Book Club Selections 2011/2012

MONTH	LLL HOST	BOOK SELECTION
SEPTEMBER 9, 2011 The Meeting	Peggy C.	Little Bee by Chris Cleave Summary
OCTOBER 14, 2011 The Meeting	Kim H.	The Red Thread by Ann Hood Summary
NOVEMBER 18 2011 The Meeting	Janet D.	The Postmistress by Sarah Blake Summary
DECEMBER 2011	Holidays
JANUARY 13, 2012 The Meeting	Mary B.	The Good Wife Strikes Back by Elizabeth Buchan Summary
FEBRUARY 17,2012 The Meeting	LuAnn B.	People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks Summary
MARCH 23, 2012	Barbette D.	Movie Night The Help
APRIL 27,2012 The Meeting	Ann Marie S.	Sarah's Key by Tatiana DeRosnay Summary
JUNE 8,2012 The Meeting	Sue F.	The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain Summary

The Midwife' Confession book trailer

The book... The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain.
The meeting date... June 8, 2012.
To Refresh your memory... here is a summary from www.Shelfari.com:

'I don't know how to tell you what I did.' The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind Noelle's suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle - her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her family - described a woman who embraced life. But they didn't know everything. Because the unaddressed letter reveals a terrible secret...and a legacy of guilt that changes everything they thought they knew about the woman who delivered their children. A legacy that will irrevocably change their own lives - and the life of a desperate stranger - forever. Diane Chamberlain gets to the heart of the story.

What we said... There were about 7 of us present at this meeting...so a rather smaller group than usual. Not all of us finished the book by the meeting, however most of us thought that the book was written in a way that we were drawn to it and it was an easy and pleasant read.
Our conversation focused on how Noelle used poor judgement in the choices she made through her life and how sad it had become. The character Tara had gotten on our nerves with regard to how neurotic she was.
Some questions we brought up: How could Emerson be so casual about her business and have time for anything else? How does a person (Tara's husband) make a choice to marry someone for a lifestyle and overlook strong feelings for someone else?
And, what would we all have done if we were in the situation of any of these characters?

On another note ... Everyone have a great summer! Info on the September meeting will be coming soon. If you choose to read Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L.James...we can talk about it at September's meeting along with the title of that month.

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Vel’ d’Hiv

The book... Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.
The meeting date... April 27, 2012.
To Refresh your memory... here is a summary from www.Shelfari.com:

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

What we said... Everyone thought it was a good book that was quick to get through. As the author finished Sarah's perspective, most of us found we missed her and couldn't wait to keep reading to find out what happened. Julia's sections from then on had Julia painted as a bit high maintenance and a little too obsessed with the Sarah situation. The story opened our eyes to the whole France involvement in the Holocaust.

On another note ... Our tappers have exciting news to share - the teacher is opening her own studio right in Elma. That means more classes to choose from. Take a look at her website BuffaloDanceCenter for all the info. Several of us are looking forward to checking out what the ballet fit class has to offer.

by the way...
Check out the book that Kim spoke of:Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L.James. Here is a summary from www.Shelfari.com... any takers? a summer read?

When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind - until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time.

Erotic, amusing, amazing and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.(372 pages)

Also...
Sue D. has a copy of House Rules by Jodi Picoult. Contact Sue if you would like to borrow it sometime.Here is a summary from www.Shelfari.com: ... a summer read?

Jacob Hunt is a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject -- in his case, forensic analysis. He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do...and he's usually right. But then his town is rocked by a terrible murder and, for a change, the police come to Jacob with questions. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's -- not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, flat affect -- can look a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel. Suddenly, Jacob and his family, who only want to fit in, feel the spotlight shining directly on them. For his mother, Emma, it's a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it's another indication of why nothing is normal because of Jacob. And over this small family the soul-searing question looms: Did Jacob commit murder?

Emotionally powerful from beginning to end, House Rules looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way -- and fails those who don't.(532 pages)

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The book... People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.
The meeting date... February 17, 2012.
To Refresh your memory, here is a summary from www.Shelfari.com:

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March , the journey of a rare illuminated manuscript through centuries of exile and war In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war.
Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation. In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city’s rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna’s investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love. Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity, an ambitious, electrifying work by an acclaimed and beloved author.

