Next book club selection

Just a reminder, our July book we are reviewing next month is The Haunting of Hill House..we won't review House Rules until September!

Book Review Reminder

Just reminding everyone that we will be reviewing Snow Flower and the Secret Fan tomorrow night, Tuesday July 20th @ 9:30 p.m., hopefully everyone can make it. Talk to you then!

Review Questions for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

1. Why do you think women continued subjecting their daughters to foot-binding despite knowing firsthand the intense pain and risks? Do you think Lily's foot-binding experience improved her relationship with her mother?

2. Do you think Lily's betrayal was an understandable mistake? Did the way she treated Snow Flower change your opinion of her?

3. Does Lily make atonement with the way she treats Snow Flower's family after she dies?

4. What is the significance of nu shu? If some men in 19th-century China knew about nu shu and “old same” friendships, why do you think they allowed these traditions to persist?

5. Lily writes her story so that Snow Flower can read it in the afterworld. Do you think Snow Flower would have told the story differently?

6. In the story, we are told again and again that women are weak and worthless. But were they really? In what ways did Lily and Snow Flower show their strength and value?

7. What is your overall opinion and rating of the book?

Review for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Andrea, when are we reviewing this book? I know we usually do the second Tues of the month, but next Tues is my bday and I will be gone..

Leslie's July Pick

The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton

A lost child: On the eve of the First World War, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her - but has disappeared without a trace. A terrible secret: On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell Andrews learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family.A mysterious inheritance: On Nell's death, her granddaughter, Cassandra, comes into an unexpected inheritance. Cliff Cottage and its forgotten garden are notorious amongst the Cornish locals for the secrets they hold - secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family and their ward Eliza Makepeace, a writer of dark Victorian fairytales. It is here that Cassandra will finally uncover the truth about the family, and solve the century-old mystery of a little girl lost.

House Rules, Jodi Picoult

The author who wrote My Sister's Keeper

HOUSE RULES is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome. He’s hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject – in his case, forensic analysis. He’s always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do…and he’s usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger’s – not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate affect – can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel -- and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. HOUSE RULES looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way – but lousy for those who don’t.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini

Maybe most of you have read this one.

A Thousand Splendid Suns recounts the experiences and emotions of two Afghani women, Mariam and Laila, whose lives become entangled with the history of recent wars in their country. Mostly bleak and heart-rending, their story does offer the promise of hope and happiness in a land ravaged by warfare, gender conflicts, and poverty.