Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer - July/August Read

Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer
Check out this wonderful video of Nancy Thayer on Surfside beach which is featured in the novel and as she reads from Beachcombers:

Reflections from Nancy.
Twenty-seven years ago, I’d been divorced for three years. I lived with my small son and daughter, our two cats and one dog, in a Massachusetts college town. I’d dated a bit, unsuccessfully, and I was feeling so pessimistic about romance that I decided I’d forget men and buy a horse. Seriously.

Then I came to Nantucket for the first time to visit a friend, and I met a friend of hers--a man named Charley, tall, blue-eyed, kind, who read books and owned a record store. We sat up all night talking, and now we’ve been married twenty-five years.

Since then I’ve believed in the healing power of this island. And also in the healing power of change. Of taking a chance. Of dragging ourselves out of our pity pit and trying something new.

In Beachcombers, Marina comes to the island to heal. She meets a wonderful man--and she meets his three adult daughters, who are dealing with their own fears, losses, and desires. Emma has lost her fiancé, her job, her plans, her dreams. She’s come home defeated, hopeless and apathetic. Lily, the baby, wants glamour and excitement and pretty clothes. She also wants someone else to do the dishes. Abbie, at thirty, the oldest, has been the nurturer ever since their mother died when Abbie was fifteen and Lily was only seven. Abbie hasn’t had a chance to consider what she wants, and she’s surprised when she finds that what she wants is a man who’s already taken.

Healing isn’t an easy process, and change isn’t easy either, as the sisters and Marina discover. The four women strive and dream and discover that life has surprises in store for them. It’s like beachcombing--you never can guess what’s going to be lying there, waiting for you. Or whether you’re going to be brave enough to take what life offers, or strong enough to take it all. Only seashells on the beach can be lifted away easily and free.

I’ve dedicated this book to my younger sister, Martha, who has always been so important in my life. I’m fascinated by sisters, and by families. It seems that those we struggle with are often the ones who also heal us--and who care that we are healed. There are many kinds of romantic and family love in Beachcombers, as in life.

This book was recommended by Fran Cooley.

The next book club is
Sunday August 28th, 2011 - Hosted by: Mary Marotta
Watch the movie The Help before book club (here is the trailer and link to local times) so we can discuss the movie!  The Help was our book club selection in January 2010.

Oprah recommends - 18 Books to Watch for in September 

Upcoming book clubs

September 25th.....Joyce Charpentier   

October 23rd .........Sue Torosian

November 20th  ....Joanne Smith

December is a Pass !!

To sign-up for Jan-May contact Lori Roy.

Kiss the Girls by James Patterson

Our book selection for the month of June is .....  Kiss the Girls by James Patterson Here is a quick review of the book from Amazon. Casanova is a collector of something rare and beautiful....women. When he sees one he thinks is both beautiful and rare, he takes them and keeps them in his personal collection. The problem comes when he takes a family member of Alex Cross, a dectieve. Alex is soon on the case to get back the one he loves. There are also murders across the coast on the opposite side of the states. Could there be two serial killers wanting to out do each other? Or are they working together? If so, how can Alex Cross stop them both? I suggest that you read the book if you want to find out. Alex Cross is an interesting character. I liked how he had an instant bond with Kate. It seems that Kate and Alex we're almost a mirror image of each other. When it comes to fiction, it's important to have "good" good guys, but I feel it's more important to have better bad guys. Patterson accomplishes this. Cassanova and The Gentleman are *incredible* some of the things that Casanova does is out right creepy. The style that Patterson writes in take a little getting used to. It's in both first and third person. When you get used to that, it's a sinch to read.   The chapters are quick and short.

Next Book Club is - June 26th @Fran Cooley's.
Other Recommendations this week
Julie recommends Cutting for Stone by  Abraham Verghese

Have A Little Faith by Mitch Albom

Albom’s first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, 
 
Have A Little Faith begins with an unusual request: an 82-year-old rabbi from Albom’s old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy.  Feeling unworthy, Albom insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he’d left years ago. Meanwhile, closer to his current home, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor – a reformed drug dealer and convict – who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof.

Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Mitch observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi, embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat.
As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Mitch and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times. Although the texts, prayers and histories are different, Albom begins to realize a striking unity between the two worlds - and indeed, between beliefs everywhere.

