September 2009

Night by Elie Wiesel

Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Weisel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in the substantive new preface, Elie Wiesel reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man capacity for inhumanity to man.
Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.

August 2009

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

The trial of a midwife in 1980s Vermont. Sybil Danforth, with several hundred deliveries to her name, claims the mother was dead when she opened her to save the baby. The prosecution claims the mother was alive and the operation was illegal. The story is narrated by Sybil's daughter, portraying the trial as another round in the persecution of midwives by the New England medical profession.

July 2009

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.

An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler's Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.

June 2009

19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult

In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five.... In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens -- until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.

May 2009

Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon

In the fall of 2002, 41-year-old Kate Cypher, a divorced Seattle school nurse, returns to New Hope, the decaying Vermont hippie commune where she grew up, to visit her elderly mother, Jean, who's suffering from Alzheimer's. Kate has avoided New Hope since the grizzly, unsolved murder of her fifth-grade friend, Del Griswold, 31 years earlier. Kate fears she betrayed Del, a free-spirited farm girl. Did her betrayal cause Del's death? Who killed Del? Another local girl is murdered in a similar manner at the time of Kate's return. Could the killer be loose again? Meanwhile, Jean appears to be possessed with Del's spirit and may have the answers to these questions. As Kate investigates, she learns stunning truths about many events and people from her youth.

Fourth Discussion

A little late this month. Some of the key players will not be available the last Monday of the month. So we are hoping to have the discussion on Monday, May 4th. Question is should we meet for dinner again or just have the get together and a little dessert. Thoughts?

April 2009

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

From a childhood survivor of Cambodia's brutal Pol Pot regime comes an unforgettable narrative of war crimes and desperate actions, the unnerving strength of a small girl and her family, and their triumph of spirit.
Until the age of five, Lounge Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official. She was a precocious child who loved the open city markets, fried crickets, chicken fights, and sassing her parents. While her beautiful mother worried that Loung was a troublemaker--that she stomped around like a thirsty cow--her beloved father knew Lounge was a clever girl.
When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into Phnom Penh in April 1975, Ung's family fled their home and moved from village to village to hide their identity, their education, their former life of privilege. Eventually, the family dispersed in order to survive.
Because Lounge was resilient and determined, she was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, while other siblings were sent to labor camps. As the Vietnamese penetrated Cambodia, destroying the Khmer Rouge, Loung and her surviving siblings were slowly reunited.
Bolstered by the shocking bravery of one brother, the vision of the others--and sustained be her sister's gentle kindness amid brutality--Loung forged on to create for herself a courageous new life.

How 'bout Dinner?

Changing the meeting to a dinner meeting. Let's meet at 5:30pm on Monday March 30th. We'll meet at the Chili's in the Fort Union area.

Third Discussion

Let's plan on Monday March 30th 7:00pm. Not sure of the location yet or who is going to lead the discussion. Any volunteers?? More to come...

Also, I thought it would be interesting if we all came up with a list of "20 Things to Do Before..." So really think of everything you want to do and bring your list to the discussion and we'll share. Good luck!

March 2009

The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski

After a car accident in which her passenger, Marissa, dies, June Parker finds herself in possession of a list Marissa has written: “20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday.”

The tasks range from inspiring (run a 5K) to daring (go braless) to near-impossible (change someone’s life). To assuage her guilt, June races to achieve each goal herself before the deadline, learning more about her own life than she ever bargained for

Show time...

Unfortunately the only theater the movie is playing at is Broadway Center Theater in down town Salt Lake. According to google it is playing there Monday night at 7:05pm. So there you have it. Please come, it will be fun!

Broadway Center Theater

111 East Broadway, Salt Lake City, UT

Revolutionary Road

Monday, Feb. 23rd, 7:05 pm.

By the way, you can see the trailer on the right under "interesting sites." Link Revolutionary Road.

Second Discussion

Still planning on Monday, February 23rd, for our second "discussion". Although, we won't really be discussing, we'll be seeing the movie. I will check out when and where it is still playing and will post about that soon...

February 2009

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

In the hopeful 1950s, Frank and April Wheeler appear to be a model couple: bright, beautiful, talented, with two young children and a starter home in the suburbs. Perhaps they married too young and started a family too early. Maybe Frank's job is dull. And April never saw herself as a housewife. Yet they have always lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. But now that certainty is about to crumble. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves.

The First Discussion

What a great time we had. Thanks to all who came.

Here's our thoughts for February's book, Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates. I'm sure you all have seen the previews for the movie of the same title, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Instead of having a group discussion, we are going to see the movie! Not sure where it will be playing at the end of February, but I'm sure it will still at least be at the dollar theater. If not, we can discuss it at that time. I'm going to throw Monday, February 23rd, out there. Mark it on your calendar! More info to come...

Meeting Scheduled...

Looks like we will be having our first discussion on Tuesday, January 27th at 7:00pm. I am so excited! I will go ahead and send out an official invite to all those who received the original email about the book club. Please feel free to bring a friend that wants to join. If you don't get an invite through your email by Monday, please tell me so I can send one to you. I check the comments often, even though there aren't many, so feel free! Also, having read the book is not mandatory.

Oh, and of course, we will be discussing The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch, while enjoying a nice dessert.

When Can You Meet?

Please cast your vote in the poll off to the side...

The first meeting/discussion will be at my house. Please call or email me if you need my address.