What we said...About ten of us came to this meeting. Not everyone had a chance to finish the read with some having gone from text version to audio due to the complex back and forth nature of the writing. Some of us that finished felt the story drew us in the more we read. Often at times, the historical sections were so tragic that they were difficult to read.

In mystery form, the story walked us through the reverse chronological history of the Jews and their struggles with those of other faiths who tried to destroy them. The chapters alternate between the present, with Hanna investigating each clue she discovered during her book restoration, and the past, where the storyline jumps to scenes from the book’s history and the people who handled it.

The people who ultimately handled the book include the Muslim librarian who sheltered the book from the Nazi’s, the bookbinder who sold the book’s silver clasps to pay for his STD treatment, the catholic priest whose signature saved it from the burning at the Inquisition, the Jewish girl–dressed as a boy–who painted its marvelous illustrations on the parchment, the scribe who bought the illustrations, wrote the Hebrew text and had the book beautifully bound as a gift.

On another note ... we talked about our pets, our children, our old "room mother" days, our trips, our children's trips, our jobs and of course tap dancing. We were given a little rendition of some beginner steps which included how to do the Buffalo as can be seen (not us) in this video...


Still waiting to get a video of our own club members in action!

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Yes, our book club is broadening its horizons, diversifying, expanding our scope, being dynamic...however you want to look at it, its happening:

Tap on Tuesdays at 7 and Metropolitans by 8:15.

Contact LuAnn for last minute details if you want to meet up for either or both of these adventures on Tuesdays for the next 6 weeks.

This was a hot topic at our meeting with quite a few of us showing interest. I am looking forward to the recital...YAY !! Who knew??

Nine of us were able to make tonight's meeting battling the driving hazards of our first major snow of the season. BTW - Happy Birthday Mary Ellen! Hope you had a nice night. Pat came with popcorn, but instead of her usual chocolate covered popcorn she brought caramel covered popcorn. YUM! There were lots of other sweets and cheese type snacks on our spread tonight.

Theme drinks are popular and at LuAnn's party in December, she made a lot of metropolitans. (I believe they are a lot like the cosmopolitan). Everyone loved them, hence, the desire to continue with the theme after Tap on Tuesday.

Please note the changes in our schedule on the home page of this blog. Barbette is hosting a movie night in March (The Help) and Ann Marie will take her old title for April.

Well, on with business ...
The book... The Good Wife Strikes Back by Elizabeth Buchan.
The meeting date... January 13, 2012.
To Refresh your memory, here is a summary from www.Shelfari.com:

Elizabeth Buchan’s New York Times bestseller Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman was hailed as "a thoughtful, intelligent, funny, coming-of-middle-age story" by The Boston Globe . Now she’s back with another wise and entertaining novel about a woman who veers off the beaten path—and finds much more than she bargained for. After nineteen years of being the perfect wife to an ambitious politician, Fanny Savage is restless. Tired of merely keeping quiet and looking good at public engagements, she remembers the career she abandoned and the life she left behind as a successful partner in her father’s Italian wine business. She has devoted two decades to being the Good Wife. Was it worth it after all? Could it be time for a trip back to Italy—to the pleasures of sun, wine, and food? Could it be time for . . . a change?

What we said...
Just a handful of us actually read the book, however since the theme of the story was family and marriage related, there was no lack of discussion. Although the book didn't really knock anyone's socks off, it came across as a pleasant read. The basic take from beginning to end is that with marriage and family dynamics there's always a "tradeoff". Some give and take throughout the years for all involved.

Some of us vented frustration with Fanny's lack of initiative to change anything herself. The changes that occurred in her life seemed to happen on their own without effort from her. In the end she was happy and at peace because everything worked out for the better.

by the way...
Check out the book that Barb spoke of:Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Here is a summary from www.Shelfari.com... any takers? a summer read? it's only 544 pages:

A dazzling triumph from the bestselling author of The Virgin Suicides — the astonishing tale of a gene that passes down through three generations of a Greek-American family and flowers in the body of a teenage girl. In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry blond classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them — along with Callie's failure to develop — leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all. The explanation for this shocking state of affairs takes us out of suburbia — back before the Detroit race riots of 1967, before the rise of the Motor City and Prohibition, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callie's grandparents fled for their lives. Back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set in motion the metamorphosis that will turn Callie into a being both mythical and perfectly real: a hermaphrodite. Spanning eight decades — and one unusually awkward adolescence — Jeffrey Eugenides' long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender and the deep, untidy promptings of desire. It marks the fulfillment of a huge talent, named one of America's best young novelists by both Granta and The New Yorker. (544 pages)

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Well, if you didn't make the meeting, here's what you missed ...

