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This evening the Joppa Evening Discussion Group will be discussing Sons of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer. Joppa Group, I would love for you to leave a comment on this blog on how your discussion went and what you thought of the book!

Labels: families fiction, Jeffrey Archer, political thrillers, Sons of Fortune, twins - fiction

Hi
This is my new winter avatar, wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and a Great New Year. Before I go into the review of Shoe Addicts Anonymous, the Abingdon Book Group pick for December, I want to remind you of the fantastic Winter Reading Program for Adults and High School Teens that begins in all branches on January 2nd. Register to take part and you will receive a small gift, if you complete the reading you will receive another gift. Do what you already love to do and get a reward! "Let your Imagination Run Wild, Read". Details are available online or at your local branch.


Beth Harbison lives in Maryland with her husband and two children and 3 dogs.

Shoe Addicts came out as a summer beach read in 2007, but is more than just another chick lit book. Although it is light reading, it covers some serious ground as it deals with the loneliness, fears, and dissatisfactions of four very different women. It gets 4 out of 5 stars in Amazon.com and many 5 star ratings from readers.

Publishers Weekly had this to say:
Arriving just in time for beach-read season, the effervescent hardcover fiction debut of cookbook author and romance novelist Harbison features four D.C.-area women who meet weekly to swap and chat about... shoes. Trying to get a handle on her massive consumer debt, Lorna Rafferty posts an Internet ad looking to trade footwear with women who have good taste and wear size seven-and-a-half. A senator's trophy wife, Helene Zaharis, is dreaming of escaping her loveless marriage when she stumbles upon Lorna's post. Overweight phone sex operator Sandra Vanderslice struggles to overcome her agoraphobia long enough to attend the shoe meetings. After a few funny missteps, the threesome finds a fourth member, Joss Bowen, the nanny of a shrewish socialite's hellion boys. Joss couldn't care less about shoes, but uses the group as a reason to get out of the house. Harbison does a fine job of showcasing how each woman is trapped—Lorna by her debt, Helene by her marriage, Sandra by her self-image, Joss by her employment contract—and how the fresh eyes of the group allow them to see themselves in a new light. Harbison creates vivid, convincing characters and handles them well. Reading this novel is like eating a slice of cake. (June)
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The book group really enjoyed this book, and all said they would read other books by this author, so they will be pleased to note that Secrets of a Shoe Addict by Beth Harbison is due to be published Jun 10, 2008. They thought the characters were realistic and their problems a true reflection of the difficulties women face, from adulterous husbands to out of control finances. The book ends a little too neatly but very pleasantly with all ends nicely tied. For entertainment with feeling this is a humorous and endearing read.

Labels: Beth Harbison, Secrets of a Shoe Addict, Shoe Addicts Anonymous, shoes, winter Reading Program

On December 7 the film Atonement, based on Ian McEwan's Booker prize winning novel, with Kiera Knightly and James McAvoy in the lead roles, opened on limited release. The novel, first published in 2001 and nominated for a Booker Prize, was called by PW a “haunting novel." On The Bob Edwards Show of December 7, director Joe Wright discussed the movie. Click here for the website of the film

Labels: Atonement, atonement-fiction, book discussion, English country houses - fiction, Ian McEwan, reading groups, World War II -fiction

In January 2008 the Harford Out-of-the-House Book Group for Moms will be meeting in the Bel Air Branch. Please call the branch at 410-638-3151 or check our web page for details of this group and for other book groups sponsored by the Bel Air branch.

In January the Moms will be discussing Digging to America by Anne Tyler. Since my own book group just finished reading this uplifting and thought provoking book, I thought I would discuss it here. I can heartily recommend it both as a good read and as a book that a discussion group can get its teeth into. Find this large print book in our catalog.
Find this book in our catalog.

This is a novel of seemingly quiet and unremarkable lives. The novel itself is seemingly quiet and unremarkable and yet it packs a punch. In subtle and nuanced ways and with powerful psychological insight, it explores the tension between the human need to fit in with the crowd and yet assert ones own individuality. There is a lot of quiet humor in the book, and loving observation of human frailty. The reader cares about the two families, one quintessentially white middle class American and the other Iranian American, both living in Baltimore.

The families meet at BWI, when both are there to greet the arrival of two Korean infants who are being adopted by two couples, Brad and Bitsy and Sami and Ziba. The families get together over an arrival party arranged by Bitsy and afterwards their friendship develops in fits and starts, through misunderstandings and various happy and sometimes excruciatingly embarassing social occasions. Maryam, the widowed mother of Sami, and a first generation Iranian immigrant is the center of the story. It is mainly through her eyes that the reader sees twenty-first century American life, at least in the Baltimore/Washington suburbs. Maryam has always found it hard to come to terms with being part of a culture and a country. She feels foreign in America, though she has been in the country thirty-something years, and yet she no longer feels she has a home in Iran. If truth be told, she never felt she fitted in even in Iran, and when young expressed this alienation in political dissidence. Most of the book is about how she works out this dilemma.

The book also shifts to the points of view of the other characters, who are individually quirky and lovable. Stretching from the babies’ arrival in 1997 to 2004, the novel is punctuated by the annual Arrival parties and other celebrations, all of which add color and humor to the book and also offer insights into American and Iranian culture.

Conversation Starters

It is said that in the novel the two different households serve as microcosms for twenty-first American Society. Would you agree?
Bitsy and Brad Donaldson appear to be stereotypical white-middle class Americans. Is Anne Tyler condemning the stereotype? Are there occasions when they depart from the stereotype?
Maryam continually feels her “outsiderness.� Are there occasions when others feel this exclusion or “otherness?�
Some of the members of my group felt that Anne Tyler made many of her characters two-dimensional in order to make a point in the book. Do you agree? If you do, did this matter?
Other group members felt an empathy with the characters. Why would this be?
Even though some characters may be stereotypical, one reviewer found the families “utterly believable.� Do you agree?
What did you think of this portrait of immigrant life? Each character strikes a balance between assimilation and remaining true to his/her culture. What do you think of the implications of this in the book and in our own lives?
One reviewer noticed that many decisions in the book are transformed into deeply symbolic acts, subject to earnest debate. Did this make sense to you in the context of the book. In the context of your own life? Could you identify some of the symbolism in the book?
What do you think of Bitsy’s attempts to create traditions for her family?
What do you think of Anne Tyler’s language and her ability one reviewer noticed to infuse the commonplace with meaning and grace?
What did you think of the shifting from the perspective of one character to another?
Within the two extended families, many characters are able to get their own way. Can you identify some examples?

About the Author

There was an extensive article about Anne Tylaer by Jessica Teisch in Bookmarks magazine for November/December 2006.

In Washington Post, 10/22/03, Anne Tyler said this, “People have always seemed funny and strange to me, and touching in unexpected ways. I can’t shake off a sort of mist of irony that hangs over whatever I see…It just seems to me that even the most ordinary person, in real life, will turn out to have something unusual at his center.�

Labels: Adoption - fiction, Anne Tyler, book discussions, Digging to America, Immigration - fiction, Iranian-Americans - fiction