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NOLA Group Discussion Book List 2005 / 2006

Anderson, Joan. A YEAR BY THE SEA: THOUGHTS OF AN UNFINISHED WOMAN. Non-fiction. At fifty, Joan Anderson is disillusioned with her marriage and herself. When her husband announces he has taken a job that requires them to move 100 miles from their home, Joan opts out. Instead, she decides to spend a year in their cottage on Cape Cod, using the time to take stock of life and her marriage. This is humorous, thought provoking, and inspirational. (NOLA 2002)

Armstrong, Lance. IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BICYCLE. Non-fiction. 2001. Lance Armstrong’s energy and determination come through loud and clear in his memoir. He is a world-class athlete who won the Tour de France after he recovered from his grueling battle with cancer. In prose that leaps off the page, we are captivated by his humor, his moxie and his charm. (NOLA 2003)

Atwood, Margaret. SURFACING. Fiction. 1998. "Part detective novel, part psychological thriller, this is the story of a talented woman artist who goes in search of her missing father on a remote island in northern Quebec with her lover and another couple." (NOLA 2002)

Baldachi, David. WINNER. Fiction. A cut above your average mystery or thriller. A series of weekly lotteries are being fixed. The mysterious mastermind of the plot personally chooses his dubious winner. The consequence of being chosen makes for a gripping page-turner. (NOLA 2002)

Brady, James. FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. Non-fiction. "The Battle of Iwo Jima, fought in the winter of 1945 on a rocky island south of Japan, brought a ferocious slice of hell to earth. The battle was a turning point in the war in the Pacific, and it produced one of World War II's enduring images: a photograph of six soldiers raising an American flag on the flank of Mount Suribachi, the island's commanding high point. One of those young Americans was John Bradley, a Navy corpsman who a few days before had braved enemy mortar and machine-gun fire to administer first aid to a wounded Marine and then drag him to safety. For this act of heroism Bradley would receive the Navy Cross, an award second only to the Medal of Honor. Bradley, who died in 1994, never mentioned his feat to his family. Only after his death did Bradley's son James begin to piece together the facts of his father's heroism. Flags of Our Fathers recounts the sometimes tragic life stories of the six men who raised the flag that February day" (NOLA 2002)

Brenner, Joel. EMPERORS OF CHOCOLATE. Non-Fiction. Brenner, a former Washington Post financial reporter, tells the stories of how Forrest Mars, Sr. and Milton S. Hershey turned their two companies from small mom-and-pop operations into international forces over the last century. (NOLA 2000)

Bryson, Bill. A WALK IN THE WOODS: REDISCOVERING AMERICA. Non Fiction. 1998. "Accompanied only by his old college buddy, Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin. The reader is treated to both a very funny personal memoir and a delightful chronicle of the trail, the people who created it, and the places it passes through." (NOLA 1999)

Burke, James Lee. BLACK CHERRY BLUES. Fiction. This Edgar Award winner for 1990 features Dave Robicheaux, a former New Orleans police detective. Haunted by his wife's murder, he moves with his daughter out to Montana to start a new life only to become involved with murder, the Mafia, and Native American land. (NOLA 2000)

Chevalier, Tracy. GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING. Plume, 2001 Fiction. Griet, the narrator, is only sixteen when she is hired as a maid into the household of Johannes Vermeer. She becomes his assistant and ultimately a model for him. The author successfully depicts both the domestic tensions of the Vermeer home as well as life and art in 17th century Delft. (NOLA 2001)

Cook, Thomas. INSTRUMENTS OF NIGHT. Bantam, 1999 Fiction. While assisting in a 50-year-old murder investigation, writer Peter Grave’s is brought face-to-face with a horrible crime from his childhood in this chilling novel. (NOLA 2001)

Cornwall, Patricia. PORTRAIT OF A KILLER: JACK THE RIPPER--CASE CLOSED. Non-fiction. 2003. Jack the Ripper was renowned artist Walter Sickert (1860-1942) according to Cornwell, in case anyone hasn't yet heard. The evidence Cornwell accumulates toward that conclusion in this brilliant, personal, gripping book is very strong, and will persuade many. In May 2001, Cornwell took a tour of Scotland Yard that interested her in the Ripper case, and in Sickert as a suspect. A look at Sickert's "violent" paintings sealed her interest, and she became determined to apply, for the first time ever, modern investigatory and forensic techniques to the crimes that horrified London more than 100 years ago. (NOLA 2003)

