you cast your vote, but it does affect how the final schedule is created. If no nonfiction book is among the top vote-getters, the most popular nonfiction book will go on the list anyway to assure that we get a little variety in our reading. Any of the longer books among the top vote-getters will be assigned to the August and October meetings because that will give us two months to read them.
Candidates for Regular Meetings (fiction)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shafer and Annie Barrows. 290 pages, 2008. Guernsey is a small British island near France that was occupied by the Germans during World War II. This novel is presented as a series of letters from members of a Guernsey book club who talk about life there during that period. Washington Post: "…a sweet, sentimental paean to books and those who love them.... It affirms the power of books to nourish people enduring hard times." The San Francisco Chronicle described it as, "Traditional without seeming stale, and romantic without being naïve," noting that it "stays within modest bounds, but is successful in ways many novels are not. This book won't change your life, but it will probably enchant you." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/guernsey_literary_and_potato_peel_pie_society. Suggested by Vicki and Rod. This book club favorite was #7 on the Harvard bookstore’s best-seller list in Oct 2009. The library system has 90 books.
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. 252 pages, 2006. Amazon describes it as a "hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened." One of the characters is an elderly man who escaped from the Nazis long ago, and the other is a fourteen-year-old girl whose younger brother thinks he might be the Messiah. The Times (UK): "For all the complexity of this book, it has the simplicity of pure emotion, and is a delight because of it." The New York Times spoke of the "deep, surprising wisdom that gives this novel its ultimate heft." Nicole Krauss was recently named to the New Yorker's "20 Under 40" list of young writers with promising futures. Her most recent novel quickly rose to #3 on the Harvard Bookstore's best-seller list. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/history_of_love/. 28 copies in the library system.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. 288 pages, 2005. "All children should believe they are special. But the students of Hailsham, an elite school in the English countryside, are so special that visitors shun them, and only by rumor and the occasional fleeting remark by a teacher do they discover their unconventional origins and strange destiny." Sunday Herald (UK): "Elegiac, compelling, otherworldly, deeply disturbing and profoundly moving." Maclean’s (Canada): "Ishiguro is a stylist like no other, a writer who knows that the truth is often unspoken." The Times (UK): "A clear frontrunner to be the year’s most extraordinary novel." Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, which LAVA read in 2002, won the Booker Prize. This book, Never Let Me Go, was short-listed for the Booker and is "a long-time Harvard Book Store bestseller." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/never_let_me_go/. It has become a book club favorite probably because it produces vigorous discussions of medical ethics. The film version premiered in Sept 2010. Suggested by Ginny R. 29 copies in the library system.
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson. 294 pages, 2006. Long-listed for the Booker Prize, this novel was written by the author of Crow Lake, which LAVA read in 2008. Publishers Weekly: "In this follow-up to her acclaimed Crow Lake, Lawson again explores the moral quandaries of life in the Canadian North. At the story's poles are Arthur Dunn, a stolid, salt-of-the-earth farmer, and his brother, Jake, a handsome, smooth-talking snake in the grass." The Washington Post: "The Other Side of the Bridge is an admirable novel. Its old-fashioned virtues were also apparent in Crow Lake -- narrative clarity, emotional directness, moral context and lack of pretension -- but Lawson has ripened as a writer, and this second novel is much broader and deeper. The author draws her characters with unobtrusive humor and compassion, and she meets one of the fiction writer's most difficult challenges: to portray goodness believably, without sugar or sentiment." Novelist Penelope Lively in The Guardian: "An enthralling read, both straight-forward and wonderfully intricate." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/other_side_of_the_bridge. The library system has 20 books.
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. 372 pages, 2007. Amazon: "One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March [which LAVA read in 2009], has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey." The Washington Post reviewer described it as, "intelligent, thoughtful, gracefully written and original," adding that, "Brooks tells a believable and engaging story about sympathetic but imperfect characters -- 'popular' fiction demands all of that -- but she also does the business of literature, exploring serious themes and writing about them in handsome prose." Suggested by Nancy W. and Joan S. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/people_of_the_book/ The library system has 67 books.
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver. 352 pages, 1993. Seeking to escape the poverty and despair around her, a young woman from the Kentucky hills drives west to begin a new life. During a brief stop, someone places an abused Cherokee toddler in her car. She adopts the child, but several years later a lawyer demands that the child be returned to her own people; the adoption was legally invalid because it didn't have the consent of the Cherokee Nation. Publisher's Weekly: "In taking a fresh look at the Solomonic dilemma of choosing between two equally valid claims on a child's life, Kingsolver achieves the admirable feat of making the reader understand and sympathize with both sides of the controversy." New York Times: "Possessed of an extravagantly gifted narrative voice, Kingsolver blends a fierce and abiding moral voice with benevolent concise humor." Review in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/kingsolver-pigs1.html. 40 copies in the library system.
