Best Book Club Books from the Tattered Cover, part 3
By Kristen on Mar 10, 2008 in Book Club Favorites, Future Classics...?
Here is the third installment of Tattered Cover’s recommended titles for book clubs — this week I will exhaust their non-fiction choices, so the next three installments will be all fiction. I will start with the non-fiction picks this week.
Non-fiction
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen. I wrote about this work in one of my first posts of this year. Since then, the book seems to have only grown in popularity — at least in Minnesota (where he spent much of his childhood). I think we simply love true stories that highlight an individual able to overcome tremendous obstacles in order to benefit others. And Greg Mortensen truly does that.
Touching Tomorrow the Emily Griffith Story by Debra Faulkner I’m ashamed to admit that I, a 15 year veteran of public school classrooms, had no idea who Emily Griffith was! She founded America’s first free public school “for all who wish to learn” (ah, if only…). This book traces Emily’s interesting life, as well as her tragic unsolved murder. Must admit, I’m intrigued…
Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry. I have two reasons to be interested in this choice — my cousin’s son Grant dearly loves trucks and I dearly love the hilarious song by Craig Morgan. This book really is about a 1951 International Harvester and the community to which it belongs. Tattered Cover states: “Perry writes with humor, precision, and a full heart. How can you not enjoy an author who is convinced that ‘Seed catalogs are responsible for more unfulfilled fantasies than Enron and Penthouse combined.’” ‘Nuff said.
Who Are You People by Shari Caudron. This Colorado author went on a quest to discover people passionate about their hobbies: “Caudron’s book celebrates the quirky diversity of Americans… people finding an identity, a community, and acceptance.” Could be a good discussion starter for book club members passionate about their own hobbies.
Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Well, the author’s name is enough for me. Didion is one of the first writers who taught me to fall in love with the power of writing and voice. This work is “intensely personal” as she describes her experience with her daughter’s illness, which involved an induced coma and brain surgery, and her husband’s subsequent death. Tattered Covers: “This is a powerful story of love and loss and sanity by one of America’s finest authors.”
Now for the fiction…
Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Winner of the 2006 Man Booker, my interest was piqued by all of the positive press it was getting and I gave it a go; for some reason it didn’t engage me, and I put it aside. I will give it another go at some point, but in the meantime, here is an excerpt of the Tattered Cover’s review: “Desai brilliantly writes about India and America. Her characters face choices, tragedy, triumph, and consequences of colonialism…It is a novel filled with love, humor, and sadness.”
Truth of the Matter by Robb Forman Dew. Haven’t read this one yet, but the author won the National Book Award; this novel picks up where The Evidence Against Her left off, so I will plan on reading this first. Set in WWII, the family saga focuses on relationships between parents and grown children.
The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue. This novel is set in 1920’s New Orleans and is about two relationships over the course of three generations — the first love story ends in tragedy and then affects the second by haunting their house. (What a great title, by the way!).
The Vote by Sybil Downing. As the title implies, the sufferagette battle is the focus of this novel, set in the summer of 1918.
And She Was by Cindy Dyson. Set in the Aleutian Islands in the 1980s, this debut novel interweaves stories from past generations of Aleut women with stories of their present descendents — as well as the story of one American woman who has followed her fisherman boyfriend to the islands.
That’s it for next week! I would love to hear YOUR impressions of any of this week’s titles!
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