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.

Link

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

Hello Violets!

As you can see, our website is back!  Which means I will be posting our monthly book group discussion events here.  For February, we will be discussing :

The Help

by Kathryn Stockett

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women – mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends – view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

Link

Upcoming reads:

March: All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki

April: The Wind-Up Chronicles by Haruki Murakami

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

Thank you for everyone who showed up to our last book group meeting!  Luxe Coffee House proved to be a great place for our group discussion.
For November, we are reading:

The Geography of Bliss

by Eric Weiner

Weiner spent a decade as a foreign correspondent reporting from such discontented locales as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Indonesia. Unhappy people
living in profoundly unstable states, he notes, inspire pathos and make for good copy, but not for good karma.  So Weiner, admitted grump and self-help book aficionado, undertook a year’s research to travel the globe, looking for the “unheralded happy places.” The result is this book, equal parts laugh-out-loud funny and philosophical, a journey into both the definition of and the destination for true contentment.

More here

Thursday, November 3rd
6-8pm
Luxe Coffee House
1017 W 1st Ave, Suite A, Spokane, WA 99201

Upcoming reads:

December: The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
January: Let the Great World Spin by Colum Mccann
February: The Help by Kathryn Stocket

We’re on Goodreads! We have both a Profile and a Group,  so please check us out if you are on there!

Please email me if you would like more information about our book group or would like to recommend a book.  Hope to see you in November!

Becky
beckyhuss[at]gmail[dot]com

Our October’s book choice is

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz

“Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuk-the curse that has haunted the Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.

Díaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.” -Source: Goodreads

Future Reads

November: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner

December: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

January: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

**Important Information**
If you need a book, please contact me. I have 5 regular books, a large print book, and an audio book available for you to borrow through the Spokane County Library District book club bags.

We now have a Goodreads profile and group page. Please follow/friend/add us here:
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5992664-shrinking-violet-society?ref=header
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/52608.Shrinking_Violet_Society

If you would like more information or have any book recommendations, please contact me at: beckyhuss[at]gmail[dot]com or shrinkingvioletsociety[at]gmail[dot]com

Hope to see you there!
Becky

Hey Violets!
Thank you for everyone that attended our August book meeting!  It was great to see new and familiar faces while discussing such a difficult and pertinent topic. Also, thank you Heather D. for letting us use the conference room at your work.

During our meeting, we discussed our next book group choices.

For September:

Salt: A World History

By Mark Kurlansky

November: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
December: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

If you have any book recommendations or would like more information about our group, please email:
Beckybeckyhuss[at]gmail[dot]com
Shrinking Violet Society: shrinkingvioletsociety[at]gmail[dot]com

Our July book club choice is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, which comes at a very interesting time in Mortenson’s career.  Needless to say, there will be a lot to discuss!

Three Cups of Tea

by Greg Mortenson

Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse’s unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world’s second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town’s first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson’s efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers’ hearts.

Link

So please, join us on:

Thursday, July 7^th

Location: Main Market Co-Op

Time: 6-8pm

For August, we are reading:

Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

If you have any book recommendations please email the coordinators:
Becky: beckyhuss[at]gmail[dot]com
Hilary: hilwhitt[at]gmail[dot]com