The book... The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.
The meeting date... November 18, 2011.
To Refresh your memory, here is a summary from www.Shelfari.com:

What would happen if someone did the unthinkable — and didn't deliver a letter? Filled with stunning parallels to today, The Postmistress is a sweeping novel about the loss of innocence of two extraordinary women — and of two countries torn apart by war. Weaving together the stories of three very different women loosely tied to each other, debut novelist Blake takes readers back and forth between small town America and war-torn Europe in 1940.

Single, 40-year-old postmistress Iris James and young newlywed Emma Trask are both new arrivals to Franklin, Mass., on Cape Cod. While Iris and Emma go about their daily lives, they follow American reporter Frankie Bard on the radio as she delivers powerful and personal accounts from the London Blitz and elsewhere in Europe. While Trask waits for the return of her husband—a volunteer doctor stationed in England—James comes across a letter with valuable information that she chooses to hide. Blake captures two different worlds—a naïve nation in denial and, across the ocean, a continent wracked with terror—with a deft sense of character and plot, and a perfect willingness to take on big, complex questions, such as the merits of truth and truth-telling in wartime.

What we said...the majority of us did not finish the book in time for the meeting and those that listened to the story said the narrator did a great job with distinguishing the different perspectives - the story told from being in Europe in the war and the story told from those left behind at home in the USA listening to the war.

Those of us who missed out on the back and forth dialog with different accents by the narrator had a harder time getting involved in the story until the pieces started falling into place later in the book. By the end of the book most of the main characters all fit together in a set of coincidences that happened throughout the storyline.

A lot of the meeting's book discussion focused on answering the book questions that Janet had. Answering the questions gave those of us readers who never finished a way to find out the details that we missed.

On another note ... we talked about various aspects of taking care of our parents as they age, LuAnn's delicious apple dip and its crafty presentation, some interesting neighborhood stories, and the Turkey Trot coming up. Peggy is a star in the Turkey Trot's promotional video. If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it by clicking this photo (watch for time stamp 42 (sec)) ...




There was talk that maybe with her acquired star power she should become our book club mascot (are there such things?) What exactly would a book club mascot look like? ...

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Well, thanks to Kim, there were a lot of these ...

and we had a lot of talk about these ...

and thanks to Janet, LuAnn is about to get a lot of these ...

and maybe some day we will all get one of these ...

The book... The Red Thread by Ann Hood.
The meeting date... October 14, 2011.
To Refresh your memory, here is a summary from www.Shelfari.com:

From the best-selling author of The Knitting Circle , a mother’s powerful journey from loss to love. “In China there is a belief that people who are destined to be together are connected by an invisible red thread. Who is at the end of your red thread?” After losing her infant daughter in a freak accident, Maya Lange opens The Red Thread , an adoption agency that specializes in placing baby girls from China with American families. Maya finds some comfort in her work, until a group of six couples share their personal stories of their desire for a child. Their painful and courageous journey toward adoption forces her to confront the lost daughter of her past. Brilliantly braiding together the stories of Chinese birth mothers who give up their daughters, Ann Hood writes a moving and beautifully told novel of fate and the red thread that binds these characters’ lives. Heartrending and wise, The Red Thread is a stirring portrait of unforgettable love and yearning for a baby.

What we said...
We all generally liked the book. It was a good read and comforting how all was well in the end. But at the same time, a few book clubbers felt that it was all too tidy.

We discussed each character and how they came to terms with the stress of adopting and how it seemed to affect their lives. We also had discussions on experiences of people we know who have adopted.

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The book... Little Bee by Chris Cleave.
The Meeting date... September 9, 2011

This partial summary from Wikipedia is to refresh your memory:

Using alternating first-person perspectives, the novel tells the stories of Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, and Sarah O'Rourke (née Summers), a magazine editor from Surrey. After spending two years detained in a British immigration detention centre, Little Bee is illegally released after a fellow refugee performs sexual favours for a detention officer. She travels to the home of Sarah and her husband Andrew, whom she met two years previously on a beach in the Niger Delta. Sarah is initially unaware of Little Bee's presence, until Andrew, haunted by guilt of their shared past, commits suicide. Little Bee reveals herself to Sarah on the day of Andrew's funeral, and helps her to care for her four-year-old son Charlie.