Da Chen. COLORS OF THE MOUNTAIN. Non-Fiction. Da Chen was born in 1962, in the Year of Great Starvation. Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution engulfed millions of Chinese citizens, and the Red Guard enforced Mao’s brutal communist regime. Chen’s family belonged to the despised landlord class, and his father and grandfather were routinely beaten and sent to labor camps, the family of eight left without a breadwinner. Despite this background of poverty and danger, Da Chen grows up to be resilient, tough, and funny, learning how to defend himself and how to work toward his future. (NOLA 2003)

Dai Sijie. BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS. Fiction. 2002. This beautifully presented novella tracks the lives of two teens, childhood friends who have been sent to a small Chinese village for "re-education" during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Sons of doctors and dentists, their days are now spent muscling buckets of excrement up the mountainside and mining coal. But the boys-Luo and the unnamed narrator-receive a bit of a reprieve when the villagers discover their talents as storytellers. (NOLA 2003)

Elkin, Stanley. MRS. TED BLISS. Fiction. 2002. Mrs. Ted Bliss is a Jewish widow living out her “golden” years in Miami. What could be a clichéd story is in fact a touching, complex telling of a widow learning to live in the modern world. The pivotal point of the plot revolves around the lat Mr. Ted’s Buick LeSabre and the interesting “friends: Mrs. Ted acquires because of said vehicle. (NOLA 2003)

Enger, Leif. PEACE LIKE A RIVER. Fiction. Dead for 10 minutes before his father orders him to breathe in the name of the living God, Reuben Land is living proof that the world is full of miracles. But it's the impassioned honesty of his quiet, measured narrative voice that gives weight and truth to the fantastic elements of this engrossing tale. (NOLA 2003)

Ephron, Amy. A CUP OF TEA. Fiction. Rosemary Fell's life of privilege changes forever when she invites a penniless young woman home for a cup of tea. Ephron spins a delightful tale of a triangular romance set against the back drop of New York society during World War I. Based on a short story by Katherine Mansfield. (NOLA 1998)

Farley, Tony. JIM THE BOY: A NOVEL. Non-fiction. 2001. A smooth and sentimental coming of age story set in a remote North Carolina hamlet during the Great Depression. Watch the world open up through the eyes of ten-year old Jim. (NOLA 2002)

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. TENDER IS THE NIGHT. Fiction. 1995. "Set on the French Riviera in the 1930's, this novel chronicles the psychological disintegration of a wealthy couple as they support friends and hangers on emotionally and financially." (NOLA 2002)

Frizier, Charles. COLD MOUNTAIN. Fiction. 1997. A wounded Confederate soldier, tired of the pointless slaughter of war, leaves his hospital bed and begins the long walk back to the hills of North Carolina and the woman he left behind. This book parallels his walk and her psychological journey as she comes to terms with her existence. As their lives converge once again, a new world is born from the ruins of the old. (NOLA 1999)

Godwin, Gail. FATHER MELANCHOLY'S DAUGHTER. Avon, 1997 Fiction. A bittersweet story of a young girl’s devotion to her father, the rector of a small church in Virginia. This novel is filled with the hope, dreams, and love that sustain them both in the wake of betrayal and tragedy that diminish their family. (NOLA 2001)

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR: A BIOGRAPHY. Non Fiction. 1997. A fond remembrance of a Brooklyn childhood during the fifties. The author weaves together the experiences she shared with other war babies and those unique to a specific place, time and family. Of particular interest is her love for the Brooklyn Dodgers which was fostered by her father. They discussed each game and he taught her how to record the complex symbols and lines in her scorebook. This forged a lasting bond between them. (NOLA 1999)

Greene, Bob. DUTY. Harper Perennial, 2001 Non Fiction. In one soldier’s memory of a mission that transformed the world—and in one son’s last attempt to grasp his father’s ingrained sense of honor and duty—lies a powerful tribute to the ordinary heroes of an extraordinary time in American life. (NOLA 2001)