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry. 300 pages, 2008. This novel won the Costa (Whitbread) Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize (an earlier novel by the author also shortlisted for the Booker). Roseanne Clear, a 100-year-old inmate of an Irish mental institution who was committed during Ireland’s civil war because she had a child out of wedlock, secretly writes her story. Because the institution is closing, the chief psychiatrist, who barely knows her, must also piece her story together to determine what will happen to her next. Publishers Weekly: "Written in captivating, lyrical prose, Barry's novel is both a sparkling literary puzzle and a stark cautionary tale of corrupted power." The Guardian: "[Barry] makes enthrallingly beautiful prose out of the wreckage of these lives by allowing them to have the complication of actual history in all its messy elusiveness." The Times [London]: "There is something spiritual in Roseanne's brave reverence for life, in her willingness to find angels in the midst of cruelty, prejudice and ignorance." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/secret_scripture/. The library system has 17 books plus 1 CD.
The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessian Boyle. 355 pages, 1995. A Mexican couple slips across the border and lives precariously in a camp in an outlying area near Los Angeles. In a nearby gated community lives a liberal couple who moved there to be close to nature but who find that nature is sometimes a bit too much for them, especially the coyotes who threaten their pets. They also develop a strong fear of the nearby camp of homeless Mexicans. The lives of the two couples intertwine in unhappy ways. Review in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/08/home/boyle-tortilla.html. A collection of reviews (page down to see them all): http://www.englisch.schule.de/boyle/boylerev.htm. Suggested by Vicki. 19 copies in the library system.
Candidates for Regular Meetings (non-fiction)
The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer House by George Howe Colt. 319 pages, 2003. This best-selling book was a National Book Award finalist. The author is a journalist, a poet and a college teacher who spent 42 summers at his family’s house on Cape Cod, which, according to Publishers Weekly, is "not only an architectural gem but a device to chronicle family, local history and the culture of Boston Brahmins." The New Yorker: "Colt's account, like the house that lies at its center, is full of surprises and contains more than seems humanly possible: a family memoir, a brief history of the Cape, an investigation of nostalgia, a catalogue of local fauna, a study of class, and a meditation on the privileges and burdens of the past." Booklist: "Colt goes beyond his own wistful longing, rendering keen observations of a lifestyle borne of privilege, perpetuated by tradition, and celebrated through elegance." The New York Times noted that the house, "has been the site, and sometimes the occasion, of five weddings, four divorces, three deaths and more nervous breakdowns than any one family should have to endure. Review in The New York Times: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E7DD103BF935A35754C0A9659C8B63." The library system has 16 books.
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. 390 pages, 2004. Easily mistaken for a fanciful novel, this is the true story of the architect who oversaw the construction of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and of the bizarre and cunning serial killer who used it as a cover. Our own Susan B. Anthony makes an appearance. New York Times: "Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel. . . . It doesn't hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction." Chicago Sun-Times: "Larson is a historian... with a novelist's soul." Review in the New York Times: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res= 9403E0DB103BF933A25751C0A9659C8B63. This finalist for the National Book Award for non-fiction was suggested by Mary Lou P. and Rachel S. About 50 copies in the library system.
Here If You Need Me: A True Story by Kate Braestrup. 211 pages, 2007. After the death of her husband, Braestrup became a Unitarian Universalist minister, serving as chaplain to the Maine Game Warden Service, which conducts search-and-rescue operations that deal with everything from lost hikers to missing children, accidents, murders and suicides. Washington Post: "A superbly crafted memoir of love, loss, grief, hope and the complex subtleties of faith.... [Braestrup is] remarkable, steady, peaceful and wise." Boston Globe: "As gripping as any police thriller." Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Even the most jaded secularist would fall for the chaplain of the Maine Warden Service." This best-selling memoir was suggested by Mary Lyubomirsky, music and arts coordinator at the church. Here is an excerpt: http://www.uuworld.org/spirit/articles/50622.shtml The library system has 30 books.