What we said...
Well, we talked about how stupid it was to have gone to the dangerous beach in Africa in the first place, and how stupid it was to go back especially with a four year old, how cute Charlie seemed to be as batman, how lame Andrew was not to have sacrificed his finger, and what kind of mother Sarah was or wasn't. None of us really liked Lawrence and wondered why Sarah hung on to him.

We all thought the book was very well written. It was a fast read and as you read, the plot always turned in unexpected ways. The author was able to pull you along and keep you wishing to find out what happens next.

The bonfire was great as usual...

This is what the I saw out the viewfinder so....

I apologize to Ann Marie, I couldn't see that you were cut out of the photos on the far right edge..

This is all of us (that came) minus Ann Marie (sorry!) and myself

We started thinking about what we could each be renamed as - as Little Bee described how her sister and she came to be renamed. But we never came to any conclusive results ... unless that happened after I left.

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Little Bee by Chris Cleave (9/2011-PC)  The meeting

Summary

Using alternating first-person perspectives, the novel tells the stories of Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, and Sarah O'Rourke (née Summers), a magazine editor from Surrey. After spending two years detained in a British immigration detention centre, Little Bee is illegally released after a fellow refugee performs sexual favours for a detention officer. She travels to the home of Sarah and her husband Andrew, whom she met two years previously on a beach in the Niger Delta. Sarah is initially unaware of Little Bee's presence, until Andrew, haunted by guilt of their shared past, commits suicide. Little Bee reveals herself to Sarah on the day of Andrew's funeral, and helps her to care for her four-year-old son Charlie.

Through a mutual reflection on their past, it is revealed that Sarah and Andrew were on holiday at the time of their meeting with Little Bee. The trip was an attempt to salvage their marriage after Andrew discovered Sarah had been unfaithful to him, embarking on an affair with Home Office employee Lawrence Osborn. While walking on the beach one morning, they were approached by a then 14-year-old Little Bee, and her older sister Nkiruka. The girls were being pursued by soldiers who had burned down their village and intended for there to be no witnesses left alive. The soldiers arrived and murdered a guard from the O'Rourkes' hotel, but offered to spare the lives of the girls if Andrew would amputate his own middle finger with a machete. Afraid, and believing the soldiers would murder the girls anyway, Andrew refused, but Sarah complied in his place. The soldiers took both girls away, leaving the couple in doubt as to whether the soldiers would leave one girl alive in response, as they promised.

Little Bee explains that although Nkiruka was gang raped, murdered, and cannibalised by the soldiers, she was allowed to escape, and stowed away in the cargo hold of a ship bound for England. Sarah allows Little Bee to stay with her, intent on helping her become a legal British citizen. Lawrence, who is still involved with Sarah, disapproves of her actions and contemplates turning Little Bee in to the police. When he informs Little Bee that he is considering this, she responds that allowing her to stay would be what is best for Sarah, so if Lawrence turns her in, Little Bee will get revenge by telling his wife Linda about his affair. The two reach an uneasy truce. After spending several days together, Sarah, Lawrence, Little Bee and Charlie take a trip to the park. Charlie goes missing, and Little Bee calls the police while Sarah searches for him. Although he is quickly found, the police become suspicious of Little Bee, and discover that she is in the country illegally.

Little Bee is detained and quickly deported back to Nigeria, where she believes she will be killed. Lawrence uses his Home Office connections to track Little Bee's deportation details, and Sarah and Charlie are able to accompany her back home. Sarah believes that Little Bee will be safe as long as she is present, and together they begin collecting stories for a book Andrew had begun, and which Sarah intends to finish on his behalf, about the atrocities committed in the Nigerian oil conflict. During a trip to the same beach where they first encountered one another, soldiers arrive to take Little Bee away. Despite being captured, Little Bee is not dispirited, and instead is ultimately hopeful at the sight of Charlie playing happily with a group of Nigerian children.

from Wikipedia

The Red Thread by Ann Hood(10/2011-KH) The Meeting

Summary

In 2005, three years after our five year old daughter Grace died suddenly from a virulent form of strep, my husband Lorne, our eleven year old son Sam and I found ourselves on a plane heading to China to adopt a baby girl. Our journey into adoption came from a belief that even in such heartbreak and despair, we could love again. As soon as they placed eleven month old Annabelle in my arms, I knew that our hope of rebuilding our family again was indeed possible.

