The next Genre Reading Group meeting is on Tuesday, August
31st at 6:30pm in the Library’s large Community Meeting Room. The meeting will be hybrid, so if you would
rather attend online, please register with your email and selected “on Zoom” as
your attendance option on the library’s calendar at https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/4597972.
August’s topic is myth, legend, and fairy tale and there is a
display of books at the 2nd floor reference desk. Novels and movies based on myths, legends,
and fairy tales are also eligible! The
new film adaptation for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is playing in town at Sidewalk
Cinema (simply titled, The Green Knight) and may be in other theaters as
well. I’m counting it as it is Arthurian-legend-adjacent
đ As usual, there is also a selection
available to peruse online in GRG’s area of Shelf Care (4th row
down) at https://oneallibrary.org/adults---reading-recommendations. See anything you like? Reserve it right from the comfort of home!
Tonight, we chatted about the books of Elizabeth
Berg. Born December 2, 1948, thisprolific novelist has been writing steadily since 1993. She studied English and Humanities at the University
of Minnesota before taking up nursing.
Her writing career started after she won an essay contest in Parents
magazine and she hasn’t looked back. Her
emotional, relationship-based fiction has been tugging heartstrings ever since.
Make Someone
Happy (eaudio only – Hoopla)
Part 1 of the Facebook
Posts series
This is a collection of Elizabeth Berg's most-loved Facebook
posts. She was asked by many to put these short essays into book form, to
create, as one reader said, something to "take to the beach, or bed, or on
an airplane." Elizabeth and her friend, the book's designer Phyllis
Florin, happily complied, and they hope that their offering will be as welcome
as flowers in a mailbox.
The
Handmaid and the Carpenter
The bestselling author of The
Art of Mending and The
Year of Pleasures, reimagines Mary, Joseph, their falling in love, and the
events of the Christmas narrative in this absorbing novel about love, a
couple's struggles, and their faith in each other.
Dream
When You’re Feeling Blue
Set in Chicago during World War II, three Irish Catholic
sisters--Kitty, Louise, and Tish Heaney, say good-bye to their boyfriends at
Union Station as they head off to war. Over the next three years, the sisters
learn what it means to sacrifice during wartime. Kitty takes on an
exhausting job at Douglas Aircraft; Louise, deeply in love with her boyfriend,
keeps her worries to herself while writing him upbeat letters full of the news
of home; and Trish spends her weekends at USO dances, promising to write to
every soldier she meets.
Wonderfully written and full of profound observations about
life, The Story of Arthur Truluv is a beautiful and moving novel of
compassion in the face of loss, of the small acts that turn friends into
family, and of the possibilities to achieve happiness at any age.
Do you ever really know your mother, your daughter, the
people in your family? In this rich and rewarding new novel by the beloved
bestselling author of Talk
Before Sleep and The
Pull of the Moon, a reunion between two sisters and their mother reveals
how the secrets and complexities of the past have shaped the lives of the women
in a family.
In this superb collection of short stories, Elizabeth Berg
takes us into pivotal moments in the lives of women, when memories and events
come together to create a sense of coherence, understanding, and change.
Family
Traditions: Celebrations for Holidays and Everyday (not in the JCLC system)
Presents a wide range of activities, traditions, ideas, and
rituals that are designed to encourage families to share quality time together,
including suggestions for the major holidays, seasonal celebrations, everyday
customs, and more.
GENERAL DISCUSSION:
Thirst
by Amelie Nothomb
In a first-person voice as droll and irreverent as it is
wise, Nothomb narrates Jesus’s final days, from his trial to his crucifixion to
the resurrection. Amid asides about his relationships with his mother and
Judas, his love for Mary Magdalene, and his many miracles, we find a man
struggling with his humanity and his exceptional nature, straddling the line
between human and deity, the son of a formless, omnipotent creator in the
fallible form of a man.
Caroline:
Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller
In this novel authorized by the Little
House Heritage Trust, Sarah Miller vividly recreates the beauty, hardship,
and joys of the frontier in a dazzling work of historical fiction, a
captivating story that illuminates one courageous, resilient, and loving
pioneer woman as never before—Caroline Ingalls, "Ma" in Laura
Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books.
The
Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Victorian
language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle
for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria
Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a
childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to
anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their
meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go,
Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she
chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has
her questioning what’s been missing in her life. And when she’s forced to
confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking
everything for a second chance at happiness.
Posts
