"Where the Heart Is" by Billie Letts

March 2011, Hosted by: Beth Kuhn

"Readers immersed in the offbeat world of Letts's lively, affecting first novel will forgive its occasional forced quirkiness. For 17-year-old Novalee Nation, seven months pregnant, the phrase "home is where your history begins" has a special meaning. Leaving behind a trail of foster homes in Tennessee trailer parks to live in a real house with her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens, Novalee instead finds herself abandoned in front of a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Okla. With nowhere to turn, she cleverly conceals herself within the store, keeping careful accounts until giving birth to the "Wal-Mart baby" turns her into a local celebrity. Happily, the community reaches out to Novalee and baby Americus. Sequoyah's one-woman welcoming committee, Sister Husband, takes them in; cultured librarian Forney Hull takes a shine to them; photographer Moses Whitecotton encourages Novalee's raw talent for photography by teaching her all he knows; Lexie Coop, who has a huge appetite for food, diet fads and the wrong men, befriends her; and legendary Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton gives her a job. Meanwhile, Willy Jack, an aspiring musician, gets a shot at the big time before hitting bottom and realizing what he's left behind. Letts's wacky characters are depicted with humor and hope, as well as an earnestness that rises above the story's uneven conceits, resulting in a heartfelt and gratifying read." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes: 

• Reason chosen: Recommended by mother who reads a lot.
• well received by all  who attended the meeting.  Many people said it was a enjoyable, fast read, with interesting characters and a good ending.
• Everyone had their own thoughts about Willy Jack Pickens and felt that Novalee was able to make peace with their relationship. 
• Novalee was seemed to meet all the right people at just the right time, when she needed them most.
• Overall, the book was page-turner and gives you a new view on how so many different  people can be your "family".

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte

February 2011, Hosted by: Isabel Jefferson

"Wuthering Heights, first published in 1847, the year before the author's death at the age of thirty, endures today as perhaps the most powerful and intensely original novel in the English language. The epic story of Catherine and Heathcliff plays out against the dramatic backdrop of the wild English moors, and presents an astonishing metaphysical vision of fate and obsession, passion and revenge. "Only Emily Brontë," V. S. Pritchett said, "exposes her imagination to the dark spirit." And Virginia Woolf wrote, "Hers...is the rarest of all powers. She could free life from its dependence on facts...by speaking of the moor make the wind blow and the thunder roar." "

Hostess Notes:

"Hello everyone,

For all of you who came to my home and shared your comments about the book, thank you for sharing!

Comments about the book ranged from the age of the author, the moors, unsympathetic characters, to the narrators. Wuthering Heights is an interesting and thought provocative book.

In order to better understand it, I decided to put myself in the author’s place and started to see some of what she might have been trying to tell us.

At the time that Emily Brontë wrote the novel, women did not have many rights.  Women could not directly inherit their family fortune (if they had one).  Man, mostly white man, controlled the world in which Emily Brontë lived.

England was in political turmoil.  The middle class was sandwiched between the very poor, lowly paid or unpaid factory workers – black with soot; and the very rich.  Women basically, were property of their husbands.

Wuthering Heights had two main narrators: A white female servant and a white privileged man who thought of himself as a “mannered, educated” man.

There were no sympathetic characters in Wuthering Heights.  It depicted a raw, dramatic and conflicted world.

If Emily Brontë saw herself as the oppressed, she would probably be Heathcliff.  Angered with her circumstances, not being able to strike back, she did it so through the only means available to her - her plume.  And she used a pseudonym to publish her work – poetic justice? Maybe.

Wuthering Heights is an intense read, perhaps because it reminds us that the world is a harsh place.  It also points to us that love is maybe the only thing that surpasses the realms of a harsh reality.   The fact that only in death could Heathcliff and Catherine be together, is in itself a clue of the very restrictive environment the author was in at the time she wrote this novel."

"Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

January 2011, Hosted by: Diane DeSalvo-Knutson

"In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives. Collins's characters are completely realistic and sympathetic as they form alliances and friendships in the face of overwhelming odds; the plot is tense, dramatic, and engrossing. This book will definitely resonate with the generation raised on reality shows like 'Survivor' and 'American Gladiator.' " (School Library Journal)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason chosen: "Recommended by another member of book club, as it's very popular."
• Enjoyed by all.
• Very intense.
• Made a lot of comparisons to reality TV.

"Half Broke Horses" by Jeannette Walls

November 2010, Hosted by: Julie Sass

"Originally conceived as a biography based on family interviews and historical research, Walls found herself filling in too many blanks for Half Broke Horses to remain a work of nonfiction, so she assumed Smith's indomitable voice and set out to write a novelistic recreation of Smith's unconventional life. Most critics were captivated by Smith's earthy, straightforward style, despite the steady stream of repetitive axioms intermingled with her antics. Only the Washington Post seemed thoroughly disappointed, lamenting that "this book is no Glass Castle." Though Smith, "a gumption-packin' ranch gal whose pluck never quits" (New York Times), may not rise to the intensity of Walls's troubled, nomadic parents, Half Broke Horses nevertheless tells the heartwarming story of an irrepressible woman who carved her own destiny." (Bookmarks Magazine)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason chosen: "I read [Wall's first memoir] The Glass Castle and liked it."
• Beth and Kim liked that it was written in the first person. "It was like reading Lilly's diary."
• Women back then didn't talk about their emotions.
• "Lilly got slapped by reality many times," said Kim.
• Jim and Lilly worked well together.
• The Glass Castle is a true story about the author and her mother, Rosemary, daughter of Lilly and Jim.

"The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton

October 2010, Hosted by: Lana Goepfert

"Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden takes root in your imagination and grows into something enchanting--from a little girl with no memories left alone on a ship to Australia, to a fog-soaked London river bend where orphans comfort themselves with stories of Jack the Ripper, to a Cornish sea heaving against wind-whipped cliffs, crowned by an airless manor house where an overgrown hedge maze ends in the walled garden of a cottage left to rot. This hidden bit of earth revives barren hearts, while the mysterious Authoress's fairy tales (every bit as magical and sinister as Grimm's) whisper truths and ignite the imaginary lives of children. As Morton draws you through a thicket of secrets that spans generations, her story could cross into fairy tale territory if her characters weren't clothed in such complex flesh, their judgment blurred by the heady stench of emotions (envy, lust, pride, love) that furtively flourished in the glasshouse of Edwardian society. While most ache for a spotless mind's eternal sunshine, the Authoress meets the past as "a cruel mistress with whom we must all learn to dance," and her stories gift children with this vital muscle memory." (Amazon.com Review)

Hostess Notes: 

• Reason chosen: "I read this book this past summer and enjoyed it"
• Lively dialogue; great interest in the book.
• Angela felt the fairy tales that Eliza wrote were incorporated into this story. The Golden Egg (page 458) paralleled Eliza's life.
• Was this a romantic story? Julie said an emphatic "Yes! It was very romantic."
• Sarah G. expressed that Cassandra's aunts were "warm and buttery".

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

September 2010, Hosted by: Sarah Gonnering

"Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European bestseller by muckraking Swedish journalist Larsson. At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden's dirty not-so-little secrets (as suggested by its original title, Men Who Hate Women), this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman. Larsson died in 2004, shortly after handing in the manuscripts for what will be his legacy." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason chosen: "I chose this book because of it's popularity - best selling trilogy and Swedish movies - soon to be American movies starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara."
• The first 100 pages weren't easy to get into, but then it was a quick read. Very exciting!

