Join other Auburn readers for a discussion of Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen on January 14 from noon to 1 P.M. This book is described by "Library Journal":
When his parents are killed in a traffic accident, Jacob Jankowski hops a train after walking out on his final exams at Cornell, where he had hoped to earn a veterinary degree. The train turns out to be a circus train, and since it's the Depression, when someone with a vet's skills can attach himself to a circus if he's lucky, Jacob soon finds himself involved with the animal acts--specifically with the beautiful young Marlena, the horse rider, and her husband, August. Jacob falls for Marlena immediately, and the ensuing triangle is at the center of this novel, which follows the circus across the states. Jacob learns the ins and outs of circus life, in this case under the rule of the treacherous Uncle Al, who cheats the workers and deals roughly with patrons who complain about blatant false advertising and rip-off exhibits. Jacob and Marlena are attracted to each other, but their relationship is fairly innocent until it becomes clear that August is not merely jealous but dangerously mentally deranged. Old-fashioned and endearing, this is an enjoyable, fast-paced story told by the older Jacob, now in his nineties in a nursing home. --Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta
Please share your impressions of this book with other Auburn Readers by adding a comment. Here is a reader's guide but be careful, plot details are revealed.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich is our December Selection
Fearless Fourteen is not really a holiday book but it will help you get away from the holiday stresses through a fun romp with Stephanie Plum, girl bond enforcer! This time out, Stephanie needs to find Loretta who has been kidnapped before Loretta's son gets into too much trouble. Stephanie has also been drafted by security man extrodinare, Ranger to act as a body guard to world famous singer, Brenda. There is also lost treasure involved!?
Fun, not deep, and laugh out loud!
Fun, not deep, and laugh out loud!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
November Book: Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
Books and Lunch will meet on November 12 at noon in the Beecher Room to discuss Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott. From the author's website:
"A Cambridge historian, Elizabeth Vogelsang, is found drowned, clutching a glass prism in her hand. The book she was writing about Isaac Newton’s involvement with alchemy—the culmination of her lifelong obsession with the seventeenth century—remains unfinished. When her son, Cameron, asks his former lover, Lydia Brooke, to ghostwrite the missing final chapters of his mother’s book, Lydia agrees and moves into Elizabeth’s house—a studio in an orchard where the light moves restlessly across the walls. Soon Lydia discovers that the shadow of violence that has fallen across present-day Cambridge, which escalates to a series of murders, may have its origins in the troubling evidence that Elizabeth’s research has unearthed. As Lydia becomes ensnared in a dangerous conspiracy that reawakens ghosts of the past, the seventeenth century slowly seeps into the twenty-first, with the city of Cambridge the bridge between them."
Here is a Reading Guide for Ghostwalk but beware, some of these questions may give away plot points within the book.
"A Cambridge historian, Elizabeth Vogelsang, is found drowned, clutching a glass prism in her hand. The book she was writing about Isaac Newton’s involvement with alchemy—the culmination of her lifelong obsession with the seventeenth century—remains unfinished. When her son, Cameron, asks his former lover, Lydia Brooke, to ghostwrite the missing final chapters of his mother’s book, Lydia agrees and moves into Elizabeth’s house—a studio in an orchard where the light moves restlessly across the walls. Soon Lydia discovers that the shadow of violence that has fallen across present-day Cambridge, which escalates to a series of murders, may have its origins in the troubling evidence that Elizabeth’s research has unearthed. As Lydia becomes ensnared in a dangerous conspiracy that reawakens ghosts of the past, the seventeenth century slowly seeps into the twenty-first, with the city of Cambridge the bridge between them."
Here is a Reading Guide for Ghostwalk but beware, some of these questions may give away plot points within the book.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Books & Lunch @ the Auburn Library
Here is a brief description of Through a Glass, Darkly by Donna Leon and following that is a frew questions to help in our discussion of the novel:
From Booklist: Leon's Guido Brunetti novels have been justly celebrated for their nuanced portrayal of Venice and their character-driven emphasis on human relationships. Both of those attributes are displayed nicely in her latest effort, the fifteenth in this long-running and much-loved series. When police commissario Brunetti and his assistant, Vianello, help out one of Vianello's friends, who has been arrested in an environmental protest, they find themselves embroiled in a family feud involving the friend's wife and her father, the owner of a centuries-old glass factory on the nearby island of Murano. No actual crime takes place until the novel is nearly half over, and even then, the death of a night watchman at the glass factory appears accidental. More than ever in this series, the emphasis here is not on mystery--the bad guy is obvious from the beginning--but on ambience and character. Leon delves deeply into the fascinating world of Murano glassmakers, and as always, she lingers lovingly over Brunetti's family life and the commissario's abiding empathy with everyone he encounters. Satisfying as always, but the lack of an engaging mystery plot leaves a bit of a hole this time. Bill Ott Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Discussion Questions of Through a Glass, Darkly:
1. Does this book make you want to travel to Venice? Have you been to Venice? Would Venice be a place that you would want to move to?
2. In many of Donna Leon's books featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, she points to the different ways things work in Venice from the police, to the building codes, to medical establishment, and other aspects of life in Venice. What do you think of this and is it something you could put up with if you could live in Venice?
3. What do you think of Burnetti's relationship with his wife and family?
4. Do you have any thoughts about the Murano glass business and culture?
For further reading about Venice and the island of Morano's glassblowering culture:
City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt. In the tradition the author set with his first book, In the Garden of Good and Evil, Berendt gives the reader his first person observations of the city of Venice including exploring one of the great families of Murano glassblowing and watching the effect the burning down of the Fenice Opera Theater had on the city.
