2023-2024 READING LIST

June 13, 2023: The Bookshop on the Corner// Jenny Colgan

July 11,2023: The Liars' Club// Mary Karr

August 8, 2023: Looking for Alaska// John Green

September 12, 2023: Columbine// David Cullen

October 10, 2023: A Fall of Marigolds// Susan Meissner

November 14, 2023: When Breath Becomes Air// Paul Kalanithi

December 12, 2023: The Year of Less// Cait Flanders

January 9, 2024: Fahrenheit 451// Ray Bradbury

February 13, 2024: The Man Who Climbed...// Jonas Jonasson

March 12, 2024: Murder on the Red River// Marcie Rendon

April 9, 2024: Thunderstruck// Erik Larson

May 14, 2024: Harbour Street// Ann Cleeves

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

 

 

Hello May! Boy, are we ever ready for your sunshine and warmer temperatures! For May, we discussed The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich, with The Bookshop on the Corner, by Jenny Colgan up next for June. As a head up, we'd like to mention that we have very limited quantities of June's book, The Bookshop on the Corner, within the Viking System. There are, however, audio book versions available, as well as an electronic version on Hoopla for anyone interested in those alternatives. Otherwise, we encourage you to please get your borrowed copies back to us as quickly as possible so that we can pass them along to the next person in line. Thanks for you help with this!

As promised, we voted in the books for next year's reading list at yesterday's meeting~ yeah! We'd like to thank each of you that participated either in voting either online or in person. This book club wouldn't be the same without you! We are currently busy bee's putting them into a schedule, but are hoping to have that ready for you within the next couple of days. We'll be sure to post it here when it's ready, and we'll also have copies available at the front desk to take home. Happy reading!

 

Onward!

 

A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading with murderous attention, must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

This book had us divided. On the one side, there were those who really liked it~ gave it 4 stars. They appreciated the writing, found the ghost/haunting bits entertaining, and mentioned that they thought this book might be semi autobiographical in that Erdrich is a book store owner in Minneapolis (a select few of our members said they've even visited her shop!) and that she, and her store, were most likely right in the center of the George Floyd storm and subsequent rioting that ravaged that area. Clearly, she, like everyone else, has been effected by the Covid 19 pandemic, so it wasn't hard for some to understand why these events made it into her book. 

On the other hand, there were those who didn't care for the book~ some couldn't bring themselves to finish it. These members cited an outlandish, unbelievable opening chapter and difficulty keeping up with plot transitions. They found it bizarre and disjointed. This book felt crowded with all the different elements added in~ prison, George Floyd, rioting, Covid, ghosts, Native American rights and rituals, family issues, etc. Were all these components necessary to the story? Did they leave us with anything meaningful? 

 

Which side did you find yourself on?

 

Are you a fan of The Sentence? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng, and Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"NO"  

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"

Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 
3 stars

French Braid by Anne Tyler

 

Welcome Spring! We had a beautiful weather day for our April meeting where we discussed French Braid, by Anne Tyler. Coming up next in May is The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich. We hope you are enjoying the good reads~ and the warmer weather! 🌞

As a reminder, we will plan to vote for this next year's reading list at the conclusion of our May 9th meeting. If you can't make the meeting, you are welcome to vote online with a link Susan has created here: https://tinyurl.com/2y2n7vns. You can also e-mail your votes into Amanda or Susan, and/or call into the library with your choices. Let us know if you have any questions~ happy voting!

To the book!

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.

French Braid is a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close--yet how unknowable--every family is to itself.

With the exception of maybe just one, the overall vibe of this book was that it was just ok~ our members didn't love it, but didn't hate it either. We thought it was a quick and easy read that didn't leave us feeling much of anything by the end. Words like "mundane", "boring", and "tedious" were offered... it felt like taking a long glance in the window of any ordinary families home. It was added that this book didn't have much of a plot to speak of, but rather had a  heavy focus on character development, with the characters all being believable. A few members confessed to reading the book a few months ago and struggling to remember anything about this read.

All that aside, we had a good, long discussion about what Anne Tyler may want people to take away from this book. We hypothesized about possible motives, feelings, and actions of the different characters. We grumbled about all the loose ends, and then considered how real life has ample loose ends. And no plot. We wondered if there could be a hidden deeper meaning within the story that wasn't readily apparent. We talked about if every book has to be a 5-star read, or if these easy, fast, noncommittal books have their place. We marveled at how much we had to say about a book we all generally thought was just ok.

 

Do you have anything to add to the discussion? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!