"Invitation to Valhalla" by Mike Whicker

June 2010, Hosted by: Vicki Mueller

"Erika Lehmann. She is the Nazis' top spy. Code-named Lorelei, she is the English speaking daughter of Hitler's old comrade and a member of the Führer's inner circle. She is beautiful, athletic, and clever-the epitome of Aryan womanhood-and she'll stop at nothing to accomplish her mission. Charlie Pulaski. A down-and-out FBI agent from Chicago on his last legs, Pulaski is sent on what he is sure is a pointless wild goose chase when a garbled shortwave transmission coming from southern Indiana is accidentally intercepted by an amateur HAM radio operator. Axel Ryker. The Gestapo's top henchman. Ryker is Heinrich Himmler's top problem solver, i.e. murderer. As ruthless as he is cunning, Ryker is sent to America with a startling mission-find and kill their own spy, Erika Lehmann. The year is 1942. In Evansville, Indiana, a Jewish metallurgist named Joseph Mayer is conducting top secret experiments for the U.S. Navy. Life could not be better for Joe Mayer: he loves his job, he is contributing greatly to the war effort, and he just began dating a fascinating young woman."

Hostess Notes:

• Reason chosen: "I chose this book because my sister had recommended it from her book club."
• Captivating!

"The Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs

March 2010, Hosted by: Marcia Brabender

"Between running her Manhattan yarn shop, Walker & Daughter, and raising her 12-year-old biracial daughter, Dakota, Georgia Walker has plenty on her plate in Jacobs's debut novel. But when Dakota's father reappears and a former friend contacts Georgia, Georgia's orderly existence begins to unravel. Her support system is her staff and the knitting club that meets at her store every Friday night, though each person has dramas of her own brewing. Jacobs surveys the knitters' histories, and the novel's pace crawls as the novel lurches between past and present, the latter largely occupied by munching on baked goods, sipping coffee and watching the knitters size each other up. Club members' troubles don't intersect so much as build on common themes of domestic woes and betrayal. It takes a while, but when Jacobs, who worked at Redbook and Working Woman, hits her storytelling stride, poignant twists propel the plot and help the pacing find a pleasant rhythm." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason chosen: "I chose this book for something light."
• "An absolutely beautiful, deeply moving portrait of female friendship. You'll laugh and cry along with the characters, and if you're like me, you'll wish you knew how to knit."

"The 13th Hour" by Richard Doetsch

February 2010, Hosted by: Jen Simon

"At the start of Doetsch's tricky thriller, an innocent man, Nicholas Quinn, is in police custody, suspected of murdering his wife, Julia, at their house in upscale Byram Hills, N.Y. Then a stranger gives Nick a watchlike device that allows him to change the past by sending him back, one hour at a time, for half a day. When Nick goes back in time, he discovers single events are the result of a complex web of causes. Saving his wife means untangling a plot that includes a robbery committed by corrupt cops, a horrendous plane crash and a mysterious family secret. Julia's fate seems to be inevitable, one way or another, and Nick's tampering brings death to friends and allies along the way. At times Doetsch (The Thieves of Faith) oversells Nick's anguish with breathless prose, and no character emerges as more than a cardboard cutout, but readers will enjoy the clever razzle-dazzle of a story whose parts fit together like clockwork." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes:

• The jacket of the book didn't let on just how violent the book was going to be. It was a good read, despite it.

"You've Been Warned" by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

January 2008, Hosted by: Kelley Jilot

"The Patterson bestseller factory has turned out another high-drama thriller, this time in collaboration with Honeymoon coauthor Roughan. Kristin Burns, a New York City nanny and aspiring photographer, is devoted to the two children under her care, but her desire for their father, Michael Turnbull, leads her to a risky, torrid affair with him. Kristin's anxiety about her guilty secret is heightened by a series of frightening nightmares centering on a vision of four body bags being loaded onto gurneys in front of a prominent Manhattan hotel. Her nightmares also feature recurring encounters with dead people, including her father and the pediatrician who abused her as a child. Kristin's breathless, superficial narration doesn't generate a lot of reader sympathy or interest in figuring out the source of her macabre experiences." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes: 

• Reason chosen: "Was recommended by Wanda."
• Everyone seemed to like the book. Though it was confusing in some places, but the confusion made for good discussion.

