Book Club Bash Choices: March 2019

Spring Book Club Bash - March 25 & March 26, 2019

QRB staff-recommended books for groups to discuss.

Fiction

The Cloister by James Carroll (Anchor $16.95). The 12th century monk Abelard is reviled by the church hierarchy for his defense of Jews and his relationship with his pupil, Heloise; a Jewish scholar in occupied France is denigrated for his efforts to revive Abelard's writings; and in the 1950s, a young cleric in New York, struggling with his place in the priesthood, wanders into the Cloisters in upper Manhattan. Three stories come together to demonstrate the battle between intolerance and the desire for truth. (Samantha)

The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain (St. Martin’s Press $27.99, paperback June, $16.99). What would you do to save your unborn child? Travel decades into the future? That's the issue for the protagonist in Dream Daughter. Raleigh author Diane Chamberlain will take you on the ride of your life as she gives us a game plan for how this just might be possible! (Samantha)

Extinctions by Josephine Wilson (Tin House $15.95). A stodgy, miserable, retired engineering professor in an Australian senior village finds that his world, seemingly about to crumble into nothingness, is completely reinvented. Funny, poignant, and galvanizing, this novel explores many kinds of extinctions―natural, racial, national, and personal―and what we might do to prevent them. (Kent)

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead Books $16). This story explores the grief that a woman and dog share for a lost friend. At the same time it explores the comfort that their new friendship brings. Winner of the 2018 National Book Award. (Anne)

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (Viking $27). Alternating between the ‘80s and the present, Makkai shows how AIDS altered the gay population in ways that reverberate today. This book will stand with the great writing about the AIDS epidemic, including Abraham Verghese’s memoir, My Own Country, and And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts. (Mamie)

The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose (Algonquin $15.95). In 2010, performance artist Marina Abramović began a 75-day installation at the Museum of Modern Art. She sat, silent, at a small table. Visitors came to sit across from her for as long as they wished. This is a fictionalized consideration of the impact of this exhibit, the effect of art on those who experience it, and of love—complicated, inconvenient, inevitable love. (Samantha)

The Overstory by Richard Powers (W W Norton $27.95, paperback April, $17.95). A group of people form an affinity for trees as children. They pursue varied paths to adulthood and become advocates and activists for the preservation of old growth forests. Eventually their paths cross in surprising ways. (Anne)

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy (Harper Paperbacks $16.99). The May Mothers, a group of moms experiencing new motherhood together, are rocked by a tragedy when one of their sons goes missing. Aimee Molloy presents a unique take on the thriller genre that will keep you up at night—reading! (Chelsea)

Sadness Is a White Bird by Moriel Rothman-Zecher (Washington Square Press $16). When his family moves from America to Israel, Jonathan embarks on a love affair with his new country. In the year before he joins the Israeli army, he meets Palestinian twins Nimreen and Laith, and forms an intimate bond of love and friendship. This beautifully wrought story is a reminder that the mentality of Us versus Them can only end badly for both. And that a love story isn’t any good unless it breaks your heart. (Tony)

There There by Tommy Orange (Knopf $25.95, paperback May, Vintage $16). The urban Native American experience is laid bare in this debut novel by a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. The lives of twelve people are brought together by their preparation for the upcoming Big Oakland Powwow. Beautiful language, fascinating and complex characters, and a run-away-train plot. (Mamie)

Useful Phrases for Immigrants: Stories by May-lee Chai (Blair $16.95). With eight stories depicting the lives of Chinese immigrants to the U. S. as well as migrant workers in China, this collection is unified in theme and consistent in quality. Chai explores class, family, sexuality, and love with grace, power and humor. (Tony)

The White Book by Han Kang (Hogarth Press $20). On the first page, Kang makes a list of white things. The objects on this list recur throughout the book (not sure I’d call it a novel—it’s more like a series of vignettes). It is the story of a woman whose infant brother died before she was born, whose black eyes are the only thing that isn’t white in her memories. (Mamie)

Nonfiction

Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks (Penguin $17). A dual biography of Winston Churchill and George Orwell, who preserved democracy from the threats of authoritarianism from the left and right alike. Why have these men's reputations only grown over the years? What formative factors give a person a particular political outlook? What are the parallels between the 1930s and today? (Kent)

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (Harper $17.99). The late Michelle McNamara’s true crime masterpiece chronicles the ten years of the Golden State Killer’s journey through California. After her premature death, her husband and fellow investigators used her extensive research to finish the book. The recent capture of the alleged killer will add a new dimension to the story. (Chelsea)

The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South by John T. Edge (Penguin $18). A people’s history that reveals how Southerners shaped American culinary identity and how race relations impacted Southern food culture over six revolutionary decades. (Kent)