Join our Book Review Group

2009 SOUTH ORANGE LIBRARY BOOK REVIEW GROUP –
All meetings are on the fourth Monday of the month at 7:30pm in the Library Meeting Room (unless otherwise posted)

3/23/09 One Book New Jersey – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by J. Diaz - Oscar is a 300-pound-plus "lovesick ghetto nerd" with zero game (except for Dungeons & Dragons) who cranks out pages of fantasy fiction with the hopes of becoming a Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien. The story of a multi-generational family curse courses through the book, leaving troubles and tragedy in its wake.. The rope-a-dope narrative is funny, hip, tragic, soulful, and bursting with desire

.4/27/09 - Author Visit – Black & White by D. Shapiro – Dani will join us by phone to discuss her fifth book. (PW)”The novel offers some fine insights into marriage, the making of art and the often difficult mother-daughter dynamic.”

5//18/09 – Sophomore Selection – Middlesex by J. Eugenides (LJ)”From the beginning, the reader is brought into a world rich in culture and history, Eugenides proves that he is not only a unique voice in modern literature but also well versed in the nature of the human heart.”

6/22/09 – Pulitzer Prize Winning Author – People of the Book by G. Brooks
(PW)” Brooks is too good a novelist to belabor her political messages, but her depiction of the Haggadah bringing together Jews, Christians and Muslims could not be more timely. Her gift for storytelling, happily, is timeless”

7/27/09 – Surprise Ending -The Senator’s Wife by S. Miller – (PW)”Miller returns with a rich, emotionally urgent novel of two women at opposite stages of life who face parallel dilemmas. Her incisive portrait of the complex inner lives of her characters and her sharp manner of taking them through conflicts make for an intense read..”

8/24/09 Fiction into Film –The Reader by B. Schlink -The theme of good versus evil and the question of moral responsibility are eloquently presented in story that's sure to inspire questions and passionate discussion.. (Amazon) ”It wrestles demons in its few, remarkably lucid pages. What does it mean to love those people-- --who committed the worst atrocities the world has ever known? And is any atonement possible through literature? Schlink's prose is clean and pared down, stripped of unnecessary imagery, dialogue, and excess in any form. “

9/21/09 Epistolary Novel -The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by M. Shaffer (San Francisco Chronicle), “ Traditional without seeming stale, and romantic without being naïve” this epistolary novel, based on Mary Ann Shaffer’s painstaking, lifelong research, is a homage to booklovers and a nostalgic portrayal of an era. As her quirky, loveable characters cite the works of Shakespeare, Austen, and the Brontës, Shaffer subtly weaves those writers’ themes into her own narrative. It is the tragic stories of life under Nazi occupation that animate the novel.


10/26/09 Classic- Death Comes for the Archbishop by W. Cather. Cather expert and author of Willa Cather's Modernism: A Study of Style and Technique Jo Ann Middleton will lead our discussion. Cather preferred to call Death Comes for the Archbishop a “narrative” rather than a novel. The book does not conform to traditional notions of the novel form but layers vignettes from the lives of her protagonists to build a quiet study of nineteenth-century New Mexico and the religious faith that transformed the peoples of the region.

11/23/09 – First Fiction - Loving Frank by N. Horan (Amazon) “Loving Frank is a remarkable literary achievement, tenderly acute and even-handed in even the most heartbreaking moment. It’s a rare treasure to find a historically imagined novel that is at once fully versed in the facts and unafraid of weaving those truths into a story that dares to explore the unanswered questions.”

12/21/09 Memoir – Dreams from My Father by B. Obama – The 44th President’s first book. (NYT) “[Barack Obama] is that rare politician who can actually write - and write movingly and genuinely." (Wash Post. Bookworld)"Fluidly, calmly, insightfully, Obama guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race."

1/25/10 – 2010 Book Selection

2/22/10 – Political Biography -Team of Rivals by D Kearns Goodwin
(Booklist) “Goodwin offers fresh ground by which to judge the almost overdone sixteenth president. She is fascinated by the "growth of Lincoln's political genius” (NYT) “Goodwin's narrative abilities...are on full display here, and she does an enthralling job of dramatizing...crucial moments in Lincoln's life....A portrait of Lincoln as a virtuosic politician and managerial genius."

For further information, please call Nancy Chiller Janow at the Library (973-762-0230) or email NJanow@sopl.org. The Library is located at 65 Scotland Road in South Orange. All are welcome to attend and refreshments will be served.