The Girls

Our next book club selection is The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

We are hoping to have the next meeting mid January. Either 1/17 or 1/24, please let us know which date is best for you. This will be a Chicago themed meeting...hotdogs, deep dish pizza, beer, etc.

Hopefully you will all be able to join! Keep in mind, it's great if you read the book, but if you would like to come for the company and food-please do!

The Devil in the White City:

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.

The Help

November 8th:


We all had a wonderful time at Tracey's home in Andover!

It seems that everyone enjoyed The Help and we had a wonderful meal in honor of the book. Mint Julep Martinis, Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Biscuits and Ham, Butter Beans, Caramel Cake and a fabulous Pecker Pie-you'll need to read the book to know what that is in reference to!

The NWH Book Club is pleased to announce the newest selection:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town...

We hope many of you can attend, please see your NWH MOX for location (I believe Tracey's house) and date (beginning of November).

** Please keep in mind, we want anyone/everyone to attend and enjoy good company, food, wine. If you don't have an opportunity to read the book or can only manage the first 100 pages, please come anyway!

We look forward to seeing everyone!

Just Because.....

Moloka'i

Hello All! The NWH Book Club met on 5/31 at Beth's House to discuss Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. We all enjoyed the book, despite it's sad subject. We had a wonderful night full of good discussion, good food (see below), FABULOUS Maitai's (Thanks Kevin!) and good company!!

Our next Book Club will be (tentatively) held 10/4-10/5 on the Cape (Thanks Mary!). Since we have the entire summer and part of fall, we have chosen two books for the next meeting.

First we have chosen Larry's Kidney by Daniel Asa Rose.

The quest of two star-crossed cousins to rejuvenate Larry's failing body and ever-romantic heart,while avoiding getting tossed into a Chinese slammer. An unforgettable adventure filled with Red Guards who waltz at midnight and former enemies who prove more true than family, Larry's Kidney is the funniest yet most heartwarming book of the year.

Second we have chosen Every Last Cockoo by Kate Maloy.

Sarah Lucas imagined the rest of her days would be spent living peacefully in her rural Vermont home in the steadfast company of her husband. But now, with Charles's sudden passing, seventy-five-year-old Sarah is left inconsolably alone. As grief settles in, Sarah's mind lingers on her past: her imperfect but devoted fifty-year marriage to Charles; the years they spent raising their three very different children; and her childhood during the Great Depression, when her parents opened their home to countless relatives and neighbors. So, when a variety of wayward souls come seeking shelter in Sarah's own big, empty home, her past comes full circle. As this unruly flock forms a family of sorts, they—with Sarah—nurture and protect one another, all the while discovering their unsuspected strengths and courage.

We also plan on having a viewing of the FABULOUS ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY.... GREY GARDENS!! Here is a clip to wet your whistle: Grey Gardens

Here are some pictures from this months

Book Club Meeting:

Julie & Julia

Soon there will be a movie based on Julie & Julia: My year of cooking Dangerously!

Here is a trailer clip: Julie & Julia : Amy Adams and Meryl Streep.

I bought the book today, will gladly pass it around when I'm done! Ali

Book Suggestion

Hey,just watched the movie Reds with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton. It's based on a book by John Reed about the time he spent in Russia during the revolution. Might be informative.
Ten Days that Shook the World

Book Donations

Hello Everyone!

The Braintree Thayer Public Library will be having it's annual book sale in May. My family is very involved with the library, all us being "Friends of the Library" and donating our time. My mother is one of the organizers of the book sale. If you have any gently used books, dvd's, video's you don't want, please bring them into work and I will bring them to the sale.

Thank You! Ali

http://www.thayerpubliclibrary.org/friends.html

Hi everyone - I've requested the latest book from my library and will give it a go at reading. Of course, I have done this with 2 of the past books on the list and have not gotten past the first chapter, so no promises will I make. I heard about another book at church this weekend called Amish Grace and it intrigues me, so I have also requested that from the library. If I make it through the book by some miracle, I'll let the group know what I thought, in case anyone else wants to read it. Looking forward to keeping up with the blog! - Jean

Cataloging our Books

http://books.livingsocial.com/people/1709811162

Hello All!