During the adoption process-the orientation, the miles of paperwork, the home visits, the long waits at the INS, and then the even longer wait for our referral from China-we met many other families and heard their own stories about what led them to fly halfway around the world to bring home a baby. Like ours, their stories were all unique, filled with disappointment and promise, despair and hope.

But just as compelling were the stories we heard about the mothers in China who, due to the one child policy there, were forced to abandon their baby girls. Annabelle was found early on a September morning in a box at the orphanage door in the city of Loudi in the province of Hunan. We will never know the story of who left here there, or under what circumstances. Usually, the babies are left right after birth, often with the umbilical cord stump still attached. Annabelle was slightly older, around five months. It is possible that her story is slightly different. Perhaps her mother died. Perhaps her family tried to hide her-a second daughter?-and was discovered. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

As a writer and as her mom, Annabelle's secret history fascinated me. When I began to write a new novel, I wanted to capture the emotional journey of couples embarking on adoption. But I also wanted to explore the brave women who abandon their children in the hope of giving them a better life.

THE RED THREAD is the story of six couples adopting babies from China. It is also the story of Maya, who runs the adoption agency after losing her baby daughter. And it is the story of six women in China who are forced to give up a baby girl they love. The Chinese legend of the red thread is that our children are connected to us by an invisible red thread. No matter how tangled or frayed it becomes, our child is waiting for us at the other end. Who is at the end of your red thread? Maya asks each couple. In THE RED THREAD, I imagine that magical enduring connection.

from AnnHood.us.com

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake(11/2011-JD) The Meeting

Summary

What would happen if a postmistress chose not to deliver the mail?

It is 1940. While the war is raging in Europe, President Roosevelt promises he won't send American boys over to fight.

Iris James is the postmistress of Franklin, Massachusetts a small town at the end of Cape Cod. She firmly believes her job is to deliver and keep people's secrets, to pass along the news of love and sorrow that letters carry. Faithfully she stamps and sends the letters between people such as the newlyweds Emma and Will Fitch, who has gone to London to help out during the Blitz. But one day she slips a letter into her pocket, and leaves it there.

Meanwhile, seemingly fearless radio gal, Frankie Bard is reporting the Blitz from London, her dispatches crinkling across the Atlantic, imploring listeners to pay attention. Then in the last desperate days of the summer of 1941, she rides the trains out of Germany, reporting on what is happening to the refugees there.

Alternating between an America on the eve of entering into World War II, still safe and snug in its inability to grasp the danger at hand, an a Europe being torn apart by war, the two stories collide in a letter, bringing the war finally home to Franklin. sarahblakebooks.com

The Good Wife Strikes Back by Elizabeth Buchan(01/2012-MB) The Meeting

Summary

A battlefield or the deep peace of the double bed? A poignant and compulsive novel of the fascinating tangle of marriage... Fanny Savage has always been the dutiful wife. Married to Will, a politician with big ambitions, her life is a whirlwind of public engagements. Bound by loyalty to the party, she is required to look good and remain silent. But Fanny is no fool. She's well aware that the world outside her privileged home is one that seethes with despair, danger, division and lack of faith. she knows how fragile happiness can be. After twenty years of marriage and self-sacrifice, she begins to question her own concepts of fulfilment. elizabethbuchan.com

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks(02/2012-LAB) The Meeting

Summary

Inspired by the true story of a mysterious codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, People of the Book is a sweeping adventure through five centuries of history. From its creation in Muslim-ruled, medieval Spain, the illuminated manuscript makes a series of perilous journeys: through Inquisition-era Venice, fin-de-siecle Vienna, and the Nazi sacking of Sarajevo.
In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed manuscript, which has been rescued once again from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with figurative paintings. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she becomes determined to unlock the book’s mysteries. As she seeks the counsel of scientists and specialists, the reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its creation to its salvation.

