OSLC Book Club Selection for September 2012: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Our book for September 2012 is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

The book begins in January 1946, when popular author Juliet Ashton, much like her fellow British citizens, is emerging from the dark days of World War II. As Juliet exchanges a series of letters with her publisher and her best friend, readers immediately warm to this author in search of a new subject in the aftermath of war. By the time Juliet receives an unexpected query from Dawsey Adams, we are caught in a delightful web of letters and vivid personalities and eager for Juliet to find the inspiration she seeks. Drawn together by their love of books and affection for each other, the unforgettable characters of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society collectively tell a moving tale of endurance and friendship. Through the chorus of voices they have created, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows have composed a rich tale that celebrates the power of hope and human connection in the shadows of war. (Barnes & Noble Review)

The La Crosse Public Library has many copies of the book and audio versions on CD. Everyone is welcomed to join us to discuss this gem of a book on Thursday, September 27th at 6:30 p.m. in the Fireside Room.

November Book Club Selection: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Our book for November will be Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman. In Hoffman’s charming debut, Cecelia Rose (CeeCee) Honeycutt tells the story of her tragic life and the strong women who stepped in to save her. At age 12, CeeCee realizes her mother, flouncing around Willoughby, OH, in prom dresses and matching shoes, is crazy and the town’s laughingstock. Her father is never home, and nothing is going to change so CeeCee buries herself in books as an escape. But her true liberation comes after her mother’s tragic death when great-aunt Tootie sweeps CeeCee off to Savannah. There, a group of powerful, independent women offer the young girl love, laughter, and a new chance at life. Readers who enjoy strong female characters will appreciate CeeCee, a survivor despite her heartbreaking childhood, and Aunt Tootie and her friends, all of them steel magnolias…(From Library Journal)

Please see or call Sandra Hansen with any questions!

October Book Club Selection: Sarah’s Key

Our book to read for October is Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. In the summer of 1942, the French police arrested thousands of Jewish families and held them outside of Paris before shipping them off to Auschwitz. On the 60th anniversary of the roundups, an expatriate American journalist covering the atrocities discovers a personal connection – one such family formerly occupied her apartment. She resolves to find out what happened to Sarah, the 10-year-old daughter, who was the only family member to survive… De Rosnay’s novel is captivating, and the powerful narration gives it even greater impact. (From Publisher’s Weekly).

Discussion date TBA.

Book Club Selection for July: For Labor, Race, and Liberty

Our book club selection for July is one where we will learn that an African-American man who lived in La Crosse around the turn of the 20th century made presidential history. The book, For Labor, Race, and Liberty: George Edwin Taylor, His Historic Run for the White House, and the Making of Independent Black Politics, by Bruce Mouser (146 pages), tells the story of how more than one hundred years before Barack Obama, George Edwin Taylor became the first African American ticketed as a political party’s nominee for president of the United States, running against Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. Born in the antebellum South to a slave and a freed woman, and orphaned as a child at the peak of the Civil War, Taylor spent several years homeless before boarding a Mississippi riverboat that dropped him in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Taken in by an African American farm family, Taylor attended a private school and eventually rose to prominence as the owner/editor of a labor newspaper and as a vocal leader in Wisconsin’s People’s Party. At a time when many African Americans felt allegiance to the Republican Party for its support of abolition, Taylor’s sympathy with the labor cause drew him first to the national Democratic Party and then to an African American party, the newly formed National Liberty Party, which in 1904 named him its presidential candidate.

Bruce L. Mouser follows Taylor’s life and career in Arkansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Florida, giving life to a figure representing a generation of African American idealists whose initial post-slavery belief in political and social equality in America gave way to the despair of the Jim Crow decades that followed. (From the Publisher)

Book Selection For May & June: The Devil in the White City

The OSLC Book Club will be reading the book, The Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, by Erik Larson in May and June. Kirkus Review describes this book as “a vivid account of the tragedies and triumphs of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the concurrent depravities of America’s first serial killer.”

We are able to get many copies from the public library in a book kit. Our discussion will be held at the end of June. Please join us!

Book Club Selection For February: The Power of Myth

The OSLC Book Club selection for February 2011 is The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. The Power Of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people. To him, mythology was the “song of the universe, the music of the spheres.” With Bill Moyers, one of America’s most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, the book touches on subjects from modern marriage to virgin births, from Jesus to John Lennon, offering a brilliant combination of intelligence and wit.

Book cost is $6.50. See Sandra Hansen for details!

October/November Book Club Selection: Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn From Them

OSLC Book Club is reading Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them by Liz Curtis Higgs. Humorist and popular storyteller Higgs (Help! I’m Laughing and I Can’t Get Up) takes a look at the vamps and tramps of the Bible, searching for the lessons these wicked women have to teach. Learn some lessons in good living from the Bible’s bad news belles. Higgs offers a unique and clear-sighted approach to understanding those “other women” in Scripture, combining a contemporary retelling of their stories with a solid, verse-by-verse study of the lessons we can learn from them.

If you would like to purchase a copy of this $11.00 book please contact Sandra Hansen. Copies are also available at the public library. Please join us for a discussion of the book on Thursday, December 2nd. All are welcome!

September Book Club Selection: The Year of Living Biblically

What would it require for a person to live all the commandments of the Bible for an entire year? That is the question that animates The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, a hilarious, quixotic, thought-provoking memoir from A.J. Jacobs.

Our discussion will take place on September 30th at 6:30 p.m. Everyone is welcomed to take part. We are a very fluid group and love to see new faces. Many of us cannot read every book every month, but when you do read a book we’ve selected, we’d love for you join us for discussion and dessert. Books may be ordered through Sandra Hansen for $11.00.

See Eat, Pray, Love with the OSLC Book Club on August 26th

The OSLC Book Club will NOT be meeting at church on Thursday, August 26th! We will be meeting in the lobby of the Marcus Cinema Theater (2032 Ward Avenue) at 6:30 p.m. to see the movie, Eat Pray Love. The movie runs from 6:50 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. After the movie, all are welcome to join us for a discussion of the book and the movie at a place to be announced that evening.

Ticket prices are $9.00 for adults and $6.50 for those 60 and over. Please call Sandra Hansen if you have any questions.

August Book Club Selection: Eat, Pray, Love

Our book club selection for August is Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert. Copies of this book are available at the public library or you may contact Sandra Hansen to purchase a paperback copy for $11.00. This book has recently been made into a movie starring Julia Roberts, and it may be showing in La Crosse late in August. So instead of a book discussion, we will be going as a group to see the film and all are welcomed to join us!

Since the theaters will not pinpoint a date at this time when the film is to be shown, we cannot yet set a specific date and time. But keep Thursday, August 26th open as that’s the date we will try to attend. Please stay tuned for updates!

Next Page »