 

 

Did you enjoy French Braid? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Lucy By the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout, This Time Tomorrow, by Emma Straub, and Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:

 

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"NO"  

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"

Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 
3 stars

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

 

Hello March! Our March selection was The Winter of Our Discontent, by John Steinbeck, with French Braid, by Anne Tyler, coming up next for April's discussion. Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting~ we are so thankful for our members, and look forward to seeing you every month!

While I have you, we collected a few more book nominations for next year's reading list during our meeting today! If you were unable to attend the meeting and still have some nominations you'd like included, we're asking that you get those in to Amanda no later than by the end of the day this Friday, March 17th. We'll then get started on getting them organized and ready for distribution at our April 11^th meeting~ we plan to cast our votes at the May 9^th meeting, where shortly after we'll get a compiled, finalized reading list put together, and away we go!

For any member who isn't able to attend the April and/or May meetings and would like to participate in voting~ Amanda will be sure to e-mail a final, compiled list of nominated books to anyone not present at the April meeting. We can also print out a copy for you at the front desk if that's easier. There will also most likely be a way to cast votes online via a link on the Perham Library's website~ we'll get the final word out about that as May approaches, but you can also always e-mail your votes to Susan or Amanda, and/or call them into the library if you'd prefer.

Lastly, we plan to stick with the same five dedicated categories that we had last year. Those 5 dedicated categories are: Minnesota Author, Memoir, Mystery, Classic, and Young Adult. The remaining 7 slots will being left open for nominations of any genre. You do not have to nominate books into these 5 designated categories (although some of the nominations may naturally be put into these categories based on their subject material), but you will need to plan to vote for at least 1 title out of the 5 dedicated categories when we vote. If there aren't enough books nominated into the designated categories to offer some good variety, we'll add them in!

 

Without further ado!

 

Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned. With Ethan no longer a member of Long Island’s aristocratic class, his wife is restless, and his teenage children are hungry for the tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards.

Set in Steinbeck’s contemporary 1960 America, the novel explores the tenuous line between private and public honesty that today ranks it alongside his most acclaimed works of penetrating insight into the American condition.

It would be fair to say we all wanted to like this book, being it was a shorter read with an interesting premise. And for a select few, it delivered. Those few members said they thought it was an accurate representation of being human. They liked Ethan Hawley, and could easily believe and understand his different choices and reasoning, even if they personally disagreed with them. They thought all the characters, and the story itself, were plausible, adding that they have a feeling that Steinbeck personally is for the underdog, and it reflects in his writing~ we all agreed that was a positive.

For those who felt this book missed the mark, it was cited that the writing itself, just as in Steinbeck's East of Eden that we read in August of last year, was awkward and disjointed. It was repeatedly pointed out that even though this book was a shorter read, it felt long and drawn out~ wordy. These members found themselves waiting for the book to make it's point. Instead, it felt like a mundane glimpse into one man's very ordinary life with nothing of any value to take away from the story. They weren't at all impressed with the ambiguous, clumsy ending and found themselves fairly disappointed in Ethan by the end.... a protagonist who they initially favored.  

What are your thoughts on ambiguous endings? Do you like to be left to fill in the blanks on your own, or do you prefer clear, concise finales? Weigh in down below!  👇

 

Were you one of the ones who really enjoyed The Winter of Our Discontent? Fans of the book also enjoyed: For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway, The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy, and Mad at the World, by William Sounder. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"
Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"NO"
Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 
3 stars

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

 

Happy Valentine's Day! Is there a better way to spend the holiday than among friends, having a warm discussion about a good book? What if I said one of our members even brought along a beautiful bouquet of flowers to boot? Tough call! 

February's book selection was The Nature of Fragile Things, by Susan Meissner, with The Winter of Our Discontent, by John Steinbeck coming in next for March. We had a great turn out at the meeting, and welcomed one new face!

 

While you're here, immediately following the book discussion, we announced that it's that time of year again to start getting in any book nominations for next year's reading list! We ask that all nominations be submitted to Amanda, preferably, (in an effort to keep all the nominations in one place), but if it's more convenient for you to submit them to Susan and/or drop them by the library, that will work too! We'd like the nominations to be submitted on or before our March 14^th meeting so they can then get organized and ready to distribute to everyone at our April 11^th meeting~ we plan to cast our votes at the May 9^th meeting, where shortly after we'll get a compiled, finalized reading list put together, and away we go!

