It's Time to Vote!

Here are the choices for book club in March. Voting Closes on January 19th.

A Town Like Alice: ...tells the story of Jean Paget; as a prisoner of war in Malaya during World War II and then her return to Malaya after the war where she discovers something that leads her on the search for romance and to a small outback community in Australia where she sets out to turn it into 'a town like Alice'.

Angela's Ashes: Recounting scenes from his childhood in New York City and Limerick, Ireland, McCourt paints a brutal yet poignant picture of his early days when there was rarely enough food on the table, and boots and coats were a luxury. The author remembers his wayward yet adoring father who was forever drinking what little money the family had. He recounts the painful loss of his siblings to avoidable sickness and hunger, a proud mother reduced to begging for charity, and the stench of the sewage-strewn streets that ran outside the front door. As McCourt approaches adolescence, he discovers the shame of poverty and the beauty of Shakespeare, the mystery of sex and the unforgiving power of the Irish Catholic Church.

The Scarlett Letter: The novel is set in a village in Puritan New England. The main character is Hester Prynne, a young woman who has borne an illegitimate child. Hester believes herself a widow, but her husband, Roger Chillingworth, returns to New England very much alive and conceals his identity. He finds his wife forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress as punishment for her adultery. Chillingworth becomes obsessed with finding the identity of his wife's former lover. When he learns that the father of Hester's child is Arthur Dimmesdale, a saintly young minister who is the leader of those exhorting her to name the child's father, Chillingworth proceeds to torment the guilt-stricken young man.

The Ladies Auxiliary: When free-spirited Batsheva moves into the close-knit Orthodox community of Memphis, Tennessee, the already precarious relationship between the Ladies Auxiliary and their teenage daughters is shaken to the core. In this extraordinary novel, Tova Mirvis takes us into the fascinating and insular world of the Memphis Orthodox Jews, one ripe with tradition and contradiction. Warm and wise, enchanting and funny, The Ladies Auxiliary brilliantly illuminates the timeless struggle between mothers and daughters, family and self, religious freedom and personal revelation, honoring the past and facing the future.

Readers Choice March!

In March we're going to try our first ever Readers Choice! We'd like you to submit book ideas, then we'll choose four and have everyone vote for the one they want to read using our handy poll here on the right side of the page! Since we're trying this for the first time, lets have you submit a classic novel you would be interested in reading. We'll define "classic" as a book that most people have heard of and some might have read in school/college. Leave your suggestions under comments! Thanks!

Upcoming Book Club Books

January's book is Goose Girl by Shannon Hale hosted by Nicole Baldwin (It has a five star rating on amazon!)

"She can whisper to horses and communicate with birds, but the crown princess Ani has a difficult time finding her place in the royal family and measuring up to her imperial mother. When she is shipped off to a neighboring kingdom as a bride, her scheming entourage mounts a bloody mutiny to replace her with a jealous lady-in-waiting, Selia, and to allow an inner circle of guards more power in the new land. Barely escaping with her life, Ani disguises herself as a goose girl and wanders on the royal estate. Does she have the pluck to reclaim her rightful place? Get ready for a fine adventure tale full of danger, suspense, surprising twists, and a satisfying conclusion. The engaging plot can certainly carry the tale, but Hale's likable, introspective heroine makes this also a book about courage and justice in the face of overwhelming odds. The richly rendered, medieval folkloric setting adds to the charm." -Anne O'Malley

Salt Lake County Library System

Lehi Library

February's book will be The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer hosted by Micki Lambert

"January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever." -amazon.com product description


Salt Lake County Library System

Lehi Library

If anyone has access to either of these books and wouldn't mind lending them out, please leave a comment

Book Review: Hungry Planet

"Peter and I were (respectively) photographing and talking with a tall skinny man and his two sons, all three of whom showed the marks of hard living. Like many in the village, the man was blind in one eye from vitamin deficiencies; the children had skin diseases and looked seriously undernourished. As we were talking, the older boy pulled a dry brick of instant ramen noodles out of its wrapper and munched it down. His naked, pot-bellied little brother tipped the ramen's flavoring packet into his own mouth and worked the powder around with his tongue until it dissolved. I was mesmerized. I saw this scene play out again and again during our time in Sawa, a place with next to no connection to the rest of the world--children eating an uncooked convenience food intended to simplify the busy lives of people very far away.

I asked a Catholic priest, a longtime resident missionary, about the noodles. He said that logging money had begun to trickle into the villages of these hunters and gatherers. Accompanying the cash came the first merchant to Sawa, a Sulawesian who sold dried food and snacks. Now there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the occasional quick snack of ramen noodles in processed broth, but you don't have to be a food activist to wonder if it is a good idea for the Asmattans, already stuggling to find basic nourishment, to dose themselves with jolts of sugar, salt, and artificial flavors." -Faith D'Aluisio, Hungry Planet

I loved this book for many many reasons. The book highlights forty families from all over the globe and what they eat in one week. It is amazing how telling food can be, not only socio-economically, but culturally and politically as well. For example, the Aboubakars from Darfur province, Sudan are refugees in Breidjing Camp, Chad. What they eat in the refugee camp is obviously affected by the modern history of Darfur. You learn about how they were forced from their home by the Jinjawiid, the workings of refugee camps, UN food distributions, and the effects of the refugee camps on the native people of Chad. While for some families, the book focuses on globalization and the loss of a country's traditional foods in favor for the easy, multi-national food chains and brands, for other families, the authors are searching for the "fountain of youth" in traditional foods that have caused certain groups of people in China and Japan to live longer lives with almost no incidence of heart disease and diabetes. Yes, this is a book about food, but it is so much more. It really makes you appreciate all of the different factors that go into play in getting food on your family's table each day, and take a second look at what you're feeding them as well.

This book review was written by Tiffany Keck. If you are interested in borrowing the book, she is willing to lend out her copy

If you are interested in writing a book review for this website in the future, contact Michelle Brown or Tiffany Keck