Agawam Pageturner's Book Club's Discussion of Songs without Words by Ann Packer

The group had a lively discussion about this book. Some loved it saying the felt present with the drama of the family when one member, the teenage daughter Lauren, tries to commit suicide. Others felt there was too much detail, and that it went on, and on. Others argued that life is about minutiae. The book also discussed the effect the attempted suicide has on the mother Liz and her friend Sarabeth. Sarabeth cannot deal with it, partly because her mother committed suicide when she was a teenager. Liz has to come to terms that she has always been the giving one in the relationship, and she has to decide if she still wants to remain friends with Sarabeth when Sarabeth does not come to her aid. In terms of the coverage of a person with depression, people thought it was well done, as well as the effect on the family. Liz wants to blame herself, because it is easier than believing bad things can happen at random. The turning point for Lauren's healing is when she shows a caring attitude for Lucas, someone else in the mental ward of the hospital. She thinks of something outside herself. This book prompted discussion of deep topics.

Night Bookers' Book Club's Discussion of The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway

The group had an interesting discussion about this book. Some liked the descriptions of the Australian outback. Others hated that part of the book, and preferred the parts that described Jill's interaction with her family. This book is a memoir of Jill Ker Conway's childhood to adulthood in the outback, to her decision to leave the outback for America. Everyone felt she was burdened when she so young. She lost her father in a suicide when she was a little girl, during the great drought when all the sheep on their farm died. Then, when she was a teenager, she lost her brother in a car accident. These incidents were never discussed in the family. Her mother was able to cope with the father's death, but fell apart more with her son's death. Jill had a hard time being so smart in the 1950's. She was unable to find a job when she graduated college because she was a woman, even though she was one of the top of her class. People felt she was like her mother, and that she was wrote coldly, stoically, and intellectually. They group agreed she had to leave her mother and Australia to save herself. Eventually, Jill became the first woman president of Smith College. The group had a thought-provoking discussion about this strong woman.

Night Booker's Book Club Discussion of The Language of Threads by Gail Tsukiyama

This book is the sequel to Women of the Silk. Some people in the group liked this book better than the first book. One woman said she liked that there was not a painful separation of family, and that there was not a focus on factory work, although people found the death of Ji Shen and Mrs. Finch heartbreaking. The story follows two young women Pei and Ji Shen in Hong Kong during World War II and beyond. Pei and Ji Shen work for Mrs. Finch, until she is taken by the Japanese. Ji Shen who had a great bond with Mrs. Finch, then becomes lost in the black market. She ends up dying in childbirth. Pei raises her son. People admired the strong women characters in the book. One women said how much she would enjoy sitting down and talking with them. People also liked the colorful way Ms. Tsukiyama writes. Overall it was a great book for discussion.

Agawam Pageturners' Book Discussion of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

People enjoyed the short stories in this book, all connected by the character Olive Kitteridge, retired schoolteacher in a small town in Maine. People said Olive was multi levelled and multifaceted. The book discussed serious topics, but used humor at the right points to break the tension. All the characters in the books struggled. One person liked Olive until she found at the end of the book that she hit (not spanked) her son when he was a child. It also was suggested that her son Christopher was bipolar, and Olive herself was probably bipolar. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. This was an excellent book to discuss and worthy of the Pulitzer Prize the group thought.

Agawam Pageturner's Book Club's Discussion of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Everyone enjoyed this gothic novel. People compared it to Jane Eyre. The book is about an old woman and famous author, Miss Vida Winter, giving a true account of her life to Margaret, a woman who lost her twin sister at birth. It is a very tragic tale, with an element of mystery of who Miss Winter really is. It features the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves. People could not put it down, and could not wait to read the next chapter. Everyone agreed this was a great book to read and discuss.

Night Bookers Discuss Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland

Some people enjoyed and some did not enjoy the eight separate stories that traced the history of a fictious Vermeer painting. People who liked it found it compelling the incredible hold art has on its viewers. Some liked that it started with its most recent owner and worked backward. Others had a hard time connecting and keeping track where the painting was physically. In each story, there was one person who had an eye for art. Some thought the painting was cursed. In one story, the wife who loves the painting, refuses to sell it, even in a time of flood, and uses the seed potatoes her husband had set aside. One person's favorite story was the man who bought the painting for his wife because it reminded him of his first love (not his wife). He then realizes what he had with his wife is real love. Someone observed that those who were obsessed with the painting were selfish. Everyone was amazed that the painting survived, even through war and floods. Avery lively discussion.

New Books added in December.

Here is a list of books added in December: Adult, Children's, Teens.