Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, tells about the reign of Henry VIII up through his marriage to Anne Boleyn.   Thomas Cromwell is Henry's fixer - he is the go between for Anne and Henry, and takes Henry's claims of a "false" marriage to Catherine to court.  But the book is told from Thomas' point of view, in the present tense.  It begins with Thomas as a young teenager. 

The book begins:
 "So now get up."
   Felled, dazed, silent, he has fallen; ....

There was much discussion on Good Reads about this use of pronouns to refer to Thomas.  You don't find out his name until after he has crawled off to his sister's house.  What do you think of this usage?  Do you feel close to Thomas, in his head so to speak? Or, are you alienated by the consistent use of pronouns to refer to Thomas?

One suggestion I have is, if you are not familiar with Thomas Cromwell in English history, read a bit about him in Wikipedia or BBC History.  Here is an interview with Hilary Mantel about Thomas Cromwell.

Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Last Policeman Discussion #2

January is rapidly fading.  Here are some things to think about in The Last Policeman.

Many of the people Hank meets and/or interviews tell him how they are handling the news of Maia's coming.  Some go "bucket list", leaving their jobs and going off to do what "they'd always wanted to do".  Others keep on with their work, like Dr. Fenton, the pathologist, who says, "This is what I've always wanted to do." (part one, chapter 5)

Which person are you?  Would you stay with your job, your family, your community?  Or would you go do something you've always wanted to do?

What about the children?  Sophia Littlejohn keeps delivering babies. And there are more babies being born all the time.  And the Concord School District has stayed open. (part one, chapter 4)  If you had a child, what would you do?  Would you be able to control your feelings for the sake of the child?

Last Policeman nominated for Edgar award for Best Paperback Original

Each Spring, Mystery Writers of America present the Edgar® Awards, widely acknowledged to be the most prestigious awards in the genre.

Our book this month, The Last Policeman, has been nominated for the Edgar Award in the Best Paperback Original category.  This honor is very deserved and puts Winters in company with previous winners Lisa Scottoline and Harlan Colben. 

Last year's winner was The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett.  It is also a cross-over novel from a science fiction writer.

The Last Policeman Discussion #1

Different people in the book react differently to the asteroid.  Det. Palace wants to continue to investigate deaths - not assume they are all suicides.  Henry Zell keeps actuarial tables.  Others go "bucket list" - trying to fulfill their lifelong desires.

What do you think you would do?  How would you handle the uncertainty of not knowing if you will be in the area hit by the asteroid? 

"Girls in White Dresses" Discussion #6

Where do you imagine Isabella, Mary and Lauren will be in five years? 

Did you enjoy reading the book?  What other books have you read that are similar?

Suggested Reading:

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
How to Make an American Quilt by Whitney Otto
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This concludes Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close.  In January, we will discuss The Last Policeman by Ben Winters.

"Girls in White Dresses" Discussion #5

From "Flushing Willard" 

When they were younger, Lauren and her friends talked about boys constantly.  They told each other every detail and dissected each sentence.  Bus as the years went by and they moved into separate apartments, it changed.  These weren't just random boys they were going to date and then break up with.  These were boys they might end up marrying.

What were Lauren's reservations about dating Mark?  What did Willard the goldfish's death mean to her?
Why is Lauren ready to call the turtle Mark gives her Rudy, when she wouldn't use that name for Willard the goldfish?

"Girls in White Dresses" Discussion #4

Throughout the book, questions of identity pop up.  How are the girls questioning their identity, their place in life?  Who seems to have created the strongest sense of self by the end of the book? 

from Jesus is Coming, near the end.

"I'm not changing my name back," Beth told them.  "I thought about it, but I'm going to stay Beth White."  Isabella didn't think this was a wise decision.

"Why wouldn't she go back to Beth Bauer?" she asked Lauren.  "She doesn't have any kids.  It's so weird."

"I don't know," Lauren said.  "Maybe she's afraid no one will remember who she is."

"Maybe," Isabella said.  The thought left her uneasy.

