PARCHMENT BOOK CLUB
Meets the first Monday each month, at 7:00 pm
Talk about great books with friends -- what could be better? Join us for our next meeting, held in the Local History Room of the library.
WHAT WE'RE READING
In the 1890s in rural Michigan, women have few choices, but Jess Newby longs for a life of "possibilities." She's determined to go to high school, even though her mother tells her she has no need for more schooling. A pair of muddy shoes, a Meissen teapot, and a heather bush combine to bring tragedy to the family. Jess's mother slips into a deep depression and Jess must become her caretaker. Even so, Jess clings to her dream. When Jess does enter high school, her path is a jumble of delight and adversity. She joins in the celebration of the first national Labor Day, the installation of indoor flushing closets, Ragtime music, and the growing interest in women's suffrage. Jess also confronts the dilemmas of spousal abuse, unwanted pregnancy, and sexual discrimination. The book explores the joys and sorrows of family and community, and the victory of determination over despair
August 2, 2010: Small Island by Andrea Levy
Hotense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve.
Told in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers--in short, an encapsulation of that most American of experiences: the immigrant's life.
Told in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers--in short, an encapsulation of that most American of experiences: the immigrant's life.