"Landscape of Lies" by Peter Watson

November 2007, Hosted by: Jen Simon

"When someone tries to steal a medieval painting long owned by her family, Isobel Sadler turns for help to London art gallery owner Michael Whiting. She is amazed to learn that the picture, titled Landscape of Lies , is a "puzzle map" whose nine male figures each symbolize priceless silver relics that were squirreled away by monks when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Isobel and Michael--who, naturally, fall in love--set out to find the treasure, but an obsessed academic who will stop at nothing, not even murder, stays a few steps ahead of them. Watson, who proved himself a master of the art-world thriller in The Caravaggio Conspiracy , has turned out an amiable entertainment that is more a self-indulgent exercise than a suspense novel. The path to the silver is strewn with red herrings and arcane clues involving Botticelli, the Bible, horticulture, classical lore and medieval iconography." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason chosen: " A fun read!"
• "He was an evil dude!"
• Would be a good book to turn into a movie -- oh yes!
• He needed a cell phone.
• It would have been nice to have a map of England to track all of the travels.
• Appreciated it from an art history perspective. Some compared to "The DaVinci Code". Wondered if Dan Brown had read this book. Similarities.
• Fun learning "Britishisms" -- bloody, etc.

"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

October 2007, Hosted by Lana Goepfert

"With its spotlight on elephants, Gruen's romantic page-turner hinges on the human-animal bonds that drove her debut and its sequel (Riding Lessons and Flying Changes)—but without the mass appeal that horses hold. The novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, recounts the wild and wonderful period he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus he joined during the Great Depression. When 23-year-old Jankowski learns that his parents have been killed in a car crash, leaving him penniless, he drops out of Cornell veterinary school and parlays his expertise with animals into a job with the circus, where he cares for a menagerie of exotic creatures[...] He also falls in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers—a romance complicated by Marlena's husband, the unbalanced, sadistic circus boss who beats both his wife and the animals Jankowski cares for. Despite her often clichéd prose and the predictability of the story's ending, Gruen skillfully humanizes the midgets, drunks, rubes and freaks who populate her book." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason chosen: "Looked interesting and was the #1 New York Times best seller."
• Story of a veterinarian who joined a circus after falling on hard times. It takes place during the Great Depression.
• It was described as "gritty, sensual, and charged with dark secrets involving love, murder, and a majestic, mute heroine called Rosie."
• It was an interesting history of the circus world and the times in general during the depression. How people suffered, yet thrived.

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

September 2007, Hosted by: Jenny Kalina

"It's difficult to imagine a harder first act to follow than The Kite Runner: a debut novel by an unknown writer about a country many readers knew little about that has gone on to have over four million copies in print worldwide. But when preview copies of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, started circulating at Amazon.com, readers reacted with a unanimous enthusiasm that few of us could remember seeing before. As special as The Kite Runner was, those readers said, A Thousand Splendid Suns is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope." (Amazon.com Review)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason chosen: " It was in the top ten of the bestseller list. Another friend had read."

"Oh My Stars" by Lorna Landvik

May 2007, Hosted by: Jane Henze

"Violet Mathers doesn't know the meaning of the word discouraged, though there have been plenty of times when she has stared hardship in the face and nearly collapsed under its harsh return gaze. Physically and emotionally abandoned by her parents, Violet comes of age during the Depression, learning early on to fend for herself as an accomplished seamstress. When a violent factory accident takes part of one arm, her dreams of becoming a fashion designer die, as Violet wishes she could, too. Physically recovered but emotionally bereft, Violet hops a bus headed for San Francisco, planning to commit suicide once she reaches the Golden Gate Bridge. But when the bus breaks down outside a small North Dakota town, Violet encounters a handsome young musician who changes the course of her life, and vice versa. Violet is an endearing character, one of Landvik's most captivating to date, and she masterfully infuses joy and admiration in this inspirational feel-good trip through one daring young woman's exceptional life." (Booklist)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason chosen: "I read two others by her, Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons and Patty Jane's House of Curl. I also heard her speak at a bookstore and liked her style."