For any member who isn't able to attend the April and/or May meetings and would like to participate in the nominations and/or voting~ Amanda will be sure to e-mail a final, compiled list of nominated books to anyone not present at the April meeting. We can also print out a copy for you at the front desk if that's easier. Regarding voting, there will most likely be a way to cast votes online via a link on the Perham Library's website~ we'll get the word out about that as May approaches, but you can also always e-mail your votes to Susan or Amanda, and/or call them into the library if you'd prefer.

Lastly, we plan to stick with the same five dedicated categories that we had last year. Those 5 dedicated categories are: Minnesota Author, Memoir, Mystery, Classic, and Young Adult. The remaining 7 slots will being left open for nominations of any genre. You do not have to nominate books into these 5 designated categories (although some of the nominations may naturally be put into these categories based on their subject material), but you will need to plan to vote for at least 1 title out of the 5 dedicated categories when we vote. If there aren't enough books nominated into the designated categories to offer some good variety, we'll add them in!

 

Onward!

 

Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right.

Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved. The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.

 

We opened the meeting with questions and opinions about where the title for this book came from and what it might mean. We sort of mashed all of our suggestions together to come up with a final analysis: We believe the title refers to women, especially in the era the book is written, being largely considered "fragile things". However, the reference to "the nature" of fragile things is believed to refer to mostly the opposite. This group of lead female characters banded together with support, encouragement and whatever resources they had amongst themselves to get to the other side. So in a way, the title is a kind of scoff at women being thought of as wholly fragile beings. We liked this conclusion very much.

In fact, come to think of it, you could just as easily say we all liked this book very much. We very much like Meissner's writing, we thought the characters and plot lines were well developed, thought-out, and believable. It's not an entirely moving or deep tale, not likely something you'll be thinking about a week after you've read it~ but a good story well told, with no regrets in the time it took to read it. 

We continue to find that we like real world history presented in this way... wound into stories with plausible, relatable characters that make you "feel" right along with them~  you can't help but appreciate the time, places, and circumstances depicted... and in turn, you can't help but have some sort of lasting, beneficial take away at the books end. 

If there was any criticism to be found, it would be that while we all liked, and believed the female protagonists, there was a speculation mentioned about if this same group could come together and walk through all they did and not have any sort of conflict amongst themselves. Would it be possible for any group, male or female, to weather together what these women faced, without any falling out of any kind?

 

Do you have any critiques we might have missed? Any questions about next year's reading list? Leave us a comment below!  

 

 

Did you love The Nature of Fragile Things? Fans of the book also enjoyed: The Forest of Vanishing Stars, by Kristin Harmel, Surviving Savannah, by Patti Callahan, and Eternal, by Lisa Scottoline. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"
Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"
Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 
4 stars

 

 

The Ursulina by Brian Freeman

 

The Ursulina, by Brian Freeman, was our January selection, with The Nature of Fragile Things, by Susan Meissner coming up next for February's read. As a special treat, Mr. Freeman graciously agreed to join us via Zoom for our discussion~ we found him to be a tremendous speaker and a fantastic addition to our chat. Read down below to hear how it all shook out!

 

 Introducing... The Ursulina! (**Spoiler Alert** the following summary contains some information pertinent to the ending of the book)

 

The mythical beast goes by many names. Bigfoot. Sasquatch. Yeti. In Black Wolf County, he's called ... the Ursulina.

But to Deputy Rebecca Colder, the beast is no myth. A serial killer has taken on the identity of the monster--and with each body left behind, there's a chilling message written in blood. I am the Ursulina. In this follow-up novel to The Deep, Deep Snow, Brian Freeman takes us on Rebecca's dark journey to reveal the truth about the Ursulina ... a journey that ultimately leads to an excruciating choice that will change her life forever.

The meeting opened with a warm welcome to Mr. Freeman and a good question right out of the gate, "Where did you come up with the idea for this book?" Mr. Freeman explained he had been toying with the idea after receiving such good feedback after the release of his previous, and first novel in this now series, The Deep, Deep Snow. He said the protagonist, Rebecca Colder, came to him and leaped onto the page, unlike the protagonist of the book previous, and he felt he had to get her story down. He very much liked the idea of going back to explore and illustrate Shelby Lake's mysterious origins, however, when specifically asked, he wouldn't necessarily say The Ursulina was just a prequel, or a sequel, or a stand alone, rather a bit of a mixture of all three. He can't be sure if he's done writing books in this series or not, but it isn't clear where he would take the story from here, so it's a maybe for now.

I'd say we all liked the book, in varying degrees. We all agreed we didn't see the ending coming, and gave the book extra points for the great twist! Those more in favor of it than others thought the book had great flow with well curated characters. One patron mentioned it was a quick, easy read that she believes she enjoyed more so because she had to read it quickly (to finish in time for the meeting), but would probably not have been as pleased with it if she had taken her time making her way through it.