Greenlaw, Linda. LOBSTER CHRONICLES. Non-Fiction 2003. After 17 years at sea, Linda Greenlaw decided it was time to take a break from being a swordboat captain, the career that would earn her a prominent role in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm and a portrayal in the subsequent film. Greenlaw decided to move back home, to a tiny island seven miles off the Maine coast. There, she would pursue a simpler life as a lobsterman, find a husband, and settle down. But all doesn't go as planned. The lobsters refuse to crawl out from under their rocks and into the traps she and her father have painstakingly set. Fellow islanders draw her into bizarre intrigues, and the eligible bachelors prove even more elusive than the lobsters. But just when she thinks things can't get worse, something happens that forces her to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about life, luck, and lobsters. (NOLA 2003)

Gulland, Sandra. MANY LIVES AND SECRET SORROWS OF JOSEPHINE B.. Fiction. This is a fictionalized account of the early life of Josephine Bonaparte. This book, the first of three that cover her entire life, is about her early life and ends with her marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte. (NOLA 2002)

Harr, Johnathan. CIVIL ACTION. Non-fiction. 1996. In this true story of an epic courtroom showdown, two of the nation's largest corporations stand accused of causing the deaths of children. Representing the bereaved parents, the unlikeliest of heroes emerges: a young, flamboyant Porsche-driving lawyer who hopes to win millions of dollars and ends up nearly losing everything, including his sanity. A searing, compelling tale of a legal system gone awry--one in which greed and power fight an unending struggle against justice--A Civil Action is also the story of how one determined man can ultimately make a difference. With an unstoppable narrative power, it is an unforgettable reading experience. (NOLA 2003)

Haruf, Kent. PLAINSONG. Vintage, 2000 Fiction. This is the story of some residents of Holt, a small town in the high plains of Colorado. These teachers, students, and ranchers lead seemingly separate lives until they are drawn together by one character that pulls the common thread between. (NOLA 2001)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES. Fiction. Set in the mid 19th Century Salem, the book explores a curse pronounced on Hawthorne's own family by a woman condemned to death during the Salem Witch Trials. The greed and the arrogance of the novel's Pyncheon family is mirrored in the decay of the mansion. But when a recent death mimics one from long ago, it appears that the curse on the house is real... (NOLA 1999)

Hillenbrand, Laura. SEABISCUIT: AN AMERICAN LEGEND. Non-fiction. 2001. "The exciting tale of one of the most famous racehorses in history - set against the dramatic backdrop of the 1930's Depression America." (NOLA 2002)

Irving, John. A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY. Fiction. One of John Irving's most accessible novels. Because Owen is small for his age and very bright, besides he is outside the mainstream of kid activity. That's OK with him because he truly believes he's an instrument of God and Irving proves he's right. This is a funny, moving heartbreaking story that encompasses the major events and traumas of the 50's and 60's. (NOLA 1999)

Jicai, Feng. THREE INCH GOLDEN LOTUS. This is a "beguiling" book, truly, just charming. And more than that, it is a dip into another time and place...a civilization at which we can only guess. It is a novel of "modern China" the story of foot binding and what it meant to that particular time and people. A three-inch golden lotus refers to a style of foot binding, the most difficult to achieve and the most desired (in all senses of the word). Fragrant Lotus has her feet bound in this style when she is only six, but it will be her fame and her fortune. Her life from that day is dictated by her feet and we follow that life in a series of "witty and often wicked ironies." (NOLA 1997)

Johnston, Gary Paul. CUSTER'S HORSES. Non-fiction. For more than a century, it has been the object of controversy, debate, and fascination. Never before has the Battle of the Little Bighorn been examined from the horses' perspectives. The battle proved to be the death of U.S. Army Gen. George Armstrong Custer and 265 men from his Seventh Cavalry. What really happened that fateful day in 1876 that contributed to Custer's Last Stand? (NOLA 2003)

Kidd, Sue Monk. SECRET LIFE OF BEES. Fiction. 2003. Lily Owens is a 14 year old white girl raised by an emotionally abusive peach farmer in South Carolina. Lily accidentally killed her mother when she was 7 years old. Rosaleen, a black woman, has been caring for Lily since this time. Rosaleen gets into trouble when she goes to town to register to vote. Rosaleen and Lily flee to Tiburon, South Carolina because Lily’s mom owned an image of a Black Madonna with the words “Tiburon, South Carolina” on the back. They are taken in by three black sisters who are beekeepers and Lily finds a connection to her mother. (NOLA 2003)