"Girls in White Dresses" Discussion #2

Ambivalence toward jobs, men, apartments, and children is a recurring theme.  Why do you think that is?  Did you feel ambivalence toward these things when you were in your twenties?  Are you ambivalent now?

"Connor screamed with all of his might.  He fought against it with everything he had.  All he wanted was to know what to expect.  His world didn't look like he'd thought it would, and she understood.  How could he ceep calm if he couldn't see?  Isabella lay on the floor of the playroom upstairs and listened.  She heard the screams and she knew exactly how he felt.  He was right--she could hear it on her insides." (end of chapter "Blind")

Does Isabella's realization of Connor's problem help her?  Who else could this passage describe?

What do you think about the "Summer of Yes"?  (also in "Blind")  Does it help the girls meet people outside of their immediate circle?

Leave your thoughts as comments - so that others can share.

eBooks available for "Girls in White Dresses" and "Last Policeman"

Two books, Girls in White Dresses, and The Last Policeman, are available from the Library's Overdrive ebook service.  They can be checked out and downloaded to an ereader for 14 or 21 days.

Find the Overdrive ebooks on the library web page.  You will have to have a Grace A. Dow Memorial Library card number, and live within our legal service area.  Please call the library reference desk if you have questions:  989/837-3449.

Girls in White Dresses Discussion #1

How does Close use humor to convey character?  Are the women themselves funny, or the situations they find themselves in?

Which "girl" did you most closely identify with, and why?  Were (or are) you like these girls in your 20's?

Let me know by making a comment.  Anonymous comments are accepted.

Jennifer Close, author of Girls in White Dresses

With a wry sense of humor, Jennifer Close brings us through those thrilling, bewildering, what-on-earth-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life years of early adulthood. These are the years when everyone else seems to have a plan, a great job, and an appropriate boyfriend, while Isabella has a blind date with a gay man, Mary has a crush on her boss, and Lauren has a goldfish named Willard. Through boozy family holidays and disastrous ski vacations, relationships lost to politics and relationships found in pet stores, Girls in White Dresses pulls us deep inside the circle of these friends, perfectly capturing the wild frustrations and soaring joys of modern life. (from GoodReads)

Jennifer Close was born and raised on the North Shore of Chicago. She is a graduate of Boston College and received her MFA in Fiction Writing from The New School in 2005. She worked in New York in magazines for many years and then in Washington, D.C., as a bookseller. Girls in White Dresses is her first book.

A Visit from the Goon Squad Discussion #5

One part of the definition of "goon" is:

A bully or thug, esp. one hired to terrorize or do away with opposition.  How does that fit with this book?  How successful was Egan in expressing this concept?

In "A to B", Bosco says, "You don't look good anymore twenty years later, especially when you've had half your guts removed. Time's a goon, right?  Isn't that the expression?"

In "Pure Language", Bennie and Scotty are talking about what has happened to their lives.  " 'Time's a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?' "  Scotty shook his head. " 'The goon won.' "


What are your thoughts about the passage of time?  What is your life story?  Is time a goon?

On November 1, we will begin discussing Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close.

Discussion #3: Lou

Lou is in three consecutive stories:  "Ask me if I care", "Safari", and "You (Plural)". 

"Ask me if I care" is about Bennie and Scotty, Jocelyn and Rhea and Alice who are in high school in 1979.  Jocelyn has met Lou, a record producer from LA, who picked Jocelyn up hitchiking.    "... I'm waiting for Bennie. But Bennie is waiting for Alice, who's waiting for Scotty, who's waiting for Jocelyn . . . Jocelyn loves Scotty back, but she isn't in love with him. Jocelyn is waiting for Lou ...." (p.39 in my edition) Does this scenario seem familiar?  Do you think Jocelyn could run away to Lou's house in LA today without the police being called?  What kind of man is Lou?

In "Safari", Rolph and Charlie, Lou's oldest children, are on safari with Lou, his current girlfriend Mindy, and various hangers-on.  These events take place before the events in "Ask me if I care".  Why do you think the author has arranged her chapters in this order?  Does it add anything to the impact of the narrative?