How To Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas Foster, a professor of English at the University of Michigan at Flint. 296 pages, 2003. Each chapter discusses a symbol or other literary device and illustrates it with loads of examples. One chapter, for example, is titled "It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow," and another "It’s Never Just Heart Disease." The book ends with a short story by Katherine Mansfield followed by two detailed and very different analyses of it, each of which uncovers hidden layers of meaning. The author also discusses in detail James Joyce’s three-page story "Araby," which is freely available on the web and could be a discussion point for us. Written to engage young college students, this book’s style may seem a bit breezy for some, but James Shapiro, a prominent professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, speaks highly of it: "I know of no other book that so vividly conveys what it’s like to study with a great literature professor." Suggested by Bill. The library system has 12 books, and Bill has an extra copy.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, a science journalist. 328 pages, 2010. This true story began with cells taken from a tumor that killed a poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks in 1951. Most human cells live for only a limited time in laboratory conditions, but these cells apparently live and multiply forever. An estimated 50 million tons of these remarkable cells are now used all over the world and have been responsible for significant scientific advances and the creation of major industries. Her children today, however, cannot afford the health insurance needed to receive health treatments that have been made possible by their mother's cells, which were taken without her knowledge. New York Times: "One of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books I’ve read in a very long time." Boston Globe: "It is a well-written, carefully-researched, complex saga of medical research, bioethics, and race in America. Above all it is a human story of redemption for a family, torn by loss, and for a writer with a vision that would not let go." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/immortal_life_of_henrietta_lacks/. Suggested by Ertem. 40 copies in the library system.
Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner. 354 pages, 2002. This memoir about an unconventional childhood in a small town near Niagara Falls was on Canada's best-seller list for over three years. The author's father was a pharmacist who put his hyperactive daughter to work at a very early age as a map-reading assistant to his illiterate delivery man. The two of them deliver drugs to wealthy and not-so-wealthy neighborhoods and have many adventures, some of them dangerous. She once delivered sleeping pills to Marilyn Monroe on the movie set for Niagara. Daily Mail (UK): "The writing is spot-on, Gildiner at her best and funniest describing the palpable happiness of her chaotic childhood…and escapades so incredible that I turned back several times to make sure this really was a memoir." Toronto Star: "Against a vivid backdrop, she brings into focus those moments when the child's world and the adult world intersect, when illusions are shattered and understanding begins." Suggested by Ginny R. who says it "has lots to say about women's roles, parenting styles, and religious education. Also a fun, easy read." 17 copies in the library system.
Longer Books (suitable for August and October)
We read no more than two books in this category per year, and we reserve them for our August and October discussions, which gives us two months to read them. This does not imply that our August and October books must come from this section. If all of the top choices are shorter books, that is what we read all year.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. 648 pages, 2001. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Joe Kavalier, an accomplished young Jewish artist, escapes from Nazi-occupied Europe to New York City. His cousin Sammy Clay enlists his aid in creating comic books based on super-heroes. They are wildly successful even though Kavalier had previously never even seen a comic book and is focused on getting his family out of Europe. They both become involved with a talented young female artist who feels trapped in her role as housewife. New York Times: "The depth of Chabon's thought, his sharp language, his inventiveness and his ambition make this a novel of towering achievement." Washington Post: "...smart, funny, and a continual pleasure to read." San Francisco Chronicle: "Elegant, lyrical writing meets gentle comedy." Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Starts out as one of the most pleasurable novels of the past few years. It ends as one of the most moving." It was designated by a readers’ poll by "The Millions," a prominent literary blog, as one of the best novels since 2000. Review in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/09/24/reviews/000924.24kalfust.html. Suggested by Rev. Kaaren Anderson. 24 copies in the library system.
