Author Archives: Becky

Hello Violets!

I’m going to be frank with you; our last  book group meeting was a bust!  Considering it was the Big Read (highly accessible all over Spokane, quick and interesting read, several dozen events pertaining to the book, etc.) we were expecting more than two people to show up.  Our February meeting had a total of three people.  We understand that it was quite a long and dreary book, but the meeting was at the same house the author used to live in and possibly wrote the book in (you can’t get more local than that).

Us book group coordinators are stumped.  We really want our meetings to be consistently successful.  We had 17 people show up to our January “Water for Elephants” meeting and have had several very successful meetings prior to that.  We’ve also had several busts.

So, we’re asking for your feedback.  If you have ever been interested in attending our book group meetings (whether you have or not), we would like to hear your reasons on why you may or may not attend our meetings.   Also, it’s about that time we ask for recommendations of books for future reads. Please fill out this short survey of only 8 questions and/or respond here (or email us) if you have any other additional information you would like to add.

Shrinking Violet Society Book Group Survey

Thank you!

Becky

beckyhuss[at]gmail[dot]com

shrinkingvioletsociety[at]gmail[dot]com

For our March book club meeting, we are participating with the Get Lit! Programs (a literary festival that takes place during April 13-17^th).  Their Big Read this year is:

The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien

Tracing the tour of one American platoon, The Things They Carried, is not just a tale of the Vietnam War, although it is considered one of the finest books ever written about combat. This award-winning book is a brutal, sometimes funny, often profound narrative about the human heart—how it fares under pressure, and what it can endure.

The Vietnam War still has the power to divide Americans between those for it and those against. Today it also divides us, just as surely, between those who remember its era firsthand and those not yet born when the troops came home. There may be no better bridge across these twin divides than Tim O’Brien’s novel in stories The Things They Carried. The details of warfare may have changed since Vietnam, but O’Brien’s semiautobiographical account of a young platoon on a battlefield without a front, dodging sniper fire and their own misgivings, continues to win legions of dedicated readers, both in uniform and out.

Link

North Spokane Library (44 E. Hawthorne Rd)

March 20th

1-3pm

RSVP Here

Check out all the Big Read! events here!

April – Zeitoun – David Eggers

May – Three Cups of Tea -Greg Mortenson

**As part of the Presidential Speaker Series, Greg Mortenson will be speaking at Gonzaga University on March 28th from 7pm-8:30pm at the McCarthey Athletic Center.  For more info, please visit Gonzaga University’s website and buy tickets here.

Gonzaga University (McCarthey Athletic Center)

Monday, March 28th

7pm-8:30pm

• $10 Public
• $7 Senior Citizen
• $5 Education (students and employees of any education institution)

June - Half the Sky - Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like to recommend future books for us to read:

Becky – beckyhuss [at] gmail [dot] com
Hilary – hilwhitt [at] hotmail [dot] com

We had an amazing turnout at our last meeting.  Thank you all who came and for the great discussion! Our February book is:

Stones from the River

By  Ursula Hegi

Born in the small German town of Burdorf, Trudi Montag is a Zwerg–a dwarf–who yearns to stretch and grow and be like everyone else. But as she matures to become the town’s librarian and unofficial historian, Trudi learns that being different is a secret that everybody shares.  Link

Carolyn has graciously invited us to her house, again!  The best part of Carolyn’s house is that Ursula Hegi herself has lived (and possibly written this book) here.  Our meeting will take place at:

Carolyn’s House (email us for directions)

February 20th

1-3pm

*Please bring a food or drink to share*

**Please bring any books you would like to recommend or give/trade with the group! We love reading books outside the book club as well and will greatly appreciate it!

Upcoming Reads include:

March

The Things they Carried

Tim O’Brien

(as part of the Get Lit! program)

Tracing the tour of one American platoon, The Things They Carried, is not just a tale of the Vietnam War, although it is considered one of the finest books ever written about combat. This award-winning book is a brutal, sometimes funny, often profound narrative about the human heart—how it fares under pressure, and what it can endure.

The Vietnam War still has the power to divide Americans between those for it and those against. Today it also divides us, just as surely, between those who remember its era firsthand and those not yet born when the troops came home. There may be no better bridge across these twin divides than Tim O’Brien’s novel in stories The Things They Carried. The details of warfare may have changed since Vietnam, but O’Brien’s semiautobiographical account of a young platoon on a battlefield without a front, dodging sniper fire and their own misgivings, continues to win legions of dedicated readers, both in uniform and out.

Link

North Spokane Library (44 E. Hawthorne Rd)

March 20th

1-3pm

April – Zeitoun – David Eggers
May - Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson
June - Half the Sky - Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like to recommend future books for us to read:

Becky – beckyhuss [at] gmail [dot] com
Hilary – hilwhitt [at] hotmail [dot] com

If you’re on Facebook, check out our new fan page and “like” us!

Happy New Year!

First and foremost, I would like to thank E.J. for hosting our December meeting!  You can read a small recap of the meeting here.

