Survey for 2014-2015

Here is the link to the survey for our 2014-2015 books!

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith - September 28, 2015

We'll meet at Kathy's house on Sept. 28 to discuss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Check back for links to supplemental materials.

• Discussion Questions at LitLovers
• Discussion questions at Teachers Sites

Stoner by John Williams, August 24 - Julie's house

We'll meet at Julie's house on August 24 to discuss Stoner by John Williams.

Supplemental materials:

• "The Greatest American Novel You've Never Heard Of," The New Yorker, October 20, 2013
• "You Should Seriously Read Stoner Right Now", The New York Times, May 9, 2014
• "Stoner, the Must Read Novel of 2013", The Guardian, December 13, 2013
• Discussion questions, Random House
• A Common Reader blog post about Stoner
• On Fiction blog post about Stoner
• Mumpsimus blog post about Stoner

Check back for supplemental materials.  As always, let me  know if you come across something interesting and I'll include it here.

Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel - July 27, 2015

We'll meet either at Katherine's or at Suzanne's on July 27 to discuss Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.

Supplemental materials:

• New York Times review
• Guardian review
• Reader's Guide from publisher

Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson - June 29, 2015 - Katherine's house

We'll meet on June 29 to discuss Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.

Supplemental materials:

• LitLovers Housekeeping entry, including link to discussion questions
• The Big Read discussion questions
• The Big Read interview (by Dan Stone for the National Endowment for the Arts) with Marilynne Robinson in 2008
• Q&A with the Washington Post book editor and readers about Housekeeping - from 2001
• Nation interview with Robinson (Jan 26, 2015)
• NYTimes interview with Robinson (Oct. 1, 2014): "Without question, [Housekeeping] is preoccupied with the generational, genealogical succession of suffering.  But it also makes sustained allusions to the book of Genesis, particularly the flood narrative:  God's failed attempt to wipe the world clean of the very errors he could not eradicate from creation...'If what people want is to be formally in society, to have status, to have loving relationships, houseplants that don't die, the failure rate is phenomenal . . . Excellent people, well-meaning people, their lives do not yield what they hoped. You know?  this doesn't diminish, at all, the fact that their dignity is intact.  But their grief [is enormous].'"
• American Conservative interview (November 2013) on faith and conservatism
• Radio Iowa piece about Robinson being awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2013
• Interview from 2014 with Bill Moyers (discussing faith, capitalism, and democracy) 
• Discussion/interview at Georgetown on "The Resurrection of the Ordinary" - Robinson interviewed by Paul Elie (April 6, 2009) - She talks about how cherishing ordinary experience becomes transcendent, "[i]f you think 'What I privilege -- I in this moment encounter this object, this obligation, this emotion."
• Paris Review interview (Can't tell the date, but sometime after Home was published but before Lila)
• An essay about solidity and fluidity in Housekeeping, written by Linda Lindqvist at Karlstads Universitet

As always, if you come across other material that you like, let me know  and I will add it to the list.

Gender gap in literature awards -- in the characters, not the authors

Interesting read in Quartz about the gender gap in awards for literature.  The gap is in the gender of the characters, rather than in the authors.

Lord of the Flies, William Golding - June 1, 2015

We'll meet June 1 at Steph's house (or maybe Julie's) to discuss Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Supplemental materials:

• LitLovers Discussion Questions
• NYTimes Learning Network Text-toText piece, comparing what a scientific study about male-to-male aggression in fruit flies to the same in LotF
• Thug Notes on LotF - Who knew there was such a thing as Thug Notes? Nevermind that the actor sounds like urban slang does not come naturally to him. Analysis starts at the 2:30 mark.
• Mental Floss - 11 Things You Might Not Know About LotF
• Web English Teacher materials - (Have to pay to get to some of the stuff they link to, but still the topics alone are useful, and there's some good free stuff in the links)
• William Golding interview on TED-Ed - he talks about creating LotF and explains why it wouldn't work with a group of girls

There's really an endless supply of discussion and analysis about this book.  If you come across something that you find interesting or useful, please let me know and I'll add it to this list.

Half Blood Blues - April 27, Ruth's house

We'll meet April 27 at Ruth's house to discuss Half Blood Blues.

The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien - March 23, 2015

Next meeting is March 23 at Connie's house to discuss The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien.

Supplemental materials:

• PBS American Experience Interview with Tim O'Brien
• NPR Talk of the Nation Interview with Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried: 20 Years On" March 24, 2010
• "Shared Weight: Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried'," Suzanne Rubenstein -- looks like a chapter in a book Short Stories in the Classroom.
• NYTimes essay by Tim O'Brien, October 2, 1994

New novel from Harper Lee to be published

Wow.  Big news.  A second Harper Lee novel, that she wrote before "To Kill a Mockingbird" is going to be published on July 14.  I wonder if Go Set a Watchman will be come our second favorite novel.

UPDATE:  The decision to publish may not really have been Harper Lee's.

The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman - February 23, 2015

Update 2/23/15 - We'll meet at Katherine's house on February 23 to discuss The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman.  Supplemental materials:

• Discussion questions (LitLovers)
• Author interview, Christian Science Monitor
• Denver Post review
• Wikipedia page about the movie being made, based on the book

Let me know if you come across something else. And check back for more, closer to Feb. 23.

Ru: A Novel, Kim Thuy - January 26, 2015

We'll meet January 26 at Suzanne's house to discuss Ru: A Novel, by Kim Thuy.

Supplemental materials:

• NPR interview of Kim Thuy
• Video of Kim Thuy talking about Ru (produced by publisher)
• Review: Toronto Review of Books
• Amnesty International's Book Club Discussion Guide
• Article about author in UdeMNouvelles

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler - January 5, 2015

We will meet January 5 at Kathy's house to discuss We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.

Supplemental Materials (SPOILER ALERT):

• Slate's Audio Book Club discussion of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
• Q&A with Karen Joy Fowler
• LitLovers discussion questions
• The Guardian review
• NYTimes review
• Washington Post review
• NPR's Fresh Air discussion

Still Alice, Lisa Genova - November 24, 2014

We will meet Nov. 24 at Karen's house to discuss Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

Supplemental materials:

• LitLovers discussion questions
• Clip from movie (starring Julianne Moore and Kristen Stewart) to be released January 16, 2015
• Author's web site
• Boston Globe review

Bruce Springsteen's Taste in Books

This has nothing to do with our book club.  This is a NYTimes story about what Bruce Springsteen likes to read.  He's got fabulous taste, so I'm putting the books/authors I haven't already read on my "to-read" list.  How mind-blowing is this:  Flannery O'Connor is a prime influence on his music-writing.

These authors [Flannery O’Connor; James M. Cain; John Cheever; Sherwood Anderson; and Jim Thompson] contributed greatly to the turn my music took around 1978-82. They brought out a sense of geography and the dark strain in my writing, broadened my horizons about what might be accomplished with a pop song and are still the cornerstone literally for what I try to accomplish today.