Book Ideas for the Spring Meeting - Please select your favorite and send to Jeanne by March 1st, 2018. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, April 19th. 

1.  Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver (a really interesting Appalachian settling)

2.  The Bettencourt Affair by Tom Sancton  The World's richest woman and the scandal that rocked      Paris

3.   Where the Light Falls by Allison Pataki and Owen Pataki ( brother and sister)
     A Novel of the French Revolution

4.   The Children's Act, Ian McEwan (a bit heartbreaking)

5.   The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (award winner - well worth reading)

6. The Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak (about strong women and the historical challenges between Turkey and Armenia. The author, a prominent and outspoken woman, was jailed for writing it and ultimately released. Read it before I went to Turkey last year - fascinating.)

7. The End of Your Life Book Club, Will Schwalbe (sounds dreadful, but it's ultimately a wonderful discussion of a mother's and son's love of books and their joy in sharing this love.)

8. Lillian Boxfield Takes a Walk, Kathleen Rooney (an interesting story about an independent woman that takes place in one day.)

9. A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles (Clever setting, wonderful writing)

10. Behold the Dreamers, Imbolo Mbue (about 2 connected families, American and Cameroonian, affected by the economic collapse on Wall Street. Powerful.)

11. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (an older book by an amazing writer.  Might feel creepy, but lots to talk about.  I read it again recently with my library book club, and the librarian found some video interviews with the author - well worth it to find those to supplement the discussion.)

12. Fierce Kingdom, Gin Phillips (about a mother's fierce commitment to protecting her child.)

13. Before the Fall, Noah Hawley (a mass market book, but a timely story about the chaos created by aggressive media figures.)

14. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. (Non fiction; I haven't read it, but it has great reviews and comes highly recommended by book club friends. About the transition from poverty to middle class.)

15. Americanah A powerful, tender story of race and identity by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun.  Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time.   

16.  Dollbaby    "McNeal's "Dollbaby" is such an impressive debut--a powerful roux of family drama, long-simmering secrets and resentments, and ultimately, forgiveness and redemption.  

17.  Whistling Past the Graveyard  ...From an award-winning author comes a wise and tender coming-of-age story about a nine-year-old girl who runs away from her Mississippi home in 1963, befriends a lonely woman suffering loss and abuse, and embarks on a life-changing road trip.

18.  Will's Red Coat   A true story of acceptance, perseverance, and the possibility of love and redemption as evocative, charming, and powerful as the New York Times bestseller Following Atticus. 

19.  Mudbound - In Jordan's prize-winning debut, prejudice takes many forms, both subtle and brutal. It is 1946, and city-bred Laura McAllan is trying to raise her children on her husband's Mississippi Delta farm—a place she finds foreign and frightening. In the midst of the family's struggles, two young men return from the war to work the land.  

20.  Arthur Truluv    An emotionally powerful novel about three people who each lose the one they love most, only to find second chances where they least expect them    “Fans of Meg Wolitzer, Emma Straub, or [Elizabeth] Berg’s previous novels will appreciate the richly complex characters and clear prose. Redemptive without being maudlin, this story of two misfits lucky to have found one another will tug at readers’ heartstrings.”—Booklist