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.