MAY 10, 2013
Mountains beyond Mountains
Get ready to climb some pretty high hills when the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club visits Haiti with author Tracy Kidder. Join us Tuesday, June 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Kidder’s Mountains beyond Mountains.
A chance encounter on a plane leads the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kidder to follow Paul Farmer to Haiti. Farmer is a doctor, famed infectious disease specialist, Harvard professor and anthropologist. He is on a relentless quest to bring modern medicine and hope to the abject poor, who live, as Abraham Verghese writes “in the kinds of places we do not like to think about.” As characterized in the Haitian proverb, “Beyond mountains there are mountains,” Farmer never falters as he turns to the next problem after solving the last.
To learn more about this book, check out the following web sites:
To learn about Paul Farmer’s work, please visit the Partners in Health web site and see his Biography at the Academy of Achievement web site.
Learn about the author, Tracy Kidder, at the following web sites:
Tracy Kidder’s books available at the Library:
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APRIL 9, 2013
The Accidental Tourist
Some journeys are not easy. This month the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club will discuss Anne Tyler’s novel, The Accidental Tourist, a story about a man recovering after a great personal tragedy. Join us Tuesday, May 7th at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbuck’s in Oakwood to discuss this moving work, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1985.
Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. When his son is killed in a sudden shooting, neither he nor his wife can deal with their grief. Hence, their marriage crumbles and Macon’s wife moves out. In a short time, Macon, while working around his house, breaks both legs and is forced to move in with his extremely eccentric siblings. One cockeyed thing leads to another and Macon finds he needs a dog trainer. He hires Muriel Pritchett to train his unruly dog. Muriel’s own delightful peculiarities compel Macon to reengage with life. When his wife notices Macon changing for the better, she wants to reconcile. Nothing is ordinary about the decision Macon has to make.
To find out more about the novel, visit the LitLovers.com Reader’s Guide. You might also like to read the following book reviews:
To learn about author Anne Tyler, please try the following web sites: The Accidental Tourist was made into an award-winning movie in 1988, starring William Hurt, Kathleen Turner and Geena Davis. Davis won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Muriel Pritchett.
Unfortunately, the library doesn’t own a copy of the movie. We do offer the following movies based on Anne Tyler books:
Breathing Lessons
Back When We Were Grownups
For a list of library holdings of books by Anne Tyler, please click the following link:
Anne Tyler
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MARCH 5, 2013
My Stroke of Insight
Take a journey to the center of the mind this month when the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club discusses Jill Bolte Taylor’s story of surviving a stroke. Join us on Tuesday, April 9th at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss My Stroke of Insight.
In 1996, Taylor, a Harvard-educated brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke. In four hours, her mind deteriorated so that she could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of her life. Alternating between right brain euphoria and left brain awareness, she was able to seek help. Recovery took eight years, but Taylor considers the stroke lucky. She learned to help others with brain injury, and found peace of mind.
To find out what the reviewers thought of the book, please check out the following web sites:
Discover more about Jill Bolte Taylor at her author’s web site, her book web site mystrokeofinsight.com and in her TED Talk. Taylor is National Spokesperson for the Mentally Ill for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center and is an active member of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She also participated in the PBS series, The Amazing Brain, has been cited in WebMD, and was listed as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2008.
For more information about stroke, please see the following sources:
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FEBRUARY 5, 2013
Kabul Beauty School
Afghanistan is the destination when the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club travels with Deborah Rodriguez to the Kabul Beauty School. Join us for the discussion at the Starbucks in Oakwood on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.
After the fall of the Taliban, Deborah Rodriguez, a Michigan woman, signs on to be a nurse’s aide in Afghanistan. She soon realizes her skills as a hairdresser are in higher demand since Afghan women are once again free to gather at the beauty shop. Deborah persuades companies to donate and ship beauty products to Kabul and sets up to train Afghan women her craft. In a friendly, chatty style she reveals life behind the veil and shows how change can begin with something as simple as a shampoo.