In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of Vienna in 1894, the book becomes a pawn in an emerging contest between the city’s cultured cosmopolitanism and its rising anti-Semitism. In Venice in 1609, a Catholic priest saves it from Inquisition book burnings. In Tarragona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text has his family destroyed amid the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed.
geraldinebrooks.com

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (04/2012-AMS) The Meeting

Summary

Sarah's Key (French: Elle s'appelait Sarah) is a novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, first published in September 2006. Two main parallel plots are followed through the book. The first is that of ten-year-old Sarah Starzynski, a Jewish girl born in Paris, who is arrested with her parents during the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup. Before they go, she locks her four-year-old brother in a cupboard, thinking the family should be back in a few hours. The second plot follows Julia Jarmond, an American journalist living in Paris, who is asked to write an article in honour of the 60th anniversary of the roundup.

July 1942

The first plot follows the Starzynski family. On 16 July 1942, French police raided the Starzynski house, arresting ten-year-old Sarah and her parents. Her four-year-old brother, who remains unnamed until towards the end of the novel, is too scared to come and asks Sarah to lock him in a secret closet in the wall in their room. They are taken to Velodrome d'Hiver and kept there for two days. They are transported to Drancy internment camp afterwards. Sarah is separated from her parents and they are killed. When the SS starts taking children to the gas chambers, Sarah and a girl named Rachel escape. Sarah desperately wants to go back to Paris because she wants to save her brother. They find refuge with an elderly couple who takes them into their house, but Rachel falls ill with what is probably diphteria or typhus fever. The couple, Jules and Geneviève Dufaure, are compelled to call a Nazi doctor, who takes Rachel away and she presumably dies. Jules and Geneviève cut Sarah's hair, dress her in boys' clothes and help her get to her former home in Paris. She had been keeping the key to the closet in her pocket the whole time. She knocks at the door, screaming her brother's name, which is revealed to be Michel. A young boy opens the door and Sarah rushes into the house, nearly kicking the door to her former room and quickly opens the closet. She collapses and starts to cry hysterically. The boy's father comes into the room and removes Michel, who had died by then, from the closet.

May 2002

The second plot follows Julia Jarmond. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts but moved to Paris in her early 20s and married a Frenchman named Bertrand Tezac and had a daughter, Zoë. Sometime prior to the action of the book, Bertrand had cheated on Julia with a woman named Amélie after Julia had suffered a miscarriage. The apartment they are thinking of buying happens to have belonged to the Starzynski family, but neither Julia, nor Bertrand are aware of this. But when Julia finds out and tells Bertrand, he does not seem to care. Julia's boss, Joshua, asks her to write an article about the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, as the 60th anniversary was nearing. Julia tries to find out more about the roundup and becomes obsessed with the story of young Sarah Starzynski, who was recorded to have been taken to Drancy, but was not recorded to return, nor taken to a gas chamber. She does more research and finds out she ran away, but she loses her trace after that. She does a little more research and comes in touch with descendants of Jules and Geneviève and they tell her that Sarah lived with them after she found Michel's body, but she grew up a broken woman. Julia finds out she is pregnant, but Bertrand want her to get an abortion. He tells Julia to get an abortion, or he will leave her. She then decides she will choose the baby over Bertrand. She finds Sarah got married and had a son, whom Julia wants to meet. He is very reluctant to learn his mother's story and storms out when Julia starts asking questions. Julia continues to do research on Sarah. She soon finds out that Sarah was killed in a car accident when William was young.

The book ends with a prologue that tells us Julia left Bertrand and moved to [New York City] with Zoë and the baby. She meets up with William, who now wants to find out more about Sarah. When he asks Julia what the baby's name is, she replies 'Sarah'..
from wikipedia.org

The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain (06/2012-SF) The Meeting

Summary

Dear Anna, What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I’m so sorry. . . The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind their close friend Noelle’s suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle-her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her friends and family-described a woman who embraced life. Yet there was so much they didn’t know. With the discovery of the letter and its heartbreaking secret, Noelle’s friends begin to uncover the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives–and the life of a desperate stranger–with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit. Told with sensitivity and insight, The Midwife’s Confession will have you turning pages late into the night. From the bestselling author of The Lies We Told and The Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkescomes a story of deception that asks: How much is too much to forgive?
from dianechamberlain.com

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