Battle Cry for Freedom: The Civil War Era, by James McPherson. 862 pages, 2003. This Pulitzer Prize-winner links descriptions of military campaigns to the complex economic, political, and social forces behind the conflict. Washington Post: "The finest single volume on the war and its background." New York Times: "The best one-volume treatment of [the Civil War era] I have ever come across. It may actually be the best ever published.... I was swept away, feeling as if I had never heard the saga before.... Omitting nothing important, whether military, political, or economic, he yet manages to make everything he touches drive the narrative forward. This is historical writing of the highest order." New York Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/mcpherson-freedom.html Suggested by Margaret, who suggests that we focus on Chapter 16, "We Must Free the Slaves or Be Ourselves Subdued." The library system has 19 books.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. 688 pages, 2009. Twin brothers born from a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon come of age in Ethiopia, where their love for the same woman drives them apart. One is studious and the other is a moody genius. The latter narrates their "long, dramatic, biblical story set against the backdrop of political turmoil in Ethiopia, the life of the hospital compound in which they grow up and the love story of their adopted parents, both doctors... The boys become doctors as well." San Francisco Chronicle: "An epic tale about love, abandonment, betrayal and redemption, Verghese’s first novel is a masterpiece of traditional storytelling. Not a word is wasted in this larger-than-life saga that spans three countries and six decades." It reached the #1 spot on the Independent Booksellers' bestseller list in early 2010, and was still 12th on the Harvard Book Store's bestseller list in Oct 2010. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/cutting_for_stone/ Suggested by Stan S. and also Ginny R. 28 copies in the library system.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. 541 pages, 2006. The interconnected lives of a politically active Nigerian professor, his houseboy, the professor’s mistress, her twin sister, and an Englishman in love with the sister are all upended by the outbreak of the Biafran war of secession from Nigeria in the 1960s. The author was born in Nigeria, but her family moved to the U.S. when she was 19. This, her second novel, won the Orange Prize and was short-listed for the National Book Critics Circle award. It was designated by a readers’ poll by "The Millions," a prominent literary blog, as one of the best novels since 2000. The New York Times says her first two novels, "explore the gap between the public performances of male heroes and their private irresponsibilities. And both novels shrewdly observe the women — the wives, the daughters — left dangling over that chasm." The stories centers on dissimilar twin sisters who "struggle with an on-again-off-again mutual loyalty crosshatched with mistrust and betrayal." The Harvard Book Review: "Are there any easy answers in [Half of a Yellow Sun]? Certainly not. But Adichie, in the process, asks the hell out of her questions, rendering them in all their haunting, beautiful silence." Reviews (page down once or twice): http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/national_book_critics_circle_2006/ Suggested by Andi, who read it for her book club. The library system has 13 books.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—And How It Can Renew America by Tom Friedman, who has won the Pulitzer Prize three times. 412 pages, 2008 edition; 528 pages, 2009 edition. This was one of five books on President Obama’s vacation reading list for 2009. (The other four, by the way, included Plainsong by Kent Haruf and John Adams by David McCullough, both of which LAVA has already read.) Friedman urges the U.S. to embrace green technology to alleviate global warming and restore our economic and political stature. New York Times: "If Friedman's profile and verve take his message where it needs to be heard, into the boardrooms of America and beyond, that can only be good--for all our sakes." Financial Times: "Tom Friedman has done it again…. He has lit upon what he might describe as another Big Idea, and, given his track record as a zeitgeist thermometer, we should all pay attention…. He has a gift for weaving anecdotes and examples from around the world into his broader tapestry." Suggested by Vicki and Rod. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/hot_flat_and_crowded/ The library system has 78 books.
The Seven Storey Mountain, the autobiography of Thomas Merton. About 450 pages, depending on the edition, 1948. Amazon.com: "In 1941, a brilliant, good-looking young man decided to give up a promising literary career in New York to enter a monastery in Kentucky, from where he proceeded to become one of the most influential writers of this century." Written when the author was only 31 years old, this book has been translated into at least 15 languages. According to Wikipedia, "Merton was a prolific poet, a social activist, a student of comparative religion… Merton was a keen proponent of inter-religious understanding, engaging in spiritual dialogues with the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and D. T. Suzuki." Suggested by Tess. Review in The New York Times on the book’s 50th anniversary: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/11/bookend/bookend.html. The library system has 25 books.
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. 754 pages, 2005. This book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography; the author also won the Pulitzer for an earlier work. When Barack Obama first entered the White House and was asked which book he could not live without there, he named this book. Library Journal: "Much more than a biography of Lincoln, historian Goodwin's book also closely examines the lives of Lincoln's chief opponents for the Republican nomination—Edward Bates, Salmon P. Chase, and William H. Seward—all of whom appeared better qualified to be President than he. After Lincoln persuaded the three men—as well as other strong figures—to join his cabinet, it was expected that his former rivals would dominate him. Instead, the exact opposite occurred." Washington Post: "[G]ood narrative in American history is what we lack, and Goodwin's narrative powers are great." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/team_of_rivals/. The library system has 35 books.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. 640 pages, 2009. This fictionalized biography documents the rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, who became Henry VIII's chief minister and played an important role in the English Reformation and the creation of the Church of England. His enemies convinced the king to have him executed after he had urged the Henry to wed Anne of Cleves, a marriage (one of many) that did not please the king. This book won both the Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. It was #2 on the Harvard Book Store's bestseller list in Oct 2010. Christopher Hitchens in The Atlantic: "Hilary Mantel has written a historical novel of quite astonishing power... [it puts] her in the very first rank of historical novelists." New Statesman: "Wolf Hall takes a forensic slice through a nation caught between feudalism and capitalism, the Middle Ages and modernity, Catholicism and the revolutionary doctrines emerging from the Continent... Mantel’s prose, like her hero, is witty and tough-minded." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/wolf_hall/. Suggested by Ertem. 27 copies in the library system.