When:
View in Calendar »
October 6, 2014 @ 7:30 pm - 8:45 pm
Repeats:
Monthly on 1st Monday until March 3, 2015
Where:
Cherrydale Branch Library, 2190 North Military Road, Arlington,VA 22207, USA
Cost:
Free
Contact:
703-228-6330
Categories:
Book Clubs
Tags:
@ Cherrydale
The Cherrydale Branch’s Monthly Monday Night Book Discussion
Feb. 10: ”Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend“ by Susan Orlean (author of “The Orchid Thief”). A New York Times Notable Book of the Year and Bestseller. The American Library Association’s Booklist ranked “Rin Tin Tin” as the “Top of the List Nonfiction Adult Book for 2011.”
From Booklist: “Starred Review. . .Rin Tin Tin, the smart, athletic German Shepherd who became “the archetypal dog hero,” was born on a battlefield in France in 1918 and rescued by Lee Duncan, an American soldier. Duncan, whose love for animals was rooted in a childhood of abandonment, brought Rin Tin Tin to California, where diligent training, talent, and luck turned “Rinty” into a universally beloved movie star. The Rin Tin Tin character lived on after the original dog’s death in 1932 (the world mourned) as Duncan, utterly devoted to his creation, worked with a series of German shepherds to keep Rin Tin Tin in the movies and on television for nearly four more decades. In her first from-scratch investigative book since The Orchid Thief (1999), New Yorker staff writer Orlean incisively chronicles . . . [the] Rin Tin Tin saga, including the rapid evolution of the film and television industries, the rise of American pet culture, how Americans heeded the military’s call and sent their dogs into combat during WWII . . . . Move over Seabiscuit, . . . Orlean presents a spectacularly compelling portrait.”
**************************
March 10: “The Language of Flowers: A Novel” by Vanessa Diffenbaugh .
BookList: “Abandoned as an infant, Victoria grew up as a ward of the California foster-care system and, abused and neglected, turned into an angry, uncontrollable child. Deemed ‘unadoptable,’ she gets one final chance at a home life when she is placed with Elizabeth, a single woman running her family’s vineyard in the verdant hills outside San Francisco. Days before Victoria is scheduled to be officially adopted by Elizabeth, a terrible misunderstanding violently tears them apart, and she is sent back into the system. Though the emotional damage seems insurmountable, Victoria’s time on the farm taught her that there were other ways of getting her message across. Finally forced to support herself, Victoria lands a job with a florist and uses her knowledge of the hidden meaning of flowers to gradually and fitfully make her way back into the world, one that will include a career, motherhood, and the personal forgiveness necessary for her to love and be loved in return. Enchanting, ennobling, and powerfully engaging, Diffenbaugh’s artfully accomplished debut novel lends poignant testimony to the multitude of mysteries held in the human heart.”
******************************
April 7 (meeting on the first Monday of the month in April): “Double Cross” by Ben Macintyre.
Amazon: “What do a Polish pilot, a Peruvian party girl, and a Spanish chicken maven have in common? They were all central to the success of Operation Fortitude, the audacious ruse that kept Hitler guessing of the location of the D-Day invasions, saving the lives of countless Allied soldiers and turning the war in their favor. In the same enthralling and entertaining fashion of his previous World War II spy stories (Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat), Ben Macintyre’s Double Cross goes behind the standard narratives of armies, generals, and tactics to chronicle the unlikely–and occasionally outlandish–stories of the spooks, spymasters, and double agents that changed the course of the war.”
******************************
May 12: “A Movable Feast“ by Ernest Hemingway, 1964 version (posthumous).
Suzanne Embree, book group volunteer: ”There is also a restored version, published in 2009, but our book group and the other county book groups voted for the 1964 version to be purchased for the discussion collection based on group reader recommendations and after reading critical reviews. Among critics, advocates of each version have criticized the other as not being true to what Hemingway would have intended. Both versions have the same Amazon reader rating: 4.2 stars (out of 5). ”
******************************
June 9: “The Round House“ by Louise Erdrich. (Winner, 2012 National Book Award for Fiction)
Library Journal: “Erdrich skillfully makes Joe’s coming-of-age both universal and specific…the story is also ripe with detail about reservation life, and with her rich cast of characters, Erdrich provides flavor, humor and depth. Joe’s relationship with his father, Bazil, a judge, has echoes of “To Kill a Mockingbird”
******************************
No meeting in July. August book will be given out at June 9 session.
******************************
Aug. 11: “Half of a Yellow Sun: A Novel” by Chimamand Ngozi Adichie
Orange Prize Winner & National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist . The movie version of this story will be out shortly, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years A Slave”, “Children of Men”), 2014 Oscar nominee for Best Lead Actor.
******************************
Sept. 8: ”The Art Forger : A Novel“ by B.A. Shapiro
A New York Times bestseller.
The Washington Post: “Precise and exciting . . . Readers seeking an engaging novel about artists and art scandals will find The Art Forger rewarding for its skillful balance of brisk plotting, significant emotional depth and a multi-layered narration rich with a sense of moral consequence.”
*******************************
Oct. 6: (meeting on the first Monday of the month, because of Columbus Day)
“The Light Between Oceans: A Novel” by M.L. Stedman.
