January 2024

 

Our next meeting will be Friday, January 26th, 2024.  We will be reading The Book of Lost Friends, by Lisa Wingate, published in 2020. The Library Journal says: 

After the Civil War, the Southern Christian Advocate, a newspaper for the African American community distributed throughout the South, included a column called "Lost Friends" that allowed individuals to advertise for information about missing loved ones, generally sold off or stolen before or during the war. That column is the inspiration for this enthralling and ultimately heartening new novel from Wingate (Before We Were Yours).

There are many copies in the Contra Costa library  388 pages. 

Fran will facilitate our discussion, and Denise will bring the next book selections. 

December 2023

This month, we will be reading Nation, by Terry Pratchett

Contra Contra Costa Library briefly describes this novel: 

After a devastating tsunami destroys all that they have ever known, Mau, an island boy, and Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, together with a small band of refugees, set about rebuilding their community and all the things that are important in their lives.

In his lifetime, the author Terry Pratchett wrote over 70 books. This Young Adult novel was published in 2008.

Our meeting will be on Friday, December 29th (between Christmas and New Year's!). Lisa will lead the discussion and Denise will bring our book selections for January. 

September2023

This month, we will be reading Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott.

From a number of book descriptions: 

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women.

Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.

It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

Donna will lead our discussion and Sheila will bring October book selections. The meeting is Friday, September 22, 2023, 7:00PM

August 2023

 This month, we will be reading Hula, by Jasmin Iolani Hakes. This book, like one we read recently, is centered in Hilo, Hawaii, but focuses on a family renouned for its contributions to hula.  

There are 14 copies in the CCC library, all of them checked out, with two holds (so far). There are 19 holds on 7 ebook copies in CCClib, which probably means it will not be available as an eBook until the month has passed.  However, we discovered last night that right now, this book is $3.99 in Kindle on Amazon, so that is a choice. 

Mae will be leading our discussion, and Donna will bring the books for September.

The meeting will be held on the fourth Friday, August 25th at 7:00PM, Fran's house.  See you there!!

July 2023

 

This month, we will be reading Nomadland, by Jessica Bruder. 

The Contra Costa Library shares this excerpt from the jacket flap:

"From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon's CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves "workampers." In a secondhand vehicle she christens "Van Halen," Jessica Bruder hits the road to get to know her subjects more intimately."

We will be meeting on Friday, July 28th, same time, same place.  Fran will lead our discussion, and Mae will bring book selections for the next month.  See you there!!

June 2023

 

This month, we will be reading The Color of Air, by Gail Tsukiyama. This is a book that seems to be available at the library, as well as used online. Check your local library. 

The Contra Costa Library describes this book as "gorgeous and evocative historical novel about a Japanese-American family set against the backdrop of Hawai'i's sugar plantations," and "Alternating between past and present-from the day of the volcano eruption in 1935 to decades prior..."  

We have read The Samurai's Garden (in 2005) and Women of the Silk (in 2009) by the same author. 

We will be meeting on June 23rd, 2023 at the usual location.  Denise will lead our discussion, and Fran will bring book selections for our July read. 

May 2023

 

This month, we are reading our 275th book, The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker. 

 The plot summary says "Wecker's first novel is a magical tale of two mythical creatures-a golem from a Polish shtetl and a jinni from the Syrian Desert-struggling to fit in among New York's turn-of-the-19th-century immigrants. " 

Lisa will lead our discussion and Denise will bring our June book selections. 

 

April 2023

Our next meeting will be our 23rd Anniversary!  We will meeting Friday, April 28th, 7:00PM. Same place (Fran's house) . Kim will be leading the discussion, and Lisa will bring the selections for May. 

This month's book is The Ship of Brides, by Jojo Moyes.  The Contra Costa Library summary says this: 

1946. World War II has ended and all over the world, young women are beginning to fulfill the promises made to the men they wed in wartime. In Sydney, Australia, four women join 650 other war brides on an extraordinary voyage to England--aboard HMS Victoria, which still carries not just arms and aircraft but a thousand naval officers. Rules are strictly enforced, from the aircraft carrier's captain down to the lowliest young deckhand. But the men and the brides will find their lives intertwined despite the Navy's ironclad sanctions. And for Frances Mackenzie, the complicated young woman whose past comes back to haunt her far from home, the journey will change her life in ways she never could have predicted--forever.

There are 4 copies on the shelf at Contra Costa Library (quick! put one on hold!!) and three more checked out, of which two are due in the next week or so. 

March 2023

 

A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley

This month, we will be reading A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley. This book was written in 1991, and won the Pulitzer Prize.  The Pulitzer Prize in fiction is awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. 

The Contra Costa Library gives us this summary:  "A successful Iowa farmer decides to divide his farm between his three daughters. When the youngest objects, she is cut out of his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions. An ambitious reimagining of Shakespeare's King Lear cast upon a typical American community in the late twentieth century, A Thousand Acres takes on themes of truth, justice, love, and pride, and reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity." 

We will meet on Friday, March 24th, at Fran's house again. Sheila will lead the discussion and Kim will bring the book selections. 

See you there!!

February 2023

Our meeting will be on the 4th Friday: February 24, 2023
This month we will be reading America's First Daughter, by Stephanie Dray and Lara Kamoie.  As Thomas Jefferson's oldest daughter, Patsy becomes his helpmate, protector, and constant companion in the wake of her mother's death. She travels with him when he becomes American minister to France. And then things happen. 

Donna will lead our Discussion and Sheila will bring the books to select our March read.