December Book Club Meeting

December Book Club Meeting

Host: Pat

Book: The Immoveable Feast, by John Baxter

Response of the Book Club Members: This easy read memoir by John Baxter of his many years living in Paris and hosting for his wife's family the special Christmas dinner he prepared from appetizer to dessert. This easy read gave each member a chance to discuss what they like to eat for Christmas. It also gave everyone who loves Paris a chance to take a virtual trip to Paris during the Christmas holidays. A very enjoyable read.

November Book Club Meeting

November Book Club Meeting

Host: Maura

Book: Still Alice, by Lisa Genova

Response of the Book Club Members: This is a fiction book that has dealing with Alzheimer's in a family as its central theme. The book club members found the book enlightening but very depressing. No one wants to think of themselves or a family member losing their memory and their ability to function. Put this book under the category of read once but not a second time. Too depressing.

October Book Club Meeting

October Book Club Meeting

October Book Club Meeting

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Host: Dickie

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Book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

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Response of the Book Club Members: Everyone agreed that this book read like science fiction. But this true story of the life and death of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman from Clover, VA and what happened to her cells at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center after she succumbed to ovarian cancer. The strangest thing for the Piedmont Readers to contemplate was how her cells known in the medical world as HeLa cells have never died and have contributed to advances in medical treatment for polio, tuberculosis, etc.

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Book discussion centered around slavery, racism, civil rights, the polio scare in the 1950's, the TB scare in the 1940's and 1950's, the AIDS scare of the 1980's and of course where we stand today in addressing these issues. Some members enjoyed both the scientific and human interest aspects of this non-fiction book while others preferred just the human interest aspects of this strange story.

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Thank you Dickie for giving us an extraordinary book to read.
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I personally found the following quote from the afterword of this book interesting: "When I tell people the story of Henrietta Lacks and her cells, the first question is usually Wasn't it illegal for doctors to take Henrietta's cell without her knowledge: Don't doctors have to tell you when they use your cells in research? The answer is no--not in 1951, and not in 2009, when this book went to press."

September Book Club Meeting

September Book Club Meeting

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Host: D.J.

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Book: The Last Child, by John Hart

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Response of the Book Club Members: Everyone attending the meeting said that this was the best book read so far this year. The story was intriguing and very unpredictable. The characters were well developed and either likable or very dislikable. Club members spent considerable time trying to determine what year the story took place. Most agreed that it must be sometime in the middle '90s. The main character, 13 year old Johnny, was admired by all the club members for his search for his lost twin sister. And lastly everyone agreed that this was a book that would be worth reading a second time because you could appreciate the setting, the characters and the plot even more the second time around.

August Book Club Meeting

August Book Club Meeting

Host: Carol

Book: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y. K. Lee

Response of the Book Club Members: Every book club member was unfamiliar with the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong before and during World War II. At the time Hong Kong was a British Crown Colony with the neighboring island of Macau being a Portugeese territory. The book showed how in times of war and deprivation anyone can be reduced to doing immoral things in order to stay alive and to keep other relatives and friends alive.

I personally think that this is a book that you could read a second time to glean more wisdom. I also would enjoy reading another book by this author if she writes a second novel.

July Book Club Meeting

July Book Club Meeting



Host: Delaine



Book: Best Friends, by Jennifer Weiner

Response of the Book Club Members: Only five of the twelve members attended the meeting because of commitments that kept them from attending. Delaine led the discussion and members relived their high school days of friendships made and destroyed. Everyone agreed that high school years are difficult and no one wanted to go back and relive those anxious years. Members thought that the author did a good job of capturing growing up angst and that as we age we are still growing up.

June Book Club Meeting

The candles were lit.
The drinks were ready.

The food was on the table in the breakfast room.
So the guests filled their glasses and their plates and proceeded to the brick patio to both socialize and to discuss the book selection.
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June Book Club Meeting

Host: Joann

Book: The Master Butchers Singing Club, by Louise Erdrich

Response of the Book Club Members: The setting for this book is North Dakota where Fidelis Waldvogel, a German immigrant who processed thru Ellis Island begins his hardscrabble American life in 1922. The book references back to Germany in World War I and proceeds slowly and then rather rapidlyly thru World War II where some of Fidelis's sons are fighting on both sides of the conflict in Germany. The book ends with scenes of post World War II in Germany and America.

The book club members were fascinated by some of the amazing characters in this book: Fidelis, Eva, Delphine, Cyprian, Marcus and Step-in-a-Half. Louise Erdrich, the author who is part German, part French and part North American Plains Indian managed to weave lots of history of Jews and Germany into this story.

