No Book Club in December and Reading List for Jan, Feb, March 2007

Thanks to everyone who attended book club last Tuesday night. I know with all that was going on, reading Nickel and Dimed was just one more thing. But we did have great, spirited discussion about the ever-growing and very complex issue of the working poor.

I happened to catch a bit of 20/20 last night and they were discussing who gives the most proportionately in the US. Church goers give more to all charities than those who don’t go to church; and the rich give more than the middle class. But the group who gave most to others was the working poor (the middle class gave the least proportionately). I just thought it was an interesting fact for a group of people who, as we read, struggle so hard.

There was another person on the show who did studies that showed giving makes people feel good – physiologically. That made me think. I once heard a pastor’s stewardship sermon (yes, I listened) where part of the message was that we think we should give until it hurts. He said we should give beyond that until we give until it feels good. No point in that antidote, just an interesting correlation that I remembered. But I digress.

As we decided, we will NOT be meeting in December. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you.

Here are the books for January, February, and March of 2007.

January: The Memory’s Keeper’s Daughter – Kim Edwards

From Publishers Weekly Edwards's assured but schematic debut novel (after her collection, The Secrets of a Fire King) hinges on the birth of fraternal twins, a healthy boy and a girl with Down syndrome, resulting in the father's disavowal of his newborn daughter. A snowstorm immobilizes Lexington, Ky., in 1964, and when young Norah Henry goes into labor, her husband, orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Henry, must deliver their babies himself, aided only by a nurse. Seeing his daughter's handicap, he instructs the nurse, Caroline Gill, to take her to a home and later tells Norah, who was drugged during labor, that their son Paul's twin died at birth. Instead of institutionalizing Phoebe, Caroline absconds with her to Pittsburgh. David's deception becomes the defining moment of the main characters' lives, and Phoebe's absence corrodes her birth family's core over the course of the next 25 years. David's undetected lie warps his marriage; he grapples with guilt; Norah mourns her lost child; and Paul not only deals with his parents' icy relationship but with his own yearnings for his sister as well. Though the impact of Phoebe's loss makes sense, Edwards's redundant handling of the trope robs it of credibility. This neatly structured story is a little too moist with compassion. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

February: The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery – Wendy Moore

Book Description In an era when bloodletting was considered a cure for everything from colds to smallpox, surgeon John Hunter was a medical innovator, an eccentric, and the person to whom anyone who has ever had surgery probably owes his or her life. In this sensational and macabre story, we meet the surgeon who counted not only luminaries Benjamin Franklin, Lord Byron, Adam Smith, and Thomas Gainsborough among his patients but also “resurrection men” among his close acquaintances. A captivating portrait of his ruthless devotion to uncovering the secrets of the human body, and the extraordinary lengths to which he went to do so—including body snatching, performing pioneering medical experiments, and infecting himself with venereal disease—this rich historical narrative at last acknowledges this fascinating man and the debt we owe him today. (Amazon.com)


March: The Widow of the South – Robert Hicks

From Publishers Weekly Hicks's big historical first novel, based on true events in his hometown, follows the saga of Carrie McGavock, a lonely Confederate wife who finds purpose transforming her Tennessee plantation into a hospital and cemetery during the Civil War. Carrie is mourning the death of several of her children, and, in the absence of her husband, has left the care of her house to her capable Creole slave Mariah. Before the 1864 battle of Franklin, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest commandeers her house as a field hospital. In alternating points of view, the battle is recounted by different witnesses, including Union Lt. Nathan Stiles, who watches waves of rebels shot dead, and Confederate Sgt. Zachariah Cashwell, who loses a leg. By the end of the battle, 9,000 soldiers have perished, and thousands of Confederates are buried in a field near the McGavock plantation. Zachariah ends up in Carrie's care at the makeshift hospital, and their rather chaste love forms the emotional pulse of the novel, while Carrie fights to relocate the buried soldiers when her wealthy neighbor threatens to plow up the field after the war. Valiantly, Hicks returns to small, human stories in the midst of an epic catastrophe. Though occasionally overwrought, this impressively researched novel will fascinate aficionados. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Relating back to our discussion from Tuesday again, I was reading Fortune on-line and came across these articles that show Wal-Mart is a complicated issue (as discussed). Thought you might be interested.

Attack of the Wal- Martyrs

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_
archive/2006/12/11/8395445/index.htm?postversion=2006112813

Wal – Mart Becomes Gay Friendly

http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/28/news/companies/
pluggedin_gunther_gayWalMart.fortune/index.htm

Wal – Mart’s New “Green” Image – The Green Machine

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_
archive/2006/08/07/8382593/index.htm


Wal-Mart extends $4 generic drug program

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/26/news/
companies/walmart_drugs/index.htm?postversion=2006102609

I will see all of you around. Happy reading.

Jen