In several stories, the narrator steps back and gives a quick summary of the rest of a character's life.  In "Safari", it is the 19-yr-old Samburu warrior who is part of the entertainment one night.  "The warrior smiles at Charlie.  ... Thirty-five years from now, in 2008, this warrior will be caught in the tribal violence between the Kikuyu and the Luo and will die in a fire. ..."  What does this information add to the narrative?  Did you find it disruptive or interesting?

Discussion #2: Bennie Salazar

Bennie Salazar is introduced at the beginning of "The Gold Cure" as being awash in "shame memories".  As the day goes on, he begins a list of these memories as a way of eradicating them.  Do you think this is a positive way to deal with the memories?  What does Bennie think the gold will do for him? 

On another note, do you agree with Bennie's opinion that digitization has ruined music?

 Bennie feels that music is "Too clear, too clean.  The problem was precision, perfection; the problem was digitization, which sucked the life out of everything that got smeared through its microscopic mest." (p. 24 in my version)

Philipp Meyer

Now 38, Meyer spent 10 years teaching himself how to write.  In his interview with the New Yorker, He says he "decided I would throw everything away, everything I’d heard in college and everything else. I decided I would trust only myself."

His first novel, American Rust, was published in 2009.  It is set in a dying steel town in Pennsylvania, where two unemployed young men try to figure out what to do with their lives. 

In "What You Do Out Here, When You're Alone", Max and Lilli are blown apart by an "accident" that left their son in a coma.  They each have to come to grips with their guilt, and who will care for their comatose son.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_philipp-meyer#ixzz27PWZprtD

Nell Freudenberger

Nell Freudenberger is the author of "An Arranged Marriage" (p. 147).  A native New Yorker, Freudenberger spent a year teaching English in Thailand, and has traveled through other Asian countries.  In her interview for the 20 Under 40 project, she said that she "thought seriously about applying to medical school, and also about staying on in Asia". 

Freudenberger has since published a novel, The Newlyweds, based on Amina, the main character in "An Arranged Marriage".

More articles about Nell:

• Salon
• LA Times
• Glamour

"The Train of Their Departure" Discussion #2

Assuming that everything in the final paragraph happens, what do you think of Polina's choices?

How would you characterize the society that Polina, Maxim and Alec live in?  Would you want to live there?

Would you want to read the book, Free World, that incorporates this story?  Why?

Next week, I will post information about our second story, "An Arranged Marriage" by Nell Freudenberger.

"The Train of Their Departure" Discussion #1

From The New Yorker Q&A with David Bezmozgnis:

I wanted to write about the peculiarities and contradictions of romantic life in the Soviet Union. I was six when I left the Soviet Union, so I never experienced this life, but I grew up around many people who did. The Soviet Union seems to exist in the American imagination as a dour place, when it wasn’t like that at all. Except when it was.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_david-bezmozgis#ixzz25cs9JcYz

Post your reactions as comments.

·         What was your emotional reaction to the story as a whole? 

·          How did the story reflect this dichotomy of Soviet life --  "dour" - "not dour"?

There will be another discussion thread started in a few days; but feel free to bring up you own thoughts as comments.

David Bezmozgis

David Bezmozgis is the author of our first story, "The Train of Their Departure".  The story was first published in the New Yorker's 20 under 40 issue in 2010.  Bezmozgis published his first book, Natasha and Other Stories in 2004.   He received the Toronto Book Award and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for First Book for Natasha.  If you want to read the title story, "Natasha", it is included in the Best American Short Stories 2005.

Bezmozgis was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1977.  He immigrated with his parents to Toronto in 1980.  He attended McGill University, receiving a BA in English Literature, and the University of California's School of Cinema-Television, receiving an MFA.  His first feature film, Victoria Day, was released in 2009. 

I looked for this story online.  If you are a New Yorker subscriber, you can read it here.  Otherwise, you can check out a copy of the book at the library.

The Free World (2011) is his first novel.

New York Times article about the 20 Under 40 list.