December 2019

This month we are reading Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love by Dava Sobel.  (Note that I REALLY wanted to type "an historical", which I think is actually correct...)

Amazon provides this summary:

Inspired by a long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of Galileo's daughter, a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel has written a biography unlike any other of the man Albert Einstein called "the father of modern physics- indeed of modern science altogether." Galileo's Daughter also presents a stunning portrait of a person hitherto lost to history, described by her father as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me."

There are copies in the library. 384 pages.  It is classified as Biography.

Our December meeting is after Christmas, on December 27th.  Denise will provide food/snacks, Rachel will bring book selections, and Lisa will facilitate our discussion of Galileo's Daughter.

June 2019

Our June meeting will be on June 28th, 2019. Mae will be the hostess, Fran will bring book selections and Denise will lead the discussion.

We will be reading In the Midst of Winter, by Isabel Allende, published in 2017.

Some quotes from reviews of this book:

"It’s when revealing the characters’ harrowing past lives in other countries that the generous and unflagging energy that characterized Allende’s debut, The House of the Spirits, can most clearly be felt." (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Allende has a rare and precious gift for simultaneously challenging and entrancing readers by dramatizing with startling intimacy such dire situations as the desperation behind illegal immigration and domestic violence, then reveling, a page later, in spiritual visions or mischievous sexiness or heroic levity." (Booklist (starred review))
"This winter's tale has something to melt each frozen heart." (Kirkus)

There are plenty of copies of this book in the Contra Costa Library, as well as one CD, and one e-book. 

This will be our third book by Isabel Allende. Our very first book (in April 2000) was Daughter of Fortune, and in 2017 we read Zorro. 

May 2019

This month, we will meet on Friday, May 31, 2019. We will be reading The Land, by Mildred D Taylor. this book won the Corretta Scott King award. Previous books that she has written have been awarded the Newberry Award, among others.  

April 2019

Our next meeting is Friday, April 26, 2019.  We will be reading Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos. This was the author's debut novel.  At this time, there are 4 copies in the Contra Costa library, and 2 large type copies. Other usual sources are available of course. 

March 2018

This month we will be reading Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson.  TAKE NOTE:  There are THREE books with this title in the Contra Costa Library - make sure you are getting the one by Kate Atkinson. There are lots of copies. 

The CCCLibrary summary says this:

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she?

Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.

Rachel will be bringing food, Lisa will bring books, Kim will facilitate. 
See y'all there!! 

February 2019 Meeting

This month, we are reading The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx.  This book was a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1994. There are many copies in the Contra Costa Library, and lots of audio CDs in LINK+.  Amazon says, "...Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News is a vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family." Fran pointed out that they made a movie out of this book as well. 

The meeting will take place on February 22, 2019. 

Hostess:  Lisa
Books:  Kim
Facilitation:  Sheila

Calendars of meetings through October 2019 were distributed - copies will be available at the next meeting for those who were unable to attend tonight. 

January 2019 meeting

In case you forgot, our next meeting is January 25th, the actual Fourth Friday of this month!!  Also, it's basically 10 days from now. 

Hostess - Kim

Books - Sheila

Facilitatress - Donna 

We are reading Shadowy Horses, by Susanna Kearsley.  This book is not available in the Contra Costa County Library, so you will have to get it from LINK+, another library, or buy it from Amazon. 

Here's what Amazon has to say about this book:  

Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea. Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he's finally found it—not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has "seen" a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long—dead comrades. Here on the windswept shores, Verity may find the answer to one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. Or she may uncover secrets someone buried for a reason.