"A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey

January 2006, Hosted by: Debbie Martin

"Frey's high school and college years are a blur of alcohol and drugs, culminating in a full-fledged crack addiction at age 23. As the book begins, his fed-up friends have convinced an airline to let him on the plane and shipped him off to his parents, who promptly put him in Hazelden, the rehabilitation clinic with the greatest success rate, 20 percent. Frey doesn't shy away from the gory details of addiction and recovery; all of the bodily fluids make major appearances here. What really separates this title from other rehab memoirs, apart from the author's young age, is his literary prowess. He doesn't rely on traditional indentation, punctuation, or capitalization, which adds to the nearly poetic, impressionistic detail of parts of the story. Readers cannot help but feel his sickness, pain, and anger, which is evident through his language. Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Viking, 1962) seems an apt comparison for this work-Frey maintains his principles and does not respect authority at all if it doesn't follow his beliefs. And fellow addicts are as much, if not more, help to him than the clinicians who are trying to preach the 12 steps, which he does not intend to follow in his path to sobriety." (School Library Journal)

Hostess Notes: 

• Reason chosen: "Received good reviews; recommended by someone at the book store."
• People enjoyed the book, but were surprised (and a little grossed out) by went he went through physically.
• We were amazed he was able to go through the program and stay sober without using the steps. He had a strong will power to quit.
• People weren't too impressed with his style of writing. It was difficult at time to understand conversations.

"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult

November 2005, Hosted by: Kelley Jilot

"The difficult choices a family must make when a child is diagnosed with a serious disease are explored with pathos and understanding in this 11th novel by Picoult (Second Glance, etc.). The author, who has taken on such controversial subjects as euthanasia (Mercy), teen suicide (The Pact) and sterilization laws (Second Glance), turns her gaze on genetic planning, the prospect of creating babies for health purposes and the ethical and moral fallout that results. Kate Fitzgerald has a rare form of leukemia. Her sister, Anna, was conceived to provide a donor match for procedures that become increasingly invasive. At 13, Anna hires a lawyer so that she can sue her parents for the right to make her own decisions about how her body is used when a kidney transplant is planned. Meanwhile, Jesse, the neglected oldest child of the family, is out setting fires, which his firefighter father, Brian, inevitably puts out. Picoult uses multiple viewpoints to reveal each character's intentions and observations, but she doesn't manage her transitions as gracefully as usual; a series of flashbacks are abrupt. Nor is Sara, the children's mother, as well developed and three-dimensional as previous Picoult protagonists. Her devotion to Kate is understandable, but her complete lack of sympathy for Anna's predicament until the trial does not ring true, nor can we buy that Sara would dust off her law degree and represent herself in such a complicated case. Nevertheless, Picoult ably explores a complex subject with bravado and clarity, and comes up with a heart-wrenching, unexpected plot twist at the book's conclusion." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes: 

• Reason chosen: "Several people said it was a really good book."
• Everyone seemed to like the book.
• We all thought it was an interesting topic and agreed it would be hard to make a medical decision to benefit one child at the expense of the health of another child.
• We all liked her style of writing, too. Each chapter is a different character's perspective.

"Memiors of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden

October 2005, Hosted by: Jenny Kalina

""I wasn't born and raised to be a Kyoto geisha....I'm a fisherman's daughter from a little town called Yoroido on the Sea of Japan." How nine-year-old Chiyo, sold with her sister into slavery by their father after their mother's death, becomes Sayuri, the beautiful geisha accomplished in the art of entertaining men, is the focus of this fascinating first novel. Narrating her life story from her elegant suite in the Waldorf Astoria, Sayuri tells of her traumatic arrival at the Nitta okiya (a geisha house), where she endures harsh treatment from Granny and Mother, the greedy owners, and from Hatsumomo, the sadistically cruel head geisha. But Sayuri's chance meeting with the Chairman, who shows her kindness, makes her determined to become a geisha. Under the tutelage of the renowned Mameha, she becomes a leading geisha of the 1930s and 1940s. After the book's compelling first half, the second half is a bit flat and overlong. Still, Golden, with degrees in Japanese art and history, has brilliantly revealed the culture and traditions of an exotic world, closed to most Westerners." (Library Journal)