To learn more about the book, check out the Reading Group Guide, as well as the following review from the New York Times Book Review.
To find out more about Deborah Rodriguez and the controversy involving the book, please refer to the following sources:
Learn more about what happened to the Kabul Beauty School and the plight of women in Afghanistan from the following web sites:
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JANUARY 2, 2013
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson takes us back home at the next
On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us on Tuesday, February 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the
Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Robinson’s third novel,
Home.
The novel retells events from Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize winning second book,
Gilead, but frames them through the eyes of the daughter, Glory Boughton. Her father, Reverend John Ames, a Congregationalist minister, is dying. When the prodigal son, her brother Jack, returns home, his difficult past shadows and affects the human interactions, as the family considers whether a man can change, and if it will allow him to.
Home was the winner of the 2009 Orange Prize and a 2008 National Book Award finalist.
To learn more about
Home, try the
Reader’s Guide and check out the following reviews:
Find out more about Marilynne Robinson; consult the following biographies and interviews:
Don't miss Marilynne Robinson's other works:
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NOVEMBER 6, 2012
Remains of the Day
Take a look upstairs and downstairs with author Kazuo Ishiguro at the next On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us on Tuesday, December 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Remains of the Day, 1989 winner of the Mann Booker Prize for literature.
Looking back on his 30 years of service to Lord Darlington, Stevens the butler realizes what the zealous practice of his profession has cost him. He has spurned romantic love, remained impassive at his father’s death, and subordinated his own humanity to serve an employer who is revealed to be a Nazi sympathizer. The film adaptation of The Remains of the Daystarring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, was nominated for eight Academy Awards.
For more information about the book, please consult the following resources:
To learn more about the author, Kazuo Ishiguro, you can read the author’s biography supplied by the British Council, a UK international cultural organization. You might also like to read or listen to the following interviews with Mr. Ishiguro:
The following books by Kazuo Ishiguro are available at the library:
As concerns the Appeasement Talks, which are mentioned in the novel, please see the following short history from Wikipedia.
Those who are charmed by all things “butler” may enjoy visiting the following web sites:
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OCTOBER 2, 2012
Born on a Blue Day
Experience an alternate reality with the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club when we explore the writing of Daniel Tammet. Join us on Tuesday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood when we discuss Born on a Blue Day, chosen as one of the ALA Best Books For Young Adults.
Imagine learning Icelandic, from scratch, in one short week. Daniel Tammet takes an autobiographical journey to introduce readers to the fascinating world of an autistic savant. Able to calculate like the Rain Man and as compulsive as TV’s Monk, Tammet also experiences synthesia, a neurological syndrome that allows him to experience words and numbers as shapes, colors, textures and motion. An uplifting story, Born on a Blue Day follows Tammet from a youth prone to tantrums and unsociability to his emergence as a fully independent young man.
To find out more about the book, check out the Simon & Schuster Reading Group Guide. The following book reviews might also be of interest:
Learn more about the author, Daniel Tammet at the following web sites:
More information on autism, synthesia and autistic savantism, see the following:
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SEPTEMBER 4, 2012
One Thousand White Women
It’s “Westward Ho, the Women!” at this month’s On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. We’ll discuss One Hundred White Women by Jim Fergus at our meeting on October 2, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood.
During treaty negotiations in 1854, a Cheyenne chief asked to trade 1,000 horses for 1,000 white women as brides for his warriors. President Ulysses S. Grant never approved the trade. Jim Fergus rewrites the history to imagine what would have happened had the trade gone through. Written in the form of a diary, One Thousand White Women tells the story of Chicago’s May Dodd, who, in order to escape the grasp of her wealthy father, journeys west to the Northern Cheyenne to marry their tribal head, Chief Little Wolf.
