Fiction Book Group

Please join us on Thursday, October 6th at 10:00 am in the first floor meeting rooms for our book discussion of Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese was one of the best books I read when it came out in 2009. Now that we are going to have it for this month’s book discussion group, I get to enjoy it all over again. Verghese draws richly dramatic characters with Ethiopia having its own personality throughout the book. Multiple dynamics keep you on the edge of your seat, such as brotherly love, betrayal, illicit love affairs and even a shipboard drama, along with medical breakthroughs. But it all begins with the story of twins.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a nun, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, and a renowned surgeon, Thomas Stone. The sister dies during childbirth and the father becomes so overwhelmed with grief that he abandons his twin sons to the Missing Hospital staff where they are born. Missing Hospital is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both brothers grow up during the upheaval of Ethiopia’s revolution and become medical doctors. Marion eventually has to abandon a life in Ethiopia for one in New York City, bringing him closer to his elusive but famous surgeon father. The drama that drives Marion from Ethiopia involves a woman with whom both brothers are involved. What originally tore the brothers apart eventually, and strangely, brings them together as their fates are forever intertwined.

-SH

The first Thursday Book Group will be meeting Thursday, June 2nd in the first floor theatre-level conference rooms from 10:30 – 12:30p.m. to discuss Beth Hoffman’s book, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt.

CeeCee needs saving, from her unstable mother and absentee father and from a life that is falling down around her in Willoughby, Ohio. It is 1967 and twelve-year-old Cecelia Rose Honeycutt is in the midst of trying to keep her fragile world from coming undone. Her mother, Camille, is living in a world of pageant queens and prom dresses, while CeeCee does her best to keep her mother from teetering out of control. Once CeeCee’s mother loses control and gets hit by an ice cream truck, she is shocked by the decision of her father to send her off to Savannah, Georgia with her great aunt. Aunt Tootie quickly turns CeeCee’s life around with constant love and attention. Meanwhile, Aunt Tootie’s maid, Odelle, proffers sage advice and good food. This new world is surrounded by eccentric but strong women leading colorful lives. Beth Hoffman really knows how to set a Southern stage with blooming gardens and regal peacocks to liven a garden party. Saving CeeCee Honeycut is a wonderfully engaging story of an adolescent on verge of a new life.

-SH

Alan Bradley’s Debut Dagger Award winning Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a delightful, old-fashioned romp through the English countryside during the summer of 1950.

The protagonist, Flavia de Luce, is a prepubescent Miss Marple with an inquisitive, precocious manner. When she is not roaming around on Gladys, her bicycle, looking for mysteries to solve, she can be found in her fully equipped chemistry lab in the crumbling manor of Buckshaw, the family mansion. She has a penchant for poisons and a nose for news, so when she finds a stranger dying his last breathe in the family cucumber patch she sets out to investigate. She gets further involved when her father, the colonel, is arrested for the crime. Her father proceeds to tell her a fabulous tale about a rare stamp and a boyhood friendship with a shifty character, both of which play pivotal roles in the current mystery.

Bradley weaves a colorful cast of characters that come to life on the page as they fall prey to Flavia’s detective bravado. Expect a top-notch mystery full of hilarity and spunk and keep reading because Flavia has more adventures in the follow-up The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag.

The First Thursday Book Group meets to discuss Alan Bradley’s Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie on Thursday, March 3rd at 10:00 a.m. in the first floor meeting rooms of the Hoover Public Library. Join us to discuss this pot-boiler!

Join us for a lively discussion of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout on Thursday, July 1 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in the Theatre Level Meetings Rooms. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Click here for discussion questions and more information about the book.

Join us for a lively discussion of Still Alice by Lisa Genova on Thursday, April 1 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in the Theatre Level Meeting Rooms. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Click here for discussion questions and more information about the book.

Join the first and second Thursday groups for a lively discussion of The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton on Thursday, January 7 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in the Theatre Level Meeting Rooms. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Click here for discussion questions and more information about the book.

Join us for a lively discussion of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski on Thursday, November 5 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in the Theatre Level Meeting Rooms. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Click here for discussion questions and more information about the book.