May Book Club Meeting

May Book Club Meeting

Host: Bev

Book: Ford County, by John Grisham

Response of the Book Club Members: This John Grisham book had seven stories. Here are the titles:

1. Blood Drive
2. Fetching Raymond
3. Fish Files
4. Casino
5. Michael's Room
6. Quiet Haven
7. Funny Boy

Everyone liked all these stories that had the state of Mississippi as the setting. "Blood Drive" was a wild redneck read. "Fish Files" and "Casino" had very clever main characters. "Funny Boy" gave everyone food for thought since it dealt with aids in the south in the '80s.

Everyone enjoyed the southern dishes Bev served us for the meeting. Bev and husband Shorty's version of Paula Dean's recipe for shrimp and scallop lasagna was awesome. I want the recipe!

April Book Club Meeting

April Book Club Meeting



Host: Cindy



Book: The Help, by Kathryne Stockett



Response of the Book Club Members: The book club members dearly loved this novel set in the Mississippi delta in the twentieth century and dealing with the trials, tribulations, joys, and sorrows of being the black "help" serving the white "plantation owners" and raising the children of the "plantation owners". One line that summed up the situation was when one of the maids noted that the babies love us now but they will grow up and treat us just like their parents treat us now.

March Book Club Meeting

March Book Club Meeting


Host: Teresa


Book: All the Presidents' Children, by Doug Wead


Response of the Book Club Members: All the members of the book club enjoyed learning about the lives of the children of the U.S. presidents and discovered many similarities between the children. Everyone agreed that following in the footsteps of a father who was president would be very challenging to say the least. The club spent most of the evening discussing George W. Bush's life and years in the White House since the author of the book, Doug Wead, had previously worked for both Bush presidents and he and his lovely wife joined us later in the evening to discuss the book and his time spent with the various members of the Bush family.

Book Members Recommend:

Joann: This cold and snowy winter I have found and read a lot of great books. I recommend all of the following books:

The 42'nd Parallel, by John Dos Passos is a novel that covers the first twenty years of
the twentieth century in novel format. Each chapter begins with a quote and a "newsreel".

A Persian Requiem, by Simin Daneshvar is the unforunate story of a Muslin bride during
World War II in Iran which at the time is under English domaine.

The Year of Reading Proust, by Phyllis Rose is the writer's memoir of reading all the works
of Proust and how it related to her current life experiences.

The Dowry Bride, by Shobhan Bantwal is the frightening story of a Hindu dowry bride in
current day India who discovers that her mother-in-law and husband want to burn her to
death because she hasn't given them a baby and her father hasn't fulfilled the promise of
the monetary dowry.

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova is a 909 page thriller that takes you on a hunt thru time
and geography to discover the real Vlad Drakulya in Romania and Translyvania who was the
real inspiration for Bram Stoker's book, Dracula.

The Master Butchers Singing Club, by Louise Erdrich is a delightful novel that has tons of
interesting characters doing strange things in Argus, North Dakota.

The Twelve Little Cakes, Memoir of a Prague Childhood, by Dominika Dery is a great memoir of growing up under USSR and communism in the 1970's and 1980's. Fascinating.

February Book Club Meeting

February Book Club Meeting:

Host: Haelie

Book: Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon

Response of the Book Club Members: Several members of the club had a very difficult time getting into this long (820 pages) time travel novel that swings back and fourth from medieval Scotland to present times around the world so they admitted that they listened to the book on audio tape. This led to a heated discussion about what is a kosher way to approach a book club selection.Is it OK to listen to a book on tape that is a book you are "reading" for book club? Some members said yes and some members said no! Bev noted that Diana Gabaldon is her very favorite author because she is such a great writer. Others still felt that the book was a long hard struggle.

January Book Club Meeting

January Book Club Meeting:

Host: Lucille

Book: Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

Response of the Book Club Members: Everyone thought the first half of the Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir of divorcing her husband and spending a year "off" traveling to Italy, India and Indonesia was the best part of the book. Maybe it was because everyone could relate better to travel in Italy than either in India or Indonesia. Most everyone agreed that very few women going thru a divorce have the means to just take a year off and travel like Elizabeth did. In that regard many thought that Elizabeth's reactions and comments to leaving her husband were not typical. Some of the readers thought that maybe she protest too mush and suffers from priveleged rich girl status.

December Book Club Meeting

December Book Club Meeting:

Host: Dickie

Book: The Gourmet Rhapsody, by Muriel Barbery

Response of the Book Club Members: Everyone enjoyed the great descriptions of great meals eaten by the French food critic Monnsieru Arthans but almost everyone agreed that his arrogance and his misuse of power in writing his food column was literally hard to stomach. All agreed that this was a good book selection for us during the busy month of December.