October Book Club Titles / Marathon County Public Libraries
Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman
Published 1999 by HarperTrophy
Edgar Branch Library Book Club meets Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
A determined young girl plants six bean seeds in a trash-filled lot in Cleveland and something truly magnificent grows. Thirteen different voices come together to tell one amazing story about a vacant lot that transforms a neighborhood. Illustrations. A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who sees a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Maricela, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead. Thirteen very different voices -- old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful -- tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.
Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman
Published 1999 by HarperTrophy
Hatley Branch Library Book Club meets Tuesday, October 12, at 2:00 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
A determined young girl plants six bean seeds in a trash-filled lot in Cleveland and something truly magnificent grows. Thirteen different voices come together to tell one amazing story about a vacant lot that transforms a neighborhood. Illustrations. A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who sees a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Maricela, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead. Thirteen very different voices -- old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful -- tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.
Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman
Published 1999 by HarperTrophy
Athens Branch Library Book meets Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
A determined young girl plants six bean seeds in a trash-filled lot in Cleveland and something truly magnificent grows. Thirteen different voices come together to tell one amazing story about a vacant lot that transforms a neighborhood. Illustrations. A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who sees a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Maricela, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead. Thirteen very different voices -- old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful -- tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.
Still Alice
by Lisa Genova
Published 2007 by iUniverse
Mosinee Branch Library Book Club meets Monday, October 18, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
"Powerful, insightful, tragic, inspirational.and all too true." Alireza Atri, Massachusetts General Hospital Neurologist "Readers.are artfully and realistically led through.a window into what to expect, highlighting the importance of allowing the person with the disease to remain a vibrant and contributing member of the community." Peter Reed, PhD, Director of Programs, National Alzheimer's Association "With grace and compassion, Lisa Genova writes about the enormous white emptiness created by Alzheimer's in the mind of the still-too-young and active Alice. A kind of ominous suspense attends her gathering forgetfulness, and Genova puts us, sympathetically, right inside her plight. Somehow, too, she portrays the family's response as a loving one, and hints at the other hopeful, helpful response that science will eventually provide." Mopsy Kennedy, "Improper Bostonian" "An intensely intimate portrait of Alzheimer's seasoned with highly accurate and useful information about this insidious and devastating disease." Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi, co-author, "Decoding Darkness: The Search for the Genetic Causes of Alzheimer's Disease" "Her (Alice's) thought patterns are so eerily like my own...amazing. It was like being in my own head and like being in hers." James Smith, diagnosed with Alzheimer's, age 45 .,."something for the world to read." Jeanne Lee, author of "Just Love Me: My Life Turned Upside-Down By Alzheimer's" "A laser-precise light into the lives of people with dementia and the people who love them." Carole Mulliken, Co-Founder of DementiaUSA "A work of pure genius. This is the book that I and many of my colleagues have anxiously awaited. The reader will journey downDementia Road in a way that only those of us with Dementia have experienced. Until now." Charley Schneider, author of "Don't Bury Me, It Ain't Over Yet"
Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman
Published 1999 by HarperTrophy
Mosinee Branch Library Book Club meets Monday, October 18, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
A determined young girl plants six bean seeds in a trash-filled lot in Cleveland and something truly magnificent grows. Thirteen different voices come together to tell one amazing story about a vacant lot that transforms a neighborhood. Illustrations. A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who sees a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Maricela, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead. Thirteen very different voices -- old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful -- tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jamie Ford
Published 2009 by Ballantine Books
Spencer Branch Library Book Club meets Monday, October 18, 2010 at 6:30 pm and Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
Set in the ethnic neighborhoods of Seattle during World War II and Japanese American internment camps of the era, the times and places are brought [stirringly] to life (Jim Tomlinson, author of "Things Kept, Things Left Behind"). "Sentimental, heartfelt....the exploration of Henry's changing relationship with his family and with Keiko will keep most readers turning pages...A timely debut that not only reminds readers of a shameful episode in American history, but cautions us to examine the present and take heed we don't repeat those injustices.""-- Kirkus Reviews"
"A tender and satisfying novel set in a time and a place lost forever, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet gives us a glimpse of the damage that is caused by war--not the sweeping damage of the battlefield, but the cold, cruel damage to the hearts and humanity of individual people. Especially relevant in today's world, this is a beautifully written book that will make you think. And, more importantly, it will make you "feel.""