In the end, as the rabbi nears death and a harsh winter threatens the pastor’s wobbly church, Albom sadly fulfills the last request and writes the eulogy. And he finally understands what both men had been teaching all along: the profound comfort of believing in something bigger than yourself.
Have a Little Faith is a book about a life’s purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all. It is one man’s journey, but it is everyone’s story.
Have A Little Faith debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.  It was chosen by Oprah.com as the Best Nonfiction Book of 2009

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night -Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night -Time
Mark Haddon's bitterly funny debut novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a murder mystery of sorts--one told by an autistic version of Adrian Mole. Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially hopeless, raised in a working-class home by parents who can barely cope with their child's quirks. He takes everything that he sees (or is told) at face value, and is unable to sort out the strange behavior of his elders and peers.

Late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. Wellington's owner finds him cradling her dead dog in his arms, and has him arrested. After spending a night in jail, Christopher resolves--against the objection of his father and neighbors--to discover just who has murdered Wellington. He is encouraged by Siobhan, a social worker at his school, to write a book about his investigations, and the result--quirkily illustrated, with each chapter given its own prime number--is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Haddon's novel is a startling performance. This is the sort of book that could turn condescending, or exploitative, or overly sentimental, or grossly tasteless very easily, but Haddon navigates those dangers with a sureness of touch that is extremely rare among first-time novelists.

Next Meeting - March 27th  .... Julie Bigelow's
April's meeting will be  May 1st......Elizabeth Raymond

I read this months selection  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night -Time  on Joyce;s ipad. The book was only 120 pages and I was able to breeze through reading in no time.  It was interesting to see firsthand how I could change the font size, highlight, take notes and hyperlink within the novel. 
Learn more about iBooks – A novel way to buy and read books.  You’ll be even more well read once you get your hands on iBooks. Download the iBooks app from the App Store. Load up on books from the iBookstore. Take them to more places than you’d ever take a regular book. And right when you pull one out on your iPad, you’ll be pulled right in.

Learn more by watching

Join the discussion by clicking on "comments" below then enter your comment.
Note: you can use your google account or Anonymous.

Anyone else using a Kindle or a Nook for reading?
Joyce can you bring the ipad to show everyone on Sunday?

They Cage the Animals at Night - Jennings Michael Burch

They Cage the Animals at Night  - Jennings Michael Burch


 One rainy day in Brooklyn, Jennings Michael Burch's mother, too sick to care for him, left him at an orphanage, saying only, "I'll be right back." She never returned. Shuttled through a series of bleak foster homes and institutions, he never remained in any of them long enough to make a friend. Instead, Jennings clung to a tattered stuffed animal, his sole source of warmth in a frightening world. This is the poignant story of his lost childhood. But it is also the triumphant tale of a little boy who finally gained the courage to reach out for love-and found it waiting for him.

Next Book Club @Lori Roy's

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!
The blog has been updated with more pages to allow for more interaction.

Vote for your favorite book of the year (on the right sidebar)

Next book club - January 30th 2011 @Paula Mansour's

Without a Map - Meredith Hall

Without a Map - Meredith Hall

Meredith Hall grew up bonded to her insular New Hampshire community, comforted by the hallmarks of belonging: perfect attendance in Sunday school, classmates who seemed more like cousins, teachers who held her up as a model student, a mother who loved her unconditionally. Then, at sixteen, she became pregnant, and all at once those who had held her close and kept her safe turned their backs.

The same day in 1965 that Meredith was expelled from school, her mother told her “You can’t stay here.”� Her father and stepmother reluctantly offered Meredith a cold sanctuary until she gave birth to the child she gave up for adoption. Then she was banned from her father’s home forever. For the next decade she wandered, lost to society and to herself. Slowly, Meredith began stitching together a life that encircled her silenced and invisible grief.

When he was twenty-one years old, Meredith’s lost son found her. She learned that he had grown up in gritty poverty with an abusive father—in her own father’s hometown. Their reunion was tender and turbulent, a renaissance. Meredith’s parents never asked for her forgiveness, yet as they aged, she offered them her love. Without a Map charts an extraordinary path in which loss and betrayal evolve into compassion, and compassion into wisdom. More details

Listed as one of ten “truly addictive stories” by O Magazine 2007 BookSense “Pick of the Year”

Book Club Question and discussion by Joyce Charpentier

Next book club - January 30th 2011 @Paula Mansour's