For January,  we will be reading:

Water for Elephants

By Sara Gruen

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her. Link

This book should be an easy find.  Both the county and the city libraries and Aunties should have several copies available! Also, check out 2nd Look Books!

January 16th

Carolyn’s House (email us for address/map)

1-3pm

Upcoming reads include:

February

Stones from the River

By  Ursula Hegi

Born in the small German town of Burdorf, Trudi Montag is a Zwerg–a dwarf–who yearns to stretch and grow and be like everyone else. But as she matures to become the town’s librarian and unofficial historian, Trudi learns that being different is a secret that everybody shares. Link

March – The Things they Carried – Tim O’Brien (Part of the Get Lit! program)
April – Zeitoun – David Eggers
May - Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson
June - Half the Sky - Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

We have had a few changes to our general plan, including having meetings at members’ houses, choosing books that are more accessible, verifying your attendance so we have a more solid count, and having a book swap/recommendation session at the end of each meeting.  For more information and to RSVP  (not require to attend), please check out our Facebook Event page.

As always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like to recommend future books for us to read:

Becky – beckyhuss [at] gmail [dot] com
Hilary – hilwhitt [at] hotmail [dot] com

Thanks for a big turnout for the November book group meeting,  and I think we have some great ideas going forward. It was wonderful to have a few new faces! We really appreciate your feedback about what you’d like to see in the group and why you may not come to a particular meeting.

December

Rings of Saturn

by WG Sebald

A fictional account of a walking tour through England’s East Anglia, Sebald’s home for more than twenty years, The Rings of Saturn explores Britain’s pastoral and imperial past. Its ten strange and beautiful chapters, with their curious archive of photographs, consider dreams and reality. As the narrator walks, a company of ghosts keeps him company — Thomas Browne, Swinburne, Chateaubriand, Joseph Conrad, Borges — conductors between the past and present. The narrator meets lonely eccentrics inhabiting tumble-down mansions, and hears of the furious coastal battles of two world wars. He tells of far-off China and the introduction of the silk industry to Norwich. He walks to the now forsaken harbor where Conrad first set foot on English soil and visits the site of the once-great city of Dunwich, now sunk in the sea, where schools of herring swim. As the narrator catalogs the transmigration of whole worlds, the reader is mesmerized by change and oblivion, survival and memories. Blending fiction and history, Sebald’s art is as strange and beautiful as the rings of Saturn, created from fragments of shattered moons.

Link
This book may be difficult to find in Spokane.  It can be purchased online through Amazon, Alibris, Borders, Barnes and Noble, or Auntie’s Bookstore (if you would like to stay local)!  Also, a few Violets may be willing to lend their book to you (please check the comment section on Facebook Event page or email us.)

December’s Book Club Meeting

December 19th

E.J.’s house (email us for directions)

1-3pm

*Please bring food and/or drinks to share with the group!*

Future reads include: 

January

Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her. 

Link

February – Stones from the River – Ursula Hegi
March – The Things they Carried – Tim O’Brien (Part of the Get Lit! program)
April – Zeitoun – David Eggers
May - Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson
June - Half the Sky - Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

We have had a few changes to our general plan, including having meetings at members’ houses, choosing books that are more accessible, verifying your attendance so we have a more solid count, and having a book swap/recommendation session at the end of each meeting.  More details about all of this here.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like to recommend future books for us to read:

Becky – beckyhuss [at] gmail [dot] com
Hilary – hilwhitt [at] hotmail [dot] com

Hello Violets!

First and foremost.. last month was the smallest book club meeting (Spokane Books Blog wrote a post about it here) in SVS book club history, and we’re hoping to get some feedback about why people were unable or did not attend. We want to make book club something that we all look forward to and can expect a solid conversation from, and if there’s anything we can do to make it more of that for you, please leave a comment here, email the coordinators, or go to our Facebook Event and post a comment there.
…
Things to ponder…
- were you less than excited about the book chosen?
- is the location out of the way for you?
- is the time inconvenient?
- any other factors that inspired you to pass this month?

Looking back, we have had some really large groups (The Red Tent comes to mind), and I’m hoping we can schedule things and pick books that really inspire thoughts and conversation. I’m excited to hear your thoughts.

We’re Getting On

by James Kaelin

We’re Getting On explores youth, dissolution, and the impact technology has on the modern world, and what happens when you try to live completely off the grid. The book follows five people, all in varying states of flux. This group of youth, through a series of linked events, decides one summer to move into the Nevada desert. Once there, they intend to abandon technology. They won’t have computers, phones, televisions, or even electricity. The troubles they face speak to the heart of the contemporary American condition.

Link

November 21st

Coffee Social

1-3pm

This book may be difficult to find in Spokane.  However, it is a short read. This book can be purchased online through Amazon and Alibris.  Also, a few Violets may be willing to lend their book to you (please check the comment section on  FB Event page or email us.)