From Booklist: Leon's Guido Brunetti novels have been justly celebrated for their nuanced portrayal of Venice and their character-driven emphasis on human relationships. Both of those attributes are displayed nicely in her latest effort, the fifteenth in this long-running and much-loved series. When police commissario Brunetti and his assistant, Vianello, help out one of Vianello's friends, who has been arrested in an environmental protest, they find themselves embroiled in a family feud involving the friend's wife and her father, the owner of a centuries-old glass factory on the nearby island of Murano. No actual crime takes place until the novel is nearly half over, and even then, the death of a night watchman at the glass factory appears accidental. More than ever in this series, the emphasis here is not on mystery--the bad guy is obvious from the beginning--but on ambience and character. Leon delves deeply into the fascinating world of Murano glassmakers, and as always, she lingers lovingly over Brunetti's family life and the commissario's abiding empathy with everyone he encounters. Satisfying as always, but the lack of an engaging mystery plot leaves a bit of a hole this time. Bill Ott Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Discussion Questions of Through a Glass, Darkly:
1. Does this book make you want to travel to Venice? Have you been to Venice? Would Venice be a place that you would want to move to?
2. In many of Donna Leon's books featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, she points to the different ways things work in Venice from the police, to the building codes, to medical establishment, and other aspects of life in Venice. What do you think of this and is it something you could put up with if you could live in Venice?
3. What do you think of Burnetti's relationship with his wife and family?
4. Do you have any thoughts about the Murano glass business and culture?
For further reading about Venice and the island of Morano's glassblowering culture:
City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt. In the tradition the author set with his first book, In the Garden of Good and Evil, Berendt gives the reader his first person observations of the city of Venice including exploring one of the great families of Murano glassblowing and watching the effect the burning down of the Fenice Opera Theater had on the city.
Monday, September 22, 2008
New Book Discussion Series At Auburn Library
Books and Lunch will begin on October 15th from Noon to 1 p.m. (1ish--if you can stay longer...so can I).
Our first book will be a mystery novel set in Venice, Italy. It is by author, Donna Leon, called Through the Glass, Darkly. The library will have a few more copies within a couple of weeks.
Join us on Oct. 15th or if you can't, post your comments about the book here.
Our first book will be a mystery novel set in Venice, Italy. It is by author, Donna Leon, called Through the Glass, Darkly. The library will have a few more copies within a couple of weeks.
Join us on Oct. 15th or if you can't, post your comments about the book here.
Great Discussion of Three Cups of Tea!
Thanks to all who attended Auburn Library's discussion of Three Cups of Tea. It was enjoyable by all including me! There were a few comments that this discussion is a great forum for the discussion of important issues facing our world wide society. It is also a springboard for building community here in Auburn.
If anyone agrees with this and is interested in forming a discussion group via the library, I would be happy to organized a place and time. Write your comment here or call me at the library: Terri at 530-886-4512.
If anyone agrees with this and is interested in forming a discussion group via the library, I would be happy to organized a place and time. Write your comment here or call me at the library: Terri at 530-886-4512.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Join us at Auburn Library on Wednesday, September 17 from 10:30 to noon for a discussion of Three Cups of Tea. Or join us here at BlogaBook and add your comments to the discussion.
From The Three Cups of Tea website:
In THREE CUPS OF TEA: One Man’s Mission to Promote . . . One School at a Time (Viking/On-sale date: March 6, 2006) Greg Mortenson, and acclaimed journalist David Oliver Relin, recount the unlikely journey that led Mortenson from a failed attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully building schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading, Mortenson combines his unique background with his intimate knowledge of the third-world to fight terrorism with books, not bombs, and successfully bring education and hope to remote villages in central Asia. THREE CUPS OF TEA is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world—one school at a time.
In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he eventually stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health.
While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school.
From that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time: Greg Mortenson’s one-man mission to counteract extremism and terrorism by building schools—especially for girls—throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.
Mortenson had no reason to believe he could fulfill his promise. In an early effort to raise money he wrote letters to 580 celebrities, businessmen, and other prominent Americans. His only reply was a $100 check from NBC’s Tom Brokaw. Selling everything he owned, he still only raised $2,000. But his luck began to change when a group of elementary school children in River Falls, Wisconsin, donated $623 in pennies, thereby inspiring adults to take his cause more seriously. Twelve years later he’s built fifty-five schools.
Mortenson and award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin have written a spellbinding account of his incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived an armed kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. Yet his success speaks for itself. This year the schools will educate 24,000 children.
A reading guide for Three Cups of Tea can be found here.
From The Three Cups of Tea website:
In THREE CUPS OF TEA: One Man’s Mission to Promote . . . One School at a Time (Viking/On-sale date: March 6, 2006) Greg Mortenson, and acclaimed journalist David Oliver Relin, recount the unlikely journey that led Mortenson from a failed attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully building schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading, Mortenson combines his unique background with his intimate knowledge of the third-world to fight terrorism with books, not bombs, and successfully bring education and hope to remote villages in central Asia. THREE CUPS OF TEA is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world—one school at a time.
In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he eventually stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health.
While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school.
From that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time: Greg Mortenson’s one-man mission to counteract extremism and terrorism by building schools—especially for girls—throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.
Mortenson had no reason to believe he could fulfill his promise. In an early effort to raise money he wrote letters to 580 celebrities, businessmen, and other prominent Americans. His only reply was a $100 check from NBC’s Tom Brokaw. Selling everything he owned, he still only raised $2,000. But his luck began to change when a group of elementary school children in River Falls, Wisconsin, donated $623 in pennies, thereby inspiring adults to take his cause more seriously. Twelve years later he’s built fifty-five schools.
Mortenson and award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin have written a spellbinding account of his incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived an armed kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. Yet his success speaks for itself. This year the schools will educate 24,000 children.
A reading guide for Three Cups of Tea can be found here.
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