January 2017 is Vera by Schiff

Our book for January is Vera, the story of Nabokov and his wife of 52 years. She did everything for him and is credited with saving Lolita from the trash can.

A good article about his letters to Vera are in a New Yorker article:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/16/silent-partner-books-judith-thurman

November: Age of Innocence

Once again, Book Club last night engaged in an interesting discussion about class, constraints, etiquette, etc while discussing an old classic, Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence which won a Pulitzer prize for fiction. An excellent writer worth a re read as many probably read it in college.

A movie was made in 1993 that featured Daniel Day Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder. The film won an Oscar for best costume.


An interesting article about Edith Wharton appears in the New Yorker in June of 2009:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/29/the-age-of-innocence-2

Recent readings

Has any body read any of these?  Would like to know your take on some of these.

The Girls by Emma Cline
Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen
Here's to Us by Elin Hildebrand
The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
Purity by Franzen
The House by the Lake by Ellie Carey
Paris Time Capsule by Ellie Carey
The Storied Life of A.J. Firky by Gabrielle Zevin
Guilty Minds by Joseph Finder
The Color of Secrets by Lindsay Ashford
Einstein''s Prophecy by Robert Masello

August book is The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Light Between Oceans has been a best seller and the movie is soon to be released.

Here is what the publisher, Simon and Schuster, have to say about it:
"After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby... "

July 27 - Ann Patchett

Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett

From Good Reads:

"Ann Patchett and the late Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. In Grealy’s critically acclaimed memoir, Autobiography of a Face, she wrote about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, years of chemotherapy and radiation, and endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn’t Lucy’s life or Ann’s life, but the parts of their lives they shared. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years, from the long winters of the Midwest, to surgical wards, to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs, and despair, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined . . . and what happens when one is left behind.

This is a tender, brutal book about loving the person we cannot save. It is about loyalty, and being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest. "

Lucy Griel

Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett

Despite the small turnout we had a great discussion of Truth and Beauty. We analyzed the personalities of Ann and Lucy, discussed the controversy this book caused at Clemson University and Lucy's sister's reaction to the book. Some of us felt that it was a period piece and to understand the women's relationship and activities it helped to be familiar with the 60's.

Recently I met with a local author who told me that was one of her all time favorite books. Is it a writer's book?

I had read one of her other books, Bel Canto, and absolutely loved it. Should I read more of her books to get a better flavor of her writing?

Shakespeare as June's Book Club event

Thank you all for attending our speaker event with Dr. Abe Stoll. I hope you enjoyed it and judging from the feedback I have had it was a success.

Shakespeare's Language in MacBeth and the Folio

Special speaker this month tying in with the Shakespeare theme throughout San Diego. Dr. Abe Stoll, Chair of English Dept at USD, has graciously accepted our invitation to discuss Shakespeare's Language in MacBeth and the Folio (which is at the Public Library for only a couple more weeks).

Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare. It will be an evening of appetizers, a drink coupon and discussion for only $15++.

Make your reservations now!

Dr. Abe Stoll

More spy and WWII

Just finished two more books about women and WWII.  Can recommend both.

The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

The Last Goodnight by Howard Blum

Has anyone read?

Has anyone read any of the following books? I would love your thoughts.      

All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonsson
Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz
The Company of Strangers by Robert Wilson
A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable
I'll see you in Paris by Michelle Gable
Clawback by J. A. Jance
Backlist by Mark Greaney

City of Glass

This is the first of a trilogy. Plus there is a graphic edition.

From Amazon:
Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Mystery of the Year, City of Glass inaugurates the intriguing New York Trilogy of novels that the Washington Post Book World has classified as "post-existentialist private eye...It's as if Kafka has gotten hooked on the gumshoe game and penned his own ever-spiraling version." As a result of a strange phone call in the middle of the night, Quinn, a writer of detective fiction and crime books, becomes enmeshed in a case more puzzling than any he might have written. New York Times-bestselling author Paul Auster combines dark humor with Hitchcock-like suspense to City of Glass.

Where did you go Bernadette

Consensus was that this was a fun read, very funny.

From Amazon:
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

February book delayed to March 2 due to club closure for private event on our regular day

THE WOMAN WHO LOST HER SOUL

At 738 pages The Woman Who Lost her Soul was too much for this Book Club! Only one had completed the book. Our discussion, however, was focused on many of the issues presented by the book and later longer than anticipated.