O, The Oprah Magazine: “This months-long New York Times bestseller is irresistible…seductive…with a high concept plot that keeps you riveted from the first page.”. . . . Amazon.com Review: “Tom Sherbourne is a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, a tiny island a half day’s boat journey from the coast of Western Australia. When a baby washes up in a rowboat, he and his young wife Isabel decide to raise the child as their own. The baby seems like a gift from God, and the couple’s reasoning for keeping her seduces the reader into entering the waters of treacherous morality even as Tom - whose moral code withstood the horrors of World War I - begins to waver. M. L. Stedman’s vivid characters and gorgeous descriptions of the solitude of Janus Rock and of the unpredictable Australian frontier create a perfect backdrop for the tale of longing, loss, and the overwhelming love for a child that is The Light Between Oceans.”. . .
********************************
Mon., Nov. 3: (meeting on the first Monday of the month) “Thunder At Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914“ by Frederic Morton, March 25, 2014 edition
Publishers Weekly: “In an astonishing work of literary energy and historical insight, the author of The Rothschilds brings us the backstage dynamics that preceded the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the deed that precipitated WW I. Morton captures both the elegant decadence of Emperor Franz Joseph’s Vienna, and the potent spirits of those revolutionary thinkers who, all in Vienna at some time during the two years before the war, would blow away the past and create modernity. There were Stalin, Trotsky and Lenin; Freud and Jung; the glowering Hitler; Kafka, Wittgenstein and Karl Kraus; and a small band of Serb nationalists, one of whom fired the shot that catapulted Franz Joseph, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas into a war they didn’t want but couldn’t prevent, and that reduced them to puppets.”
******************************
No meeting in December
The Jan., 5 , 2015 book, “Prague Winter” by Madeleine Albright, will be given out at the Nov. 3 meeting
******************************
Mon., Jan. 5, 2015, 7:30 pm (meeting on the first Monday of the month): “Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948“ by Madeleine Albright.
Publishers Weekly (starred review): “Showing us villainy, heroism, and agonizing moral dilemmas, Albright’s vivid storytelling and measured analysis bring this tragic era to life.” . . .Washington Post Book World: “A compelling personal exploration of [Albright’s] family’s Jewish roots as well as an excellent history of Czechoslovakia from 1937 to 1948. . . . Highly informative and insightful. . . . I can’t recommend ‘Prague Winter’ highly enough.”
******************************
Mon., Feb. 2: (meeting on the first Monday of the month): “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption“, by Laura Hillenbrand – Major Motion Picture being released.
#1 New York Times Bestseller. Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award. . . . Book Description on Amazon: “In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.” . . . . The New York Times Book Review: “Ambitious and powerful . . . a startling narrative and an inspirational book.”
******************************
Mon, March 2 (Meeting on first Monday of the month): “Citizens of London: Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour“by Lynn Olson.
Publishers Weekly: “Starred Review. . . The Anglo-American alliance in WWII was not inevitable, writes former Baltimore Sun correspondent [Lynn] Olson (Troublesome Young Men). In this ingenious history, she emphasizes the role of three prominent Americans living in London who helped bring it about. Best known was Edward R. Murrow, head of CBS radio’s European bureau after 1937. His pioneering live broadcasts during the blitz made him a celebrity, and Olson portrays a man who worked tirelessly to win American support for Britain. Most admirable of the three was John Winant, appointed American ambassador in 1941. A true humanitarian, he skillfully helped craft the British-American alliance. And most amusing was Averell Harriman, beginning a long public service career. In 1941, FDR sent the wealthy, ambitious playboy to London to oversee Lend-Lease aid. He loved the job, but made no personal sacrifices, living a luxurious life as he hobnobbed with world leaders and carried on an affair with Churchill’s daughter-in-law. Olson, an insightful historian, contrasts the idealism of Winant and Murrow with the pragmatism of Harriman. But all three men were colorful [all became romantically involved with members of the prime minister's family], larger-than-life figures, and Olson’s absorbing narrative does them justice.” . . . New York Post: “[A] cracking good read.”
******************************
Mon., April 13: “For Whom the Bell Tolls“, by Ernest Hemingway
This title is #8 on “Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century, a list of the one hundred best books of the 20th century, according to a poll conducted in the spring of 1999 by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper Le Monde.” Published in 1940, this novel has inspired film, TV, and a 2010 musical adaptation.
Book Description: “In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from “the good fight,” For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerrilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan’s love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo’s last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving, and wise. ‘If the function of a writer is to reveal reality,’ Maxwell Perkins wrote Hemingway after reading the manuscript, ‘no one ever so completely performed it.’ Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author’s previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.” . . . New York Times: “‘The best book Hemingway has written.”
******************************
Mon., May 11: “The Garden of Evening Mists: A Novel“ by Tan Twan Eng
This title was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize.
Library Journal: “Starred Review . . . Like his debut, The Gift of Rain (2007), Tan’s second novel is exquisite…Tan triumphs again, entwining the redemptive power of storytelling with the elusive search for truth, all the while juxtaposing Japan’s inhumane war history with glorious moments of Japanese art and philosophy. All readers in search of spectacular writing will not be disappointed.” . . . Book Description on Amazon: “Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp. Aritomo refuses but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice “until the monsoon comes.” Then she can design a garden for herself. As the months pass, Yun Ling finds herself intimately drawn to the gardener and his art, while all around them a communist guerilla war rages. . . .” . . .Philadelphia Inquirer:
“Beautifully written…Eng is quite simply one of the best novelists writing today.”
******************************
Learn more about Book Clubs at the Library.