Second Monday Knitting Group

Well, we have graduated to all Jane Austen all the time for the time being....since her books are fairly long, we will continue with our every other month schedule. This month, we met, knit and chatted about Jane Austen and our impression of the many movie versions that have been made of some of her novels. We were going to knit a simple washcloth pattern but never got that far. Next month, however, we will discuss Persuasion (see earlier post for all the details).

I hope to see you then. It should be a lively discussion.

Leslie

THIRD MONDAY DETECTIVES

Our meeting on June 15th boasted our most lively book discussion yet. Perhaps that is due to the fact that there were thirteen in attendance and one by email! Whatever the reason, the consensus was that we enjoyed Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Circular Staircase.
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The book was written in 1908 and, although it did have some social references that would not be in a modern-day writing, its tone, mystery and sense of humor could easily have been a product of today's historical mystery writers. Mary Roberts Rinehart was herself an educated woman ahead of her time and there was a parallel for us to her central character in the novel, Rachel Innes. The mystery was well written, with rich character development and a well-developed plot. Several of our members "figured it out" early on in the story, but I, as usual, did not see it coming and enjoyed it to the end. We all agreed we could understand why she was so popular in her day and can still be read with enjoyment today.

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Our selections for the rest of the summer are:

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July - Death at La Fenice (Guido Brunetti Series #1) by Donna Leon. Beautiful and serene Venice is a city almost divoid of crime. But that is little comfort to Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world-renowned conductor who is poisoned one night during intermission. As Guido Brunetti, vice-commissario of police and a genius of detection, pieces together the clues, a shocking picture of depravity and revenge emerges.

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August - Cover Her Face (Adam Dalgliesh Series #1) by P. D. James.

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September - The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

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All of these novels are now or soon will be available at B&N Cedar Hill.

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We were a little crowded in our corner of the Cafe, but our supportive management team at B&N is working to find a better meeting location in the store for our group. We invite all mystery lovers or visitors who just want to see what we're about to join us for our next meeting JULY 20th at 10:00 a.m.

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Detective Jane

Fiction Book Club

Our group met on Thursday night to discuss our selection for June - The Killing Floor by Lee Child. Wow, was it bloody! People didn't just die, they were horribly murdered. We lost track of the body count. None of us could understand such devotion to the hero Jack Reacher that there are several books in this series. I guess we're just not a murder and mayhem group.
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Our selection for July is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Mr. Zusak grew up hearing stories about Nazi Germany, about the bombing of Munich and the Jews being marched through his mother’s small German town. He always knew it was a story he wanted to tell.
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It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . . Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.
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We hope that you will pick up a copy of this book and join us on July 9th at 7:00 p.m. in the Cafe for an enjoyable discussion of this BN Discover New Writers selection.

Jane

HISTORY BOOK CLUB

"I'm so thrilled to get the History Book Club up and running again!"
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That quote is from our new leader, Tanya, who has volunteered to lead our discussions. We had several months of interesting, thought-provoking and lively discussions in the past with Milan's choices and I look forward to more of the same with Tanya. They definitely won't be dull!
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The selection for July is Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond.
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"Why did the Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this groundbreaking book, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for histories broadest patterns. Here, at last, is a world history that really is a history of all the world's peoples, a unified narrative of human life even more intriguing and important than accounts of dinosaurs and glaciers.The story begins 13,000 years ago, when the Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Around that time, paths of development of human societies on different continents began to diverge greatly. Early domestication of wild plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the southeastern US, and other areas, gave peoples of those regions a head start. Why wheat and corn, cattle and pigs, and the modern world's other "blockbuster" crops and livestock arose in those particular regions and note elsewhere was, until now, but faintly understood.Societies that advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage were more likely to develop writing, technology, government, organized religions - as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war.A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world, and its inequalities, came to be."
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Tanya says this book was given to her by a friend wishing to,” increase the number of Pulitzers” on her list of books read. "I’ve been saving it, hoping we could cover it as a book club! This is an ambitious book. I don’t believe any one person can comment on all of it with equal authority. I am certain, however, that it’ll spark great discussions around the table!"
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We decided to split this book into two discussion times. The first session we'll discuss up to Chapter 10 "Spacious Skies and Tilted Axes". The second session will be to finish off the book.

Please join us for the discussion of this selection on July 23rd at 7:30 p.m. in the B&N Cafe.

Jane

Knitting Book Club

Our selection of Jane Austen for July is Persuasion. This was her final novel and is praised as her greatest and most mature.
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Persuasion follows the romance of Anne Elliot and naval officer Frederick Wentworth. They were happily engaged until Anne’s friend, Lady Russell, persuaded her that Frederick was “unworthy.” Now, eight years later,Frederick returns, a wealthy captain in the navy, while Anne’s family teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. They still love each other, but their past mistakes threaten to keep them apart.
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Due to the vacation schedule of our leader, we have changed the date of the meeting to June 22nd at 7:00 p.m. We will return to our second Monday meeting time in July. This month bring your knitting and let's discuss the times of Jane Austen.

Also, right now BN has a sale on its classics, buy 2 get the 3rd free. It's a great time to get any other Austen's you may need for future discussions.

See you on June 22nd.

Jane