Our future reads include:

December

Rings of Saturn

by WG Sebalt

A fictional account of a walking tour through England’s East Anglia, Sebald’s home for more than twenty years, The Rings of Saturn explores Britain’s pastoral and imperial past. Its ten strange and beautiful chapters, with their curious archive of photographs, consider dreams and reality. As the narrator walks, a company of ghosts keeps him company — Thomas Browne, Swinburne, Chateaubriand, Joseph Conrad, Borges — conductors between the past and present. The narrator meets lonely eccentrics inhabiting tumble-down mansions, and hears of the furious coastal battles of two world wars. He tells of far-off China and the introduction of the silk industry to Norwich. He walks to the now forsaken harbor where Conrad first set foot on English soil and visits the site of the once-great city of Dunwich, now sunk in the sea, where schools of herring swim. As the narrator catalogs the transmigration of whole worlds, the reader is mesmerized by change and oblivion, survival and memories. Blending fiction and history, Sebald’s art is as strange and beautiful as the rings of Saturn, created from fragments of shattered moons.

Link

January

Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

**Location and Dates TBA**

If you have any questions or would like to recommend future books for us to read, please contact:

Becky -beckyhuss [at] gmail [dot] com

Hilary -hilwhitt [at] yahoo [dot] com

or shrinkingvioletsociety [at] gmail [dot] com

The author of Armadillo, The Blue Afternoon and Brazzaville Beach—the novelist who has been called a “master storyteller” (Chicago Tribune) and “a gutsy writer who is good company to keep” (Time)—now gives us his most entertaining, sly and compelling novel to date, a novel that evokes the tumult, events and iconic faces of our time, as it tells the story of Logan Mountstuart—writer, lover and man of the world—through his intimate journals.

Here is the “riotous and disorganized reality” of Mountstuart’s eighty-five years in all their extraordinary, tragic and humorous aspects. The journals begin with his boyhood in Montevideo, Uruguay; then move to Oxford in the 1920s and the publication of his first book; then on to Paris (where he meets Joyce, Picasso, Hemingway, et al.) and to Spain where he covers the civil war. During World War II, we see him as an agent for Naval Intelligence, becoming embroiled in a murder scandal that involves the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The postwar years bring him to New York as an art dealer in the world of 1950s abstract expressionism, then on to West Africa, to London (where he has a run-in with the Baader-Meinhof Gang) and, finally, to France where, in his old age, he acquires a measure of hard-won serenity.

A moving, ambitious and richly conceived novel that summons up the heroics and follies of twentieth-century life.

We’re Getting On explores youth, dissolution, and the impact technology has on the modern world, and what happens when you try to live completely off the grid. The book follows five people, all in varying states of flux. This group of youth, through a series of linked events, decides one summer to move into the Nevada desert. Once there, they intend to abandon technology. They won’t have computers, phones, televisions, or even electricity. The troubles they face speak to the heart of the contemporary American condition.

This month’s book choice is:

Link

For October:

For November :

For December

Rings of Saturn
by WG Sebalt

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations for upcoming reads:

Becky – beckyhuss [at] gmail [dot] com
Hilary – hilwhitt [at] hotmail [dot] com

“Brothers K  is a 1992 novel by David James Duncan an author, fisherman and environmental advocate from the Pacific Northwest. It builds on the sporting and spiritual themes of The River Why novel, Duncan’s first book, but on a much larger canvas, focusing on an entire family instead of a single protagonist. Duncan uses multiple points of view to reinforce this effect by including material supposedly written by different family members in the broad narrative by Kincaid Chance. The novel tells the story of the Chance family as they pass through the turbulent waters of Papa Chance’s minor league baseball career and the upheavals of the Vietnam War. It is also a deeply religious novel about love and family and spiritual growth and the difference between church and religion. The title is clearly a reference to Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and to the baseball abbreviation for a strike-out.”
Link

Please Join Us on Sunday, August 15th at:

RSVP here on Facebook

If you can’t make it or would like a head start on September’s Book Read, we are reading:

by Teri Hein

“Combining a profoundly tender story of youth with politics and an unmistakable sense of place, Teri Hein has written a memoir that is part Terry Tempest Williams, part Erin Brockovich, part Garrison Keillor. In the end, she offers a rich and ribald journey into the universal mysteries of childhood, love, community, and home, a journey that confirms humankind’s infinite capacity for hope.”

During the August meeting, we will be choosing new books to read for the following months.  We will decide on a handful of books, so if you have any suggestions and cannot make the meeting, please email Hilary, Monique or Becky and provide a brief summary so we can share it with the group.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like more information:

For September, we are reading:

The Book Thief

by Mark Zusak

Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward. Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of satisfying details, giving Liesels story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative.

-–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Meeting Date: September 20th

Time: 1-3pm

Location: Brooke’s House (please email Hilary for directions)

Please feel free to bring snacks or drinks.

If you can not make it to this meeting but would like to get a head start on the next book, here is a list of the next chosen books.

For October (meeting will be October 18th)

Jewel of Medina

by Sherry Jones (local author)

For November

The Red Tent

by Anita Daimint

For December

Prisoner of Tehran

by Marina Nemat

Please email the coordinators if you have any questions:

Becky – beckyhuss [at] gmail [dot] com

Hilary – hilwhitt [at] hotmail [dot] com

Monique – moneeeq [at] gmail [dot] com