Those who liked it less said the characters felt stereotypical and the crime scenes were a bit too graphic. Also, it was said the book had unbelievable parts dotted throughout. One patron didn't believe the school system wouldn't have done more to reprimand those responsible for the brutal attack on Will, and also found it hard to believe the parents of both Will and Jay wouldn't have noticed after all those years that their sons were homosexual. Mr. Freeman understood her point, but completely disagreed. 

It was also asked why Ricky's death couldn't have been presented as self-defense, considering the way Rebecca and Ricky left the bar that night, his criminal history, that he was strangling her just before Rebecca shot him, and a wide-spread bad reputation in town for being abusive... it would have been a stretch to find someone to call it anything but. Mr. Freeman thought that observation was valid, but then replied with,  "How could Rebecca have explained where Shelby was at the time of Ricky's death? How would that have looked?"

With the exception of one, our members didn't care for the ending. It seemed a little too fairy tale and implausible. In fact, it was said the book all fell apart at Jay's suicide. Rebecca walks away from the crime scene (leaving the reporter in her wake with the body), drives away to find Tom Ginn stranded on the side of the road, takes him back to her house, falls in love, and makes a baby.... all in the span of a handful of hours. She somehow still has a job afterwards, though she is demoted to secretary, and the romance between Rebecca and Tom ends abruptly there. For now. It seems a little farfetched, especially considering Rebecca's awful traumatic history with men.

In closing, one member mentioned she had started the Jonathan Stride series, also penned by Mr. Brian Freeman, and she recommends it! You'll find it in the Viking System if you're interested in reading more from him!

 

Thoughts? Let us know below in the comments!

 

Did you enjoy The Ursulina? Fans of the book also enjoyed: Fox Creek, by William Kent Krueger, Forsaken Country, by Allen Eskens, and The Investigator, by John Sandford. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"
Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"
Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 
 3 stars

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

 

Welcome winter! Thank goodness for Zoom and the ability to join a book club meeting from home when the weather outside is frightful! Thank you to everyone who attended Tuesday's meeting, regardless of where and how, to discuss The Book of Lost Names, by Kristin Harmel. We are so thankful for our members! 

Our January 10th selection is The Ursulina, by Brian Freeman, and as a special treat, we have arranged for Mr. Freeman to join our discussion via Zoom. If at all possible, we'd like to ask our members to hang back a few minutes after Mr. Freeman signs off to cast our votes. Please bring your questions and comments along to the meeting~ it should be a great time!

Without further ado!

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

 

I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of attending members really liked the book, with a small sprinkling added in who didn't care for it, on a variety of levels. Fans of the book said they really enjoyed Harmel's writing, noting that they appreciated the supplemental fictional parts about romance and family drama, as a means to take away from the awful reality that was the Holocaust. They felt like they learned a little something more about the different roles and skill sets of the network of activists during World War II.

Those who didn't care for the book felt like the read was predictable in some places and entirely unbelievable in others~ along with holes in the plot here and there along the way. Everyone agreed Eva's mother's angst was over the top and she was a poorly written/conceived character. No one liked or believed the ending~ it was a little too neatly tied up with a pretty bow for us. Eva heinously leaving the four children put in her (and Remy's) personal charge at the last minute at the crossing, to instead indulge in an intimate, overnight stay with Remy was also mentioned as a largely distasteful, if not unbelievable segment as well.

There was an interesting concept illustrated during the meeting regarding historical fiction that bears sharing. Within the really liked and really didn't like book camps, there was another set of opinions that broke down and illustrated how the two sides come at the genre in the first place. One side likes the added in bits that take away from the grit and sting of the painful situation(s), they like that it's a kind of distraction from the heavy content. The other side prefers the real in all it's forms. They like fictional places and/or characters that they can relate to and empathize with, but they must stay relevant, and therefore, believable... maybe sourced from past journals or letters or newspaper articles. Without all the legitimate pieces, they don't feel like we can truly experience, appreciate, and/or grasp circumstances/points of view/conditions. 

As a further example, group one obviously prefers books like The Book of Lost Names. Group two, however, would rather read something like The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah, or Dead Wake, by Erik Larson. (All previous, and current, book club books!) Make sense?

Which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below! 👇

 

Did you enjoy The Book of Lost Names? Fans of the book also enjoyed: The Rose Code, by Kate Quinn, The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah (a previous book club read!) and The Paris Library, by Janet Skeslien Charles. All of these titles are available in Viking~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"
Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"
Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 
 3.5 stars