To learn more of the story, check out the following book reviews and reader’s guides:
Find out more about the author Jim Fergus at the following web sites:
To learn more about the Northern Cheyenne, as depicted in the novel, we suggest the following web sites: *Unfortunately this is an unstable web site, which means it may flip to another page when you try to look at it. If you go out and then try again, you may be able to see this informative page on Cheyenne language.
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AUGUST 8, 2012
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Climb on board the magic bus with the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club as we visit an Oregon State psychiatric hospital with Ken Kesey’s beloved character, Randle Patrick McMurphy. Join us on Tuesday, September 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
From the 1960’s protest era, Randall Patrick McMurphy became an icon for the struggle of the individual against society’s rules and rulers. Witnessed through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a mute patient at the mental ward, we see the struggles between the brawling, fun-loving new inmate and the tyrannical Nurse Ratched. She lays down the rules and McMurphy can’t see the point of following them. Ken Kesey’s style is fluid and funny. The New York Times Book Review called it “a glittering parable of good and evil.”
To learn more about the novel, check out the following:
The film adaptationof the book starred Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick McMurphy. It won five academy awards. Read Roger Ebert’s Review and the New York Times article on the Oregon State Hospital, where the film was shot. An Atlantic article indicates that Kirk Douglas’s production for the stage was less well received.
For information about the Ken Kesey, try any of the following sites:
The library holds several books by and about Ken Kesey:
Finally, and just for fun, find out which character you’d be in the book:
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JULY 3, 2012
The Book Thief
Travel back to a time of danger when the On-the-Road at Starbuck’s Book Club visits the heart of Nazi Germany and an era of book burning. Join us on Tuesday, August 7 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Marcus Zusak’s acclaimed children’s novel, The Book Thief. Chosen in 2006 as the Publishers Weekly Best Children Book of the Year The Book Thief is a novel no adult should miss.
In Zusak’s novel Death tells the story of a girl he’s observed survive the dark, tragic era of the Nazis. Liesel is a cunning book thief. Before she can read, she steals a book to remember her dead brother. When her kind, accordion-playing foster father teaches her how to read, Liesel‘s desire grows, along with her derring-do. Against blackest cruelty, she shares hope with friends and neighbors by reading these stolen stories.
To learn more about the book, check out reviews from the New York Times and the Guardian. Check out the Random House Reader’s Guide and visit the Lit Lover’s for some thought provoking questions.
Meet the author, Marcus Zusak in print at Random House and the Guardian. You might also like to listen to his NPR interview with Diane Rehm or see a short interview on YouTube.
To learn about the Nazi book burning, try the following web sites:
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JUNE 5, 2012
Maisie Dobbs
Visit a much-changed world with the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club when we venture to England at the end of WWII to witness Miss Dobbs solve a mystery. Join us on Tuesday July 3 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss the first in Jacqueline Winspear’s beloved mystery series, Maisie Dobbs.
In 1929, Maisie Dobbs opens her very own London detective agency. Her first job seems to be an open-and-shut case involving a wife’s infidelity. It is, in fact, something quite different and sinister. While reminiscent of the old-fashioned mystery novel, Maisie Dobbs breaks with the conventional pattern. Jacqueline Winspear presents us with a brilliant young sleuth, who has risen from her working-class origins, studied at Cambridge, served as a nurse during the war, and who now solves intimate crimes set against the devastating aftermath of the “War to End All Wars.”
To learn more about our selection, try the Penguin’s Reader’s Guide. We also encourage you to listen to Maureen Corrigan’s review of the book on NPR. For something a bit different, we suggest you read reviews of the book from three literary blog sites:
The Tea Cozy
Fat Books and Thin Women
The Traveler’s Library
To learn more about the author, we suggest reading her biography from Contemporary Authors, made available through our own Gale Biography in Context web site. Also, visit Jacqueline Winspear’s own web site and her Maisie Dobbs blog.
