February Book Group

Book group was so much fun on Thursday!  Good food, good friends, good book...what more can we ask for.  For those who weren't able to make it, The Help is well worth reading.  It is thought provoking and enlightening; yet enjoyable and funny at the same time.  Cori led a fantastic discussion!  Thank you Cori and thanks to Alisha for hosting.  She even moved in an extra couch for us :)

For February we will be reading The Giver by Lois Lowry.  Dana McKasson will lead the discussion.  We will meet Thursday, February 3rd at 8:30 pm at Kim Cutting's house.

Here is a brief summary of the book:

In the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world. With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.

Below is the tentative book list for 2011.  We have tried to compile a mix of YA novels, more "serious" novels, and some self-help/non-fiction books.  This list is subject to change, but I wanted to get it out there for those that like to read ahead!  If there was a book that you really wanted on the list, but it didn't make it, please let me know!  

We still need hosts for July, August, December, and January 2011.  We also need discussion leaders.  Don't by shy!  It's not hard to lead a discussion...just keep it moving and have a few questions and quotes from the book.  Please let me know if you would be willing to host or lead.  Thanks!!

February- The Giver by Lois Lowry

Host- Kim Cutting

March- Love and Logic Magic: When Kids Leave you Speechless by Jim Fay and Charles Fay

Host- Carrie Costello

April- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Host- Melanie McMurtrey

May- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Host-Cori Graham

June- Eat, Drink and Be Healthy by Walter C. Willett, MD

Host- Nicole Bingham

July- The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine

Host- TBA

August- Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd Cassel Douglas

Host- TBA

September- Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life by Gary Chapman

Host- Angela Folkman

October- These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine by Nancy E. Turner

Host- Aubrey Patterson

November- The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1) by Rick Riordan

Host- Alissa Wiser

December- A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg

Host TBA

January- In Tyring Times, Just Keep Trying! by Merrilee Browne Boyack

Host- TBA