August Book Club
August 20
Reviewer: Brooke Favero
by Amy Chua & Jed Rubenfeld
That certain groups do much better in America than others—as measured by income, occupational status, test scores, and so on—is
difficult to talk about. In large part this is because the topic feels
racially charged. The irony is that the facts actually debunk racial
stereotypes. There are black and Hispanic subgroups in the United States
far outperforming many white and Asian subgroups. Moreover, there’s a
demonstrable arc to group success—in immigrant groups, it typically dissipates by the third generation—puncturing the notion of innate group differences and undermining the whole concept of 'model minorities.'
September Book Club
September 17
Reviewer: Linda Montgomery
by Ruta Sepetys
This book is not to be confused with 50 Shades of Grey which we would not read in our bookclub!
Lina is just like any
other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws,
she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge
into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've
known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train
car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way
north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches
of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for
beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
October Book Club
October 15
Reviewer: Lindsay Lamb
by Lisa See
In 1937 Shanghai—the
Paris of Asia—twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister,
May, are having the time of their lives. Both are beautiful, modern, and
carefree—until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away
their wealth. To repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to
suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides. As
Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the
journey of a lifetime, from the Chinese countryside to the shores of
America. Though inseparable best friends, the sisters also harbor petty
jealousies and rivalries. Along the way they make terrible sacrifices,
face impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing
secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel
hold fast to who they are—Shanghai girls.
November Book Club
November 19
Reviewer: Kim Chapman
by Camron Wright
Survival for Ki Lim and
Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste
dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables
from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their
chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that
are not working. Just when things seem worst, Sang Ly learns a secret
about the bad-tempered rent collector who comes demanding money--a
secret that sets in motion a tide that will change the life of everyone
it sweeps past. The Rent Collector is a story of hope, of one woman's
journey to save her son and another woman's chance at redemption.
Other Recommended Books:
Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
Walking on Water by Richard Paul Evans
Heaven is for Real by Lynn Vincent & Todd Burpo
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner
Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford
Happy Reading!