England was greatly changed after World War II. To learn more about the aftermath of the war, we suggest the following web sites:
The books in the Maisie Dobbs series are available at the library in a variety of formats, including downloadable e-books and audiobooks. Here are links to the series in order:
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MAY 1, 2012
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club explores the writing of the Harlem Renaissance this month. Join us on Tuesday, June 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.
One of the most widely read and highly acclaimed novels in the cannon of African-American literature, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford, a young girl who develops into a proud and independent woman. Living in rural Florida during the early 20th Century, Janie overcomes her inferior status as a woman and learns to fight for her own needs. Zora Neale Hurston was the author of seven books, a folklorist, traveler and anthropologist, whose fictional and factual accounts of black heritage are unparalleled.
To discover more about the novel, take a look at the Wikipedia article about the book and the Harper Collins Reader’s Guide. You might also enjoy the historic book reviews collected by the University of Virginia.
Zora Neale Hurston received early recognition of her talent and went on to travel widely and pursue many interests. Read more about her life and work: There are many web sites that provide an entree into the Harlem Renaissance. Here are a few:
The library has many books by and about the author: Several of her books are available online through Project Gutenberg and the Library of Congress holds a number of her plays.
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APRIL 3, 2012
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Snail mail prompts a writer to discover a hidden WWII history in this month’s novel for the On-the-Road @ Starbucks Book Club. Join us for the discussion of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at the Starbucks in Oakwood on Tuesday, May 1, at 7:00 p.m.
Restless at the end of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton searches for something new to write about. An idea arrives by post from a man living on Guernsey Island, who is finding it difficult to obtain copies of Juliet’s books. They begin to correspond and soon Juliet finds herself drawn into the history of the island during the dark days of the Nazi occupation and the story of the literary society that sprung into life as an alibi.
The novel won the American Book Sellers Indie Choice Award for 2009. For more about this book, check out the Reader’s Guide. Reviews of the book are also available: Sadly, Mary Ann Shaffer, who conceived of the novel and wrote much of the book grew ill before the book was completed. She called on her niece, Annie Barrows, to finish the project. Mary Ann Shaffer never got to see the published novel. Read more about the authors: To learn more about Guernsey Island, visit the following web sites: The library offers several other books, as well as a Canadian Public Television production, that portray what life was like under the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands: Finally, perhaps you'd like to try making a potato peel pie. Here is the Recipe.
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MARCH 6, 2012
Zeitoun - Big Read
A big wind blows in big trouble for a businessman, in this year’s Big Read novel, Zeitoun by David Eggers. Get together with the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club for the discussion on Wednesday, April 4, at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood.
Zeitoun tells the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American owner of a painting company in New Orleans. Choosing to ride out Hurricane Katrina in his home, Zeitoun helped out afterward – bringing in clean drinking water and rescuing neighbors and abandoned pets. Then, while in his own home, he was arrested by the National Guard and charged with looting and terrorism. He was held in jail for many days without trial, appropriate medical care, or a chance to communicate with his family. Dave Eggers’ confronts issues of race and justice in an era of homeland security.
To learn more about the book, visit the Random House Reader’s Guide. The book was reviewed in the following newspapers: There are also several videos available:
You might also like to read about the Zeitoun Foundation.
Learn about author Dave Eggers from Wright Library’s own Biography in Context web site, at McSweeney’s, and in Wikipedia. You might also like to watch Eggers’ TED presentation, about his winning wish, “Once Upon a School.”
Check out Dave Eggers' other novels at the Wright Library:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
What is the What: the Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng
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FEBRUARY 8, 2012
Winesburg, Ohio
We’ll take a trip along Ohio back roads this month at the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us on Tuesday, March 6 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Winesburg, Ohio. Sherwood Anderson’s tales of life in a small Ohio town are considered an American classic and have been included on the Modern Library List of the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century.
