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Great Summer Reads Series: Book Discussions at East West Crossings
We are happy to announce several book discussions to be held this summer. There are many interesting reads currently available, and we offer a 10% discount on all book discussion items for July and August (20% discount for EWC members).
Book Discussions at East West Crossings: Great Summer Reads Series
This July - August series will consists of three books Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery. Also coming up a Fall History-Lovers Series of book discussions.
Synopsis of Books in the Great Summer Reads Series:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is set during the aftermath of World War II and proceeds as an epistolary novel, a series of letters between fictional London-based writer Juliet Ashton, and the residents of Guernsey, one of the Channel islands off the coast of France, which was occupied by the Germans during World War II. . It begins in 1946 when Juliet, who is looking for a book subject, receives a letter from Dawsy Adams, a farmer in Guernsey. As Juliet and the residents of Guernsey exchange letters, she is drawn into their community, with all its eccentricity and wonder. Their small acts of heroism and insights on war, survival and literature are the framework for Juliet's discoveries about friendships and connection. Her amazing wit and sense of humor become the filters for drawing us into this community of survivors and literature lovers . Juliet decides to set sail for Guernsey, where the inhabitants have formed the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society . The book is a homage to booklovers, as the letter-writers remind us of what they have gleaned from writers such as Shakespeare and Jane Austen in interpreting the day-to-day challenges of living under the war-time occupation of their small farming community. In the end, it's a book filled with humor and optimism. Discussion on Tuesday, August 10th at 10:30 a.m.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog revolves around two main characters, Renee Michel, the dumpy concierge of a toney apartment building in Paris, who wraps herself in cloddishness while observing the vacous lives of the building's tenants. Renee clandestinely studies art, philosophy and opera without being found out until a new tenant, one Mr. Kakuro Ozu moves in. Her foil is young Paloma, 12 years old and a genius, daughter of a bourgeois lilberal family and also planning to commit suicide by her 13th birthday as a protest against the lack of meaning and beauty in the world. Their lives become fused when the magnetic and life-giving force of Mr. Ozu enters the building. The price of admission is a fairly long intro focused on Marx, Husserl, Tolstoi, et al, but the absolute beauty of the writing and the plot construction is truly stunning - and very European! Discussion on Thursday, August 26th at 10:30 a.m.
Past Books:
Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story is a two-person journal exploring a mother-daughter relationship, written by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann Taylor Kidd. The Kidds' finely crafted skills of writing and observation are deployed here in a sort of travel memoir of a journey through Greece, Turkey and France. Each is going through a significant life challenge - for Sue, the advent of menopause, the concerns around aging and loss of creative spark -- and for her daughter, the concerns around finishing college without a next step clearly in her line of sight, as she completes the passage from childhood to adulthood. Their mutual insights create the kindling for this spark of light focused on the ties between mothers and daughters and the wonders of myth, art and travel. Join Brynn Ion for this first book discussion on Thursday, July 22d at 10:30 a.m.
At each meeting of the group, we will be using contextual materials to foster discussion of social and cultural issues that go beyond the text itself. The books we have selected are designed to lead to broader discussions of art and literature, emancipation of body and spirit, with continued emphasis on the multicultural dimensions of these issues. Joy Mitra will coordinate the contextual materials that will provided contextual enrichment for these discussions.
Book Club Members will receive discounts on all books and an opportunity to participate in group projects /activities together. There's no charge to join - but you do have to sign up in order to be eligible for the discounts and to join in the outings that are being planned.
So just email info@eastwestcrossings, if you're interested in participating. Give your name, phone number and email, and we'll get back to you with more details. You can also read about all the selections and proposed activities by going to the Book Club tab at eastwestcrossings.com
Heads up: For the history lovers out there, we would like to conduct a Fall History-Lovers Series of book discussions, if there's sufficient interest, to discuss Nathaniel Philbrick's The Last Stand, his non-fiction analysis of the lives of General Custer and Sitting Bull, as they prepare for and fatefully execute the battle typically referred to as Custer's Last Stand. The second proposed reading would be Hilary Mantel's fictionalized, but mightily researched, Wolf Hall, a treatment of Henry VIII's challenge to the authority of the Church of England as a result of his desire to marry Anne Boleyn and produce an heir to the throne. It is told through the point of view of Henry's agent, Thomas Cromwell, both a bully and a pragmatist. Winner of the Man Booker Prize, the novel documents the religious, political, and social turmoil that follows Henry's challenge to the authority and power of the Church of England. History lovers, send us a note to
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if you'd like to participate in these discussions.
Keep an eye on the events page for more details of the book club meetings. |