Hostess Notes: 

• Reason chosen: "Book's gotten positive feedback. Will be released as a movie in December 2005."
• Everyone enjoyed the book. We compared her lifestyle to what we know.
• We're interested in seeing how the movie will portray the characters.

"Tender at the Bone" by Ruth Reichl

September 2005, Hosted by: Marcia Park

"Reichl discovered early on that since she wasn't "pretty or funny or sexy," she could attract friends with food instead. But that initiative isn't likely to secure her an audience for her chaotic, self-satisfied memoirs, although her restaurant reviews in the New York Times are popular. Reichl's knack for describing food gives one a new appreciation for the pleasures of the table, as when she writes here: "There were eggplants the color of amethysts and plates of sliced salami and bresaola that looked like stacks of rose petals left to dry." But when she is recalling her life, she seems unable to judge what's interesting. Raised in Manhattan and Connecticut by a docile father who was a book designer and a mother who suffered from manic depression, Reichl enjoyed such middle-class perks as a Christmas in Paris when she was 13 and high school in Canada to learn French. But her mother was a blight, whom Reichl disdains to the discomfort of the reader who wonders if she exaggerates. The author studied at the University of Michigan, earned a graduate degree in art history, married a sculptor named Doug, lived in a loft in Manhattan's Bowery and then with friends bought a 17-room "cottage" in Berkeley, Calif., which turned into a commune so self-consciously offbeat that their Thanksgiving feast one year was prepared from throwaways found in a supermarket dumpster. Seasoning her memoir with recipes, Reichl takes us only through the 1970s, which seems like an arbitrary cutoff, and one hopes the years that followed were more engaging than the era recreated here." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason Chosen: "A friend recommended it.
• Mother's "strange" cooking habits can turn a child into a good cook.

"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

June 2005, Hosted by: Vicki Mueller


"Hosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recover the boy is just one of several brilliant, startling plot twists that make this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character studies alone would make this a noteworthy debut, from the portrait of the sensitive, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes:  

• Reason Chosen: "A friend's neighbor recommended reading it."
• Those who read it, liked it.
• The story focused on 2 families in Afghanistan.
• Only six members came. Decided not to have book club in the summer months; most are too busy. 

"The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant

May 2005, Hosted by: Stacy Lenz

"Skillfully interweaving biblical tales with events and characters of her own invention, Diamant's sweeping first novel re-creates the life of Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, from her birth and happy childhood in Mesopotamia through her years in Canaan and death in Egypt. When Dinah reaches puberty and enters the Red Tent (the place women visit to give birth or have their monthly periods), her mother and Jacob's three other wives initiate her into the religious and sexual practices of the tribe. Diamant sympathetically describes Dinah's doomed relationship with Shalem, son of a ruler of Shechem, and his brutal death at the hands of her brothers. Following the events in Canaan, a pregnant Dinah travels to Egypt, where she becomes a noted midwife. Diamant has written a thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating portrait of a fascinating woman and the life she might have lived." (Library Journal)

Hostess Notes:

• Reason Chosen: "Fictional story about females from the bible."
• Hard to get through the first few chapters - lots of unusual biblical names - good story after that.
• Interesting reading a fictional story with details woven in from the biblical stories.
• Making a connection with the various characters.

