Lite Lit Book Club
Lite Lit Contemporary Literature Discussion Group
2008
Monday, February 11 - 7 pm
No, I Don't Want To Join A Book Club: Diary Of A 60th Year
by Virginia Ironside
Marie Sharp is about to turn 60, and unlike many of her peers, she has no interest in taking up paragliding or living for three months with a Masai tribe in Africa. She's intent on accepting this new phase of her life, which brings with it the freedom to do old things, such as getting a pension and free prescriptions and, as her neighbor helpfully points out, "tekkin' it eezee, man." Marie, in fact, has such an easygoing attitude toward aging that her friends are constantly inviting her out to dinner and on vacation.
Monday, March 10 - 7 pm
Digging To America
by Anne Tyler
Two families arrive at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport in August 1997 to claim the Korean infants they have adopted. Strangers until that evening, they are destined to begin a friendship that will span their adoptive daughters' childhoods.
Monday, April 14 - 7 pm
Whitethorn Woods
by Maeve Binchy
A proposed highway near the Irish town of Rossmore will mean the destruction of St. Ann's Well, a shrine in Whitethorn Woods thought to deliver healing, husbands and other miracles. The shrine resides in the parish of Fr. Brian Flynn, curate of St. Augustine's. As a fracas erupts between shrine skeptics who want the highway and shrine believers who want the shrine preserved, Flynn, unsure of where he stands on the issue and questioning his place in an increasingly secular Ireland, goes to the shrine and prays that he might "hear the voices that have come to you and know who these people are."
Monday, May 12 - 7 pm
Year Of Wonders
by Geraldine Brooks
Year of Wonders describes the 17th-century plague that is carried from London to a small Derbyshire village by an itinerant tailor. As villagers begin, one by one, to die, the rest face a choice: do they flee their village in hope of outrunning the plague or do they stay? The lord of the manor and his family pack up and leave. The rector, Michael Mompellion, argues forcefully that the villagers should stay put, isolate themselves from neighboring towns and villages, and prevent the contagion from spreading. His oratory wins the day and the village turns in on itself. Cocooned from the outside world and ravaged by the disease, its inhabitants struggle to retain their humanity in the face of the disaster.
Monday, June 9 - 7 pm
Cinderella Pact
by Sarah Strohmeyer
With her double chin and double-XL wardrobe, it's doubly appropriate that Nola Devlin leads a double life. In reality, she's the overworked, underappreciated editor of Sass! a sleazy celebrity tabloid whose most popular columnist is sexy, slender, saucy Belinda Apple, Nola's alter ego. Nola, however, soon finds she's too clever for her own good when one of Belinda's columns on weight loss inspires her two equally overweight best friends to coerce her into following this diet-to-end-all-diets, a "Cinderella Pact" they hope will transform their lives into a Belinda-like orgy of physical, romantic, and career success.
Monday, July 14 - 7 pm
The Master Butchers Singing Club
by Louise Erdrich
Woven with intrigue, romance, death, sex and humor, it's an emotionally complex tale of European immigrants who have settled in the fictional town Argus, N.Dak. Bordering on magical realism, this marvelous yarn introduces a world of rich, expansive imagery and an abundance of memorably compelling characters. There's Delphine, who acts as a human table for her lover, Cyprian, an Ojibwa balancing artist. Delphine cares for her father, Roy, an alcoholic accused of neglectfully murdering an entire family. And then there's Fidelis, a former sniper for the German army who is now the singing butcher of the title.
Monday, August 11 - 7 pm
Joy School
by Elizabeth Berg
A 13-year-old girl falls in love with a 21-year-old garage mechanic who saves
her life. From this unrequited love and other sorrows, she learns about the joys
of life.
Monday, September 8 - 7 pm
The Brambles
by Eliza Minot
A novel about the meaning of adulthood and the depth of family attachment follows the three siblings of the titular clan as they face the consequences of their life choices There is also the matter of a long-held family secret, revealed, of course, when they least expect it.
Monday, October 13 - 7 pm
Lucky You
by Carl Hiaasen
JoLayne Lucks has one of two winning lottery tickets each worth a cool $14 million. She plans to spend it rescuing a local plot of swampland from a strip mall developer. The holders of the other winning ticket, however, are Bode Gazzer and his sidekick, Chubb, who want the whole $28 million. They steal JoLayne's ticket, but before they can cash it she mounts a hot pursuit with the help of local journalist Tom Krome.
Monday, November 10 - 7 pm
Plum Wine
by Angela Davis-Gardner
As this enthralling novel opens, Barbara Jefferson, teaching English in Japan in 1966, receives a bequest from her Japanese fellow teacher and mentor, Michiko Nakamoto, a Hiroshima survivor who has just died of cancer. Barbara's superiors arrive at her apartment bearing Michi-San's gorgeous tansu chest, filled with bottles of homemade plum wine dated by year. After a short, perfectly rendered struggle with the elder Japanese teachers over the possession of the wine, Barbara discovers that the rice paper wrappings of each bottle contain a portion of the story of Michiko's life.
Monday, December 8 - 7 pm
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
by Christopher Moore
In Pine Grove, California, the residents are preparing for Christmas, particularly for a Lonesome Christmas held in the chapel for those who would rather not be at home on Christmas Eve. But when little Josh sees Santa get whacked with a shovel, and a stranger with incandescent blonde hair shows up asking for children, things start to go awry.