Our first discussion, A Prison Book Club by Ann Walmsley, is October 16, so here are a few recommendations from our members. Visit the Bookmobile at Bennetto Recreation Centre on Tuesday from 2:30 to 4:30 and Thursday from 6:00 to 8:00.
The Woefield Poultry Collective by Susan Juby. A truly laugh-out-loud story about four misfits who attempt to save a Vancouver Island farm from foreclosure using a highly unorthodox approach. In this heartwarming novel the reader learns how people can take up a challenge, face their fears, and find friendship along the way. (Paige Turner)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. In 1922 Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow by a Bolshevik tribunal. Rostov creates a new life for himself within the hotel while decades of Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Excellent character development with beautifully told scenes. An absorbing, sophisticated, and humorous story about what it means to be a man of purpose. (Paige Turner)
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. Publisher’s Weekly calls this first novel “…a fun, over the top romp in the unbelievable world of the Asian jet set.” Super rich, socially competitive and often vicious gossips, we meet three of Singapore’s richest, and oldest families and dogs named Astor, Vanderbilt and Trump. American, Rachel Chu is thrust unprepared into this world when she accompanies her boyfriend Nick to his home in Singapore. While the excesses of this world seem unreal, Kwan has said in interviews that this is a world that he has experienced. Funny and fascinating. (Kit)
In the Wings – Stories of Forgotten Women Bernadette Rule, editor. In her introduction to this collection, Rule states “It takes dedication & co-operation to omit women from the story of the human race. Not only do women outnumber men, they are by definition central to the future of the human species. So how is it they were rarely present at any point in history? “In the Wings” is an attempt to stop co-operating with this massive omission.” The authors were challenged to combine the tools of fiction with solid research to bring to life women such as Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare; Helene Boulle Champlain, wife of Samuel de Champlain; Georgina Hogarth, sister-in-law of Charles Dickens; Marguerite Monet Riel, wife of Louis Riel; Constance Lloyd, wife of Oscar Wilde; Syrie Wellcome Maugham, wife of Somerset Maugham; Pilar Casals, mother of Pablo Casals; and Joan Douglas, daughter of Tommy Douglas. An interesting book of short stories that bring these women out of the shadows.
(Paige Turner)