"My Antonia" by Willa Cather

April 2005, Hosted by: Lana Goepfert

"First published in 1918, and set in Nebraska in the late 19th century, this tale of the spirited daughter of a Bohemian immigrant family planning to farm on the untamed land comes to us through the romantic eyes of Jim Burden. He is, at the time of their meeting, newly orphaned and arriving at his grandparents' neighboring farm on the same night her family strikes out to make good in their new country. Jim chooses the opening words of his recollections deliberately: "I first heard of Antonia on what seemed to be an interminable journey across the great midland plain of North America," and it seems almost certain that readers of Cather's masterpiece will just as easily pinpoint the first time they heard of Antonia and her world. It seems equally certain that they, too, will remember that moment as one of great light in an otherwise unremarkable trip through the world." (Amazon)

Hostess Notes: 

• Reason Chosen: "Classic writer; written about first generation settlers in 1880's Nebraska."
• Interesting book.
• Talked about how we (women of today) relate to women of the past.
• Important that we don't lose site of one's heritage.
• Each generation becomes more "worldly".
• Is there a difference in today social environment than 125 years ago? "My social milieu in which, as noted by Doris Grumbach's 1988 forward to this novel, the Czechs, Swedes, and Norwegians were looked down upon for their poverty but were lonely for a culture which was, in many causes, richer than their American neighbors." Kathleen Norris

"Savannah Blues" by Mary Kay Andrew

March 2005, Hosted by: Wanda Sokolowski

"This delightfully breezy, richly atmospheric debut by a former journalist who covered Savannah's infamous Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil murder trials fails to generate much suspense, but it derives its charm from an encyclopedic trove of lore about antiquities and dishy gossip, Southern style. Divorced from blue-blood architect Talmadge Evans III, but still living in a carriage house in the backyard of their restored mansion, Eloise "Weezie" Foley suffers the indignity of having her ex's sexy fianc‚e, Caroline DeSantos, living in the main house Weezie restored herself. As a "picker," Weezie earns her living foraging for discarded treasures in Dumpsters and at estate sales. When she discovers Caroline's corpse in a historic manor house, Weezie is the prime suspect in her murder. To compound her quandary, Weezie's attorney her closeted Uncle James, an ex-Catholic priest is having an illicit affair with a man from the DA's office. Factor in her on-again, off-again romance with old high school flame Daniel Stipanek, counterfeit antiques and her mom's alcoholism, and the plucky heroine has enough problems to drive at least three novels. Unfortunately, the suspense gets lost somewhere among the antiques and Weezie's attempts to consummate her romance with Daniel. But even a denouement that comes way too soon and a junk bin of distractions won't keep readers away." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes: 

• Reason Chosen: "The cover looked fun!"
• Fun book.
• Loved short chapters.
• Thought Weezie was dowdy and older in the beginning… then found out she was a size 4 and looked great in sexy dresses. Loved the part where her dress unraveled at the dinner party.
• Aunts can steal a bra but your mother can not.
• Don't want to go to Savannah, sounds too hot and buggy.
• Learned a lot about antiques.

"Catering to Nobody" by Diane Mott Davidson

February 2005, Hosted by: Sarah Jung

"Catering in Aspen Meadows, Colo. Goldy, in business to support herself and her 11-year-old son, Arch, caters the gathering after the funeral of Arch's teacher, at which her former father-in-law, gynecologist Fritz Korman, drinks from a poisoned cup. While the police make sure that Goldy is now "catering to nobody," she begins her own investigation to clear herself. As amorous detective Tom Schulz courts her, Goldy courts danger, seeking connections among the recovered Fritz, the teacher and nearly everyone else in the rustic town, including her teenage lodger, Patty Sue. The only rewards of the mystery are recipes for tasty dishes and the endearing Arch, who outwits the killer and is the sole credible character in the overstuffed cast." (Publishers Weekly)

Hostess Notes: 

• Reason chosen: "My mother said this was a good, fun mystery."
• Dungeon Bars

"Flight Into Danger" by E K Barber

January 2005, Hosted by: Kelly Jilot

No photo / summary available.

Hostess Notes:

• Reason Chosen: "The author was Tom's professor at Edgewood College."
• Everyone liked the book.
• The main characters were "perfect". We decided there are no men out there like that.