In the years 1915 to 1916, Anderson crafted Winesburg, Ohio, his most important work, from short stories. These tales about a town and the young reporter coming of age were unique. Influenced by Sigmund Freud, Anderson created a new kind of novel that gave voice to the hidden longings, loneliness, and small epiphanies of the townsfolk. Plot took a backseat to these inner revelations, allowing the birth of a new type of realism. Writers influenced by Anderson include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Henry Miller, HP Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth.
To learn more about Winesburg, Ohio, check out the Study Guide courtesy of GradeSaver.com. You might want to see the Wikipedia article about the book.
There are also reviews by Dan Geddes of the Satirist and Will Jameson for the American Studies Resource Center.
Anyone with a computer, e-reader or mp3 player should be able to find a free copy of the book to download. Here are a few of the web sites that make the book available:
For information about the author, Sherwood Anderson, take a look at the Brief Biography from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, or consult the library’s database Biography in Context. More information about the author’s life in Ohio is available at Ohioana Authors. Try the Chronology for a list of the author’s published works and check out the Ohio Reading Road Trip for general criticism of these works.
Several of Sherwood Anderson’s other works are available free online. Click the titles below to get the link for downloading.
If you want to take a road trip to Winesburg, you’d better make sure you travel to the right town. There is a Winesburg in Ohio, but it’s not the town Anderson wrote about. The author lived in Clyde, Ohio. The people of Clyde, after a number of years, have forgiven their native son who wrote so openly about the town. Check out the Clyde Blog and the Clyde Heritage League for more information for your trip.
And we hope you enjoy the book!
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JANUARY 3, 2012
The Color of Water
This month the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club will join author James McBride as he uncovers his mother’s secret past in TheColor of Water. Join us on Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss unusual biography, winner of the 1997 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Literary Excellence.
For many years, James McBride had experienced problems in life, which he believed were due to his own confusion about his racial identity. He was a black man, but his mother was white. Due to a family estrangement, he knew little about his mother’s side of the family. And so, to better understand himself, he decided to investigate his mother’s hidden Jewish past. The story he discovered is an uplifting one about a woman who overcame her harsh upbringing. Ruth McBride Jordan transcended divisions of race and religion to live a life of love, family and faith.
To learn more about this book, please check out the Reader’s Guide provided by Indiana University Northwest, as well as the compendium of resources made available through the Princeton Public Library. Reviews are available from the USA Today and Kirkus Review. Check out the author’s biography courtesy of the New York State Writers Institute, read the Barnes and Noble Online Interview, or listen and watch Mr. McBride’s presentation on C-Span.
The subject of the book, Ruth McBride Jordan died in January of 2010. Dennis Hevesi has written a lovely summary of her life in the New York Times.
To find out more about James McBride’s other works, you can consult the the African American Literature Book Club (aalbc.com). Song Yet Sung was a finalist for the 2009 Dayton Peace Prize for Literature. To learn more about this book, listen to the NPR Interview.
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DECEMBER 6, 2011
Run by Ann Patchett
This month the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club will revisit a favorite author, Ann Patchett. Join us on Tuesday, January 3 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Run, a tale about the Doyle family of Boston, Massachusetts.
What a difference a snowy night makes. Bernard Doyle was a proud American Irishman and served once as Boston’s mayor and wouldn’t you know he’d like his children to follow in his footsteps. But his adopted African American sons, Tip and Teddy, have other interests. When they tell him that neither of them want to attend a Jesse Jackson lecture, Bernard blows his stack, Tip steps off a curb into oncoming traffic, and things veer wildly toward domestic mayhem.
To learn more about Run, take a look at the Reader’s Guide and read reviews from journals and newspapers: There is also an Audio Book Review you might enjoy by Maureen Corrigan from NPR.
For a bit more background bone up here on the Irish Americans, Jesse Jackson, and see a map of the Harvard Campus.
You will find more information about Ann Patchett in biographies from Bookbrowse.com and Barnes & Noble. Patchett received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her novel, Bel Canto, which was a favorite of our own book club readers.
