First off, a big thank you to all of you that showed up to our last book group discussion!  We had a very interesting discussion that covered an assortment of topics pertaining to Fahrenheit 451 (including the banning of books, education, media/social networking, the future of books/e-books, etc.)

Our September book will be preparing us for October’s Spokane is Reading!  We are reading:

Little Bee

by Chris Cleave

Two women collide lives on a Nigeria beach. One must make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again and the story starts …

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Spokane Is Reading is honored to present two free presentations by Chris Cleave. Mr. Cleave will read from his book, share stories, answer questions, and be available for book signing. If you haven’t heard him speak before, don’t miss this opportunity!

For more information or to recommend a book for us to read, please email us at shrinkingvioletsociety[at]gmail[dot]com or beckyhuss[at]gmail[dot]com! Hope to see you there!

Please join us for our August book group read:

Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear, and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide, and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

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Future Reads:

September: Little Bee  by Chris Cleave

October: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

If you have any questions or recommendations,  please email us at shrinkingvioletsociety[at]gmail[dot]com or beckyhuss[at]gmail[dot]com.  You can friend us on Goodreads or join our Goodreads Group and participate in discussion there.  Hope to see you there!

Please join us for our May book group discussion on:

The Lady Matador’s Hotel

by Cristina Garcia

National Book Award finalist Cristina García delivers a powerful and gorgeous novel about the intertwining lives of the denizens of a luxurious hotel in an unnamed Central American capital in the midst of political turmoil. The lives of six men and women converge over the course of one week. There is a Japanese-Mexican-American matadora in town for a bull-fighting competition; an ex-guerrilla now working as a waitress in the hotel coffee shop; a Korean manufacturer with an underage mistress ensconced in the honeymoon suite; aninternational adoption lawyer of German descent; a colonel who committed atrocities during his country’s long civil war; and a Cuban poet who has come with his American wife to adopt a local infant. With each day, their lives become further entangled, resulting in the unexpected—the clash of histories and the pull of revenge and desire.Cristina García’s magnificent orchestration of politics, the intimacies of daily life, and the frailty of human nature unfolds in a moving, ambitious, often comic, and unforgettable tale.

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Cristina Garcia will be in Spokane as part of the Get Lit! Programs!  She will be doing a reading with Jason Skipper on:

Saturday, April 14th

Visit the Get Lit! Website for more information.

Upcoming Reads:

If you have any questions or book recommendations, please email me at beckyhuss[at]gmail[dot]com or shrinkingvioletsociety[at]gmail[dot]com.  Hope to see you there!

Please join us for our March book group discussion:

All Over Creation

by Ruth Ozeki

“When Yumi Fuller returns to her hometown after a twenty-five-year absence, she comes face to face with an old friend, her aging parents, and her conflicted pastas well as the Seeds of Resistance, a rollicking environmentalist group that finds trouble wherever they plant themselves. With a quirky cast of characters and a keen eye for the vicissitudes of corporate life, political resistance, youth culture, aging baby boomers, and globalization, as well as the beauty of seeds, roots, and all growing things, All Over Creation offers something for just about everyone.”

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RSVP on Facebook

If you are unable to make this meeting, but still want to participate in discussion, please visit us at Goodreads!

Upcoming Reads:
April: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
May: TBD.  Please do me a favor and go to Get Lit!’s Author’s Page and recommend a book you have read or would like to read by one of these authors! You can comment here or on either our Facebook Group or Fan Page.

If you have any questions or recommendations, please email:
beckyhuss[at]gmail[dot]com
or shrinkingvioletsociety[at]gmail[dot]com