I am attempting to create a page for us to catalog our books....this is proving to be a little difficult. I use living social on Facebook. So, I created another account for Waiting For Transport. Hopefully, I will be able to permently link the URL.... Until then, please click on the link above to see the site.

Thanks!

thanks

Hi all--just want to say I love having this blog. I hope we(meaningAli) can figure out how to have a list of books we read and a list of future candidates. As with so many other things in life,I hear a recommendation or remember a book i"ve wanted to read and because I don't have a good way to keep these little tid-bits,they go by the wayside.The pad of paper beside the computer is only good for so long and then my joy of purging overpowers my joy of lists. If it was on the blogsite it could stay forever. Also would like to suggest for the group the idea of reading a classic.At least once a year. I've heard a classic defined as"a book everyone quotes,but no one's read" I'm guilty of this for sure,and would like to get one read. Any ideas? Can't think of one right now,of course except War and Peace--and that doesn't sound appealing. Maybe a greek tragedy or James Joyce...Anyway, all for now. Monica

Attention Book Club Members

We have Barnes and Noble Coupons for 30% off our current selection: Moloka'i. Several coupons have been printed out and are available at work. Coupon expires March 23,2009. If you would like a coupon emailed to you, contact Alison.

Support Local Libraries:

Westwood Public Library Annual Book Sale

Friday, Mar 20 10:00a /Sat. Mar 21 10:00a

Westwood Public Library, Westwood, MA

Westwood Public Library Annual Book Sale. This annual sale of adult and children books, CDs, DVDs, and audiotapes helps support the many programs offered at both the Main and Branch Libraries. Sponsored by the Friends of the Westwood Public Library.
Price: Free to the public
Phone: (781) 326-7562
Westwood Public Library Annual Book Sale.

Apologize, Apologize! Future book club selection?

Elizabeth Kelly’s début, Apologize, Apologize!, is jarringly lovable, alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, and, afterward, challenging to talk about: a perfect book club book.



The story is told in the first person by Collie Flanagan, the "good boy" in a family of ne’er-do-much weirdos living on Martha’s Vineyard in the dilapidated luxury they can easily afford thanks to Boston grandfather Peregrine Lowell, aka the Falcon.Collie – his mother named him after a dog in an Albert Payson Terhune book ("at Andover they called me Lassie") — is a year older than his flamboyant brother Bing (named for an Irish setter). "It could have been worse; she could have called us Sacco and Vanzetti.""Why can’t you just do what you’re supposed to do?" Collie rails when Bing is kicked out of yet another New England prep school. Back home, Mom is a do-gooder who does little good; Dad is a pontificating drunk; bachelor Uncle Tom races pigeons; while wall-to-wall dogs snore in every room of the house. It ain’t easy to be normal.Many bildungsromans feature an eccentric, "difficult" hero trying to navigate the calm waters of a "normal" family (or world).



This novel turns that scenario upside down: "normal" Collie seeks a path to conventional success, all the while secretly wishing he had a little of the magic Bing possesses. "There was no magic in me." The novel bumps along from set piece to set piece as family antics erupt … until a horrific accident takes place, tearing Collie’s world apart. The narrative then finds its heart in Collie’s quest for a ManPlan — and, perhaps, for redemption. His quest takes him far and wide — to South America, to Ireland, to a new (and potentially dangerous) career. "Does anyone," he asks, "ever make a sensible decision?" Do the stories we present to the world ever correspond to the stories we tell ourselves?Funny, sometimes shocking, this astonishingly readable and memorable first novel contains disasters great and small, poignant introspection, the antics of dogs and pigeons and the fierce and tender bonds of love.



Elizabeth Kelly is an author to watch. And, once again, it’s a perfect book for a book club. May the fur fly!

Review By Ann La Farge

The NWH PACU book club is pleased to announce Moloka'i as the new selection. We will meet May 31st at 6pm.

Molaka'i:

This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning. With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that "few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel's story".