You will find these Ann Patchett books at the library:
Did you know Ann’s mother is the novelist Jeanne Ray? The library has several of her books also:
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NOVEMBER 1, 2011
Elegance of the Hedgehog
Shhh! Can you keep a secret? We will be learning about secret identities this month at the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us on Tuesday, December 6 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss the affair of the hidden personality, aka The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.
How does it feel to portray oneself continually as someone else? Concierge of a Paris hotel, Madame Michel believes she must hide her radiant intelligence from her wealthy residents. Young resident, Paloma, intends to kill herself on her thirteenth birthday so she can stop acting “normal”. Luckily, Mr. Ozu, a wise new tenant sees behind their false presentations and offers each a chance to change. Barberry’s second novel has been a runaway bestseller around the world and won the prestigious French award, Prix des Libraires.
To learn more about this book, please take a look at the the Reading Guide, and read reviews that appeared in the press: To find out more about Muriel Barbery, please try the following links: You might also like to visit the author’s web sites:
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OCTOBER 5, 2011
Let the Great World Spin
Come along on the ultimate high-wire act as we discuss Let the Great World Spin at the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us on Tuesday, November 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Colum McCann’s novel of dizzying derring-do that balances just above the whirl of life on the streets of the city.
In August 1974, the French funambulist Philippe Petit walked eight times across 200 feet of cable he had illegally strung between the towers of the World Trade Center. Petit was arrested and went to court. McCann’s story starts here. Characters pass by each other, and sometimes interact as life overlaps life. Just as Petit caused New Yorkers to stop in their tracks, McCann provides the reader a startling view the hidden majesty of their ordinary world. McCann won the National Book Award for fiction in 2009 for this work.
To learn more about this book, consult the Reader’s Guide or check out the book reviews from the following sources:
New York Times
Guardian
Washington Post
We encourage you to find out more about our author, Colum McCann, by reading interviews at the National Book Foundation and at Oprah Magazine. You might also like to visit the Author’s Web Site, as well as his YouTube video.
To find out more about Philippe Petit, the high-wire artist who walked between the Twin Towers see the article in Wikipedia and then visit Monsieur Petit at home.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2011
As I Lay Dying
Considered one of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying will be the topic of the discussion at November’s On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us on Tuesday, November 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood when we will revisit the mayhem of Addie Bundren’s final journey to Jefferson, Mississippi.
Addie Bundren’s dying request is to be buried in her native Jefferson, a great many miles from the family home. Upon her death, her husband, Anse, and her five children set out with a mule cart bearing her casket. But such travel isn’t easy. Reviewer Mindie Kniss writes it is“a hero’s journey gone awry – the Bunden family quest is one in which Murphy’s Law prevails.”
To learn more about the book, you may take a look at the following resources:
Faulkner won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 “for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.” You might enjoy reading Faulkner’s acceptance speech or listening to his banquet speech. For more information about William Faulkner, visit the following sites:
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AUGUST 2, 2011
The Invisible Wall
We’ll visit Northern England at the time of the Great War this month at the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us on Tuesday, September 6 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Harry Bernstein’s touching memoir of life along a street divided between Christians and Jews, The Invisible Wall.
Young Harry lives in a world of poverty, with a harsh and drunken father, in a neighborhood divided by an invisible wall separating Jew from Christian. Nobody crosses the cobbles to the other side of the street. That is, until Harry’s gifted and spirited older sister, Lily, falls for Arthur, a young man from the other side of the street, and life will never be the same.
To learn more about this book, take a look at the online ReadingGuide from the publisher, Random House. You might also enjoy the following reviews:
Harry makes for interesting reading, as well. He turned 100 not long after the publication of his story. Bruce Frankel tells the birthday story. Harry wrote a short autobiography for the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
The Tablet offers an interview with accompanying photos; USA Today provides a brief story and a photo of Harry and his beloved wife Ruby; and finally, GoodReads.com provides some memorable quotations from his work.
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