March's book is much shorter at 328 pages I expect we all will have finished this one.  Bring a friend, introduce them to the Book Club.

Final list of books for our next several months

Hooray! We finally have a list!
Carolina is having book marks made for us with the information on them.


BOOK CLUB SCHEDULE

2016	FEB	The Woman who Lost her Soul	Bob Schacochis
	MAR	Where did you go Bernadette?	Maria Semple
	APRIL	City of Glass	Paul Auster
	MAY	Loving Frank	Nancy Horan
	JUNE	Shakespeare	1 comedy and 1 tragedy; open for suggestions
	JULY	Truth and Beauty	Ann Patchett
	AUGUST	Light Between the Oceans	Stedman
	SEPTEMBER	The Nightingale	Kristen Hannah
	OCTOBER	Someone	McDermott
	NOVEMBER	Age of Innocence	Edith Wharton
2017               JANUARY		Vera	Stacy Schiff
	FEBRUARY	Under the Wide and Starry Sky	Nancy Horan
	MARCH	Light in the Ruins	Bonjallian
	APRIL	Truth and other Lies	Sascha Arango
	MAY	Neruomancer	William Gibson
	JUNE	Picture of Dorian Gray	Oscar Wilde

Ballot for next 12 months

Here is the final ballot.  Print out, make your selections (5) and bring to January 27 meeting or email to solotraveler13@gmail.com

		FINAL BALLOT
		Choose 5
Vote	Author	Book	Time	Pages
	Arango, Sascha	The Truth and Other Lies		256
	Atkinson,	Life after Life		512
	Auster, Paul	City of Glass		208
	Berleigh, Nina	The Stranger & Statesman: Smithsonian		268
	Bonjallian	The Light in the Ruins	4'22"	322
	Catton	The Luminaries		864
	Dick, Philip	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep		256
	Doctrow	Andrew's Brain		209
	Doig, Ivan	The Bartender's Tale		414
	Eugenides	The Marriage Plot		416
	Ewing, Heather	The Lost World of James Smithson		432
	Fo	The Pope's Daughter	3'24"	241
	Franzen	Purity		563
	Fuller, Alexandra	Don’t lets go to the dogs tonight		336
	Fuller, Alexandra	Leaving Before the Rain Comes		272
	Gibson, William	Nueromancer		271
	Hamid, Mohsin	The Reluctant Fundalmentalist		191
	Hannah, Kristen	The Nightingale		449
	Hayes, Terry	I am Pilgrim		625
	Hoffman	The Marriage of Opposites		385
	Horan, Nancy	Loving Frank		384
	Horan, Nancy	Under the Wide and Starry Sky		498
	Ibrahim	Yelllow Crocus	3'34"	253
	Irving, John	In One Person		425
	Jewell, Lisa	The House I grew up in		416
	Kingsolver,	The Prodigal Summer		464
	Mandel	Station 11	4'59"	354
	Mantel,  Hilary	Wolfe Hall		604
	McCann, Colum	13 Ways of Looking: Fiction		256
	McCrea, Gavin	Mrs. Engels: A Novel		368
	McDermott	Someone	3'24"	241
	Nafusum Azar	Reading Lolita in Tehran		400
	Ng, Celeste	Everything I Never Told You		320
	Oates, Joyce Carol	The Gravedigger's Daughter		624
	Patchett, Ann	Truth and Beauty		257
	Paz, Octavio	In Light of India	3'10"	224
	Perkins, Dennis	Leading-The Egde-extrordinary Schackleton		288
	Prose, Francine	Lovers at the Chameleon Club		464
	Robinson, Marilyn	Lila	3'51"	273
	Schiff, Stacey	Vera (Mrs Nabokov		480
	Stedman,	The Light Between Oceans	4'53"	354
	Strayed	Wild	4'27"	338
	Walter	Beautiful Ruins	4'46"	354
	Wharton, Edith	Age of Innocence		162
	Wilde, Oscar	The Picture of Dorian Gray		176
	Wilson, Robert	The Company of Strangers		464
	Woolf, Virginia	Mrs. Dalloway		216
	Zuckoff, Mitchell	Frozen in Time		416