"-- "Garth Stein, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Art of Racing in the Rain"
"Jamie Ford's first novel explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle area during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love. An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut."
"-- "Lisa See, bestselling author of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
"
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.
This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While "scholarshipping" at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship-and innocent love-that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.
Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice-words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.
Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.
Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman
Published 1999 by HarperTrophy
Stratford Branch Library Book Club meets Monday, October 18, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
A determined young girl plants six bean seeds in a trash-filled lot in Cleveland and something truly magnificent grows. Thirteen different voices come together to tell one amazing story about a vacant lot that transforms a neighborhood. Illustrations. A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who sees a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Maricela, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead. Thirteen very different voices -- old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful -- tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.
Vinegar Hill
by A Manette Ansay
Published 2006 by Harper Perennial
Wausau Women's Night Out Book Club meets Monday, October 18, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
In a stark, troubling, yet ultimately triumphant celebration of self-determination, award-winning author A. Manette Ansay re-creates a stifling world of guilty and pain, and the tormented souls who inhabit it. It is 1972 when circumstance carries Ellen Grier and her family back to Holly's Field, Wisconsin. Dutifully accompanying her newly unemployed husband, Ellen has brought her two children into the home of her in-laws on Vinegar Hill -- a loveless house suffused with the settling dust of bitterness and routine -- where calculated cruelty is a way of life preserved and perpetuated in the service of a rigid, exacting and angry God. Behind a facade of false piety, there are sins and secrets in this place that could crush a vibrant young woman's passionate spirit. And here Ellen must find the straight to endure, change, and grow in the all-pervading darkness that threatens to destroy everything she is and everyone she loves.
About Face
by Donna Leon
Published 2009 by Atlantic Monthly Press
Wausau Mystery Book Club meets Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
After an investigator from the Carabiniere looking into the illegal hauling of garbage asks for a favor, Brunetti soon finds himself in the middle of murder and corruption more dangerous than anything he's seen before.
Publishers Weekly 02/23/2009
The 18th installment of Leon's wickedly entertaining series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti (after 2008's "The Girl of His Dreams") focuses on garbage, illuminating the author's ongoing concern about the environment. Venice contends with polluted canals and a huge chemical complex. Trash litters Naples' streets. Incinerators in south Italy are full, and trucks laden with toxic waste travel the roads. Brunetti becomes an ecological expert when an investigator with the carabiniere wants him to look into illegal hauling that has resulted in a truck driver's murder. On a personal level, Brunetti's father-in-law asks him to investigate a potential business partner, Maurizio Cataldo. But Brunetti, who's devoted to his wife and children, is more intrigued by Cataldo's much younger second wife, whose once beautiful looks were ruined by a face lift. Leon flawlessly melds the two plot threads as she parallels her characters' vulnerability with that of Venice. "7-city author tour. (Apr.)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman
Published 1999 by HarperTrophy
Marathon City Branch Library Book Club meets Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
A determined young girl plants six bean seeds in a trash-filled lot in Cleveland and something truly magnificent grows. Thirteen different voices come together to tell one amazing story about a vacant lot that transforms a neighborhood. Illustrations. A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who sees a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Maricela, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead. Thirteen very different voices -- old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful -- tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.
The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century
by Stendhal
Published 2009 by Oxford University Press, USA
Wausau Reader's of Classic Literature Book Club meets Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at Noon
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
The son of a carpenter, Julian Sorel is inspired by the writings of Napoleon to conquer the heights of society. His initial plan to work his way up through the church is, however, thwarted when he is forced to accept employment as a tutor--and this rash social entrepreneur certainly has not considered the dangers of falling in love. Stendhal's novel is an amusing and piquant study of hypocrisy and free will in post-Napoleonic France.
Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman
Published 1999 by HarperTrophy
Rothschild Branch Library Book Club meets Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 11:00 am
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
A determined young girl plants six bean seeds in a trash-filled lot in Cleveland and something truly magnificent grows. Thirteen different voices come together to tell one amazing story about a vacant lot that transforms a neighborhood. Illustrations. A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who sees a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Maricela, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead. Thirteen very different voices -- old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful -- tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.