Kudzru, Hari. THE IMPRESSIONIST. Fiction. 2003. Charting the bizarre and picaresque journey of a chameleon-like figure from India to England to Africa, Kunzru keenly explores themes of racial and ethnic identity and overweening British pride. Until 1918, his 15th year, spoiled Pran Nath believes that he is the son of a wealthy Kashmiri merchant and a disturbed woman, Amrita, who died giving birth to him. When the housekeeper reveals that he is actually an Englishman's child, and thus a despised half-breed, he's thrown out on the street. After an involuntary stay in a brothel, a stint as a servant in the depraved household of the Nawab of Fatehpur, and a sojourn at a Bombay missionary's home, he moves on to England, where he pretends to be an orphaned heir, Jonathan Bridgeman. With each identity he assumes, the hero strives to become more and more like a pure Englishman and to hide his "tainted blood." (NOLA 2003)

Lahiri, Jhumpa. THE INTERPRETER OF MALADIES. Fiction. 1999. “The author charts the emotional voyages of characters seeking love beyond barriers of nations, cultures, religions and generations in this Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories. Imbued with the sensual details of both Indian and American cultures, they speak with universal eloquence to anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.” (NOLA 2003)

Lee, Harper. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Fiction. 1960. This novel is set in a small Alabama town in the 1930’s. The narrator is a little girl, Scout Finch, whose father, a lawyer, defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. A compassionate, deeply moving novel and a most persuasive plea for racial justice. 265p. (NOLA 1995)

Lipman, Elinor. THE INN AT LAKE DEVINE. Fiction. It is 1962 and all across America barriers are collapsing. Inquiring about summer openings at a Vermont Inn, the Marx family receives a "killingly civilized" response that ends with "Our guests who feel most comfortable here, and return year after year, are Gentiles." The book is full of sparkling scenes of serious social mischief, explorations of identity, delicious food, and a wedding party or two. It is a perfect, provocative comedy. (NOLA 2000)

MacNeil, Robert. WORDSTRUCK: A MEMOIR. Non-fiction. 1989. "In this memoir the PBS journalist tells how, as a child, he began a lifelong fascination with language... Growing up during WWII in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his father was based, MacNeil drank in the seacoast atmosphere but more avidly feasted on books ..." 230p.

Marx, Harpo. HARPO SPEAKS. Non Fiction. 1961. Not only is it a surprise that Harpo speaks, an even bigger surprise is what a raconteur he was. His stories about the Algonquin Round Table are priceless. He lived a very full life and recounts it with great humor, candor and charm. (NOLA 1999)

McCrumb, Sharon. THE ROSEWOOD CASKET. Another lyrical mystery in her "Ballad Series" by this Edgar award winning author. A dying man's sons return to say goodbye and decide the fate of the family farm. Woven into the story is the history and mystical aura of the Appalachian Mountain area. (NOLA 1998)

Nickman, Homer. ROCKET BOYS. Non-Fiction. This memoir works on many levels. The reader is immersed in the small town life of Coalwood, West Virginia as well as Homer's loving yet troubled family. But the curx of the story is Homer's insatiable desire to build a rocket that really works. The Movie October Sky is based on this memoir. (NOLA 2000)

Nielson, Jerri. ICEBOUND….. Non-fiction. 2002. Jerri Nielsen was a forty-six-year-old doctor working in Ohio when she made the decision to take a year's sabbatical at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Antarctica, the most remote and perilous place on Earth. The "Polies," as they are known, live in almost total darkness for six months of the year, in winter temperatures as low as 100 degrees below zero--with no way in or out before the spring. During the long winter of 1999, Dr. Nielsen, solely responsible for the mental and physical fitness of a team of researchers, construction workers, and support staff, discovered a lump in her breast. Consulting via email with doctors in the United States, she performed a biopsy on herself, and in July began chemotherapy treatments to ensure her survival until condition permitted her rescue in October. A daring rescue by the Air National Guard ensued, who landed, dropped off a replacement physician, and minutes later took off with Dr. Nielsen. (NOLA 2003)

Patchett, Ann. BEL CANTO. Fiction. 2002. A world renowned opera singer has been asked to perform at a birthday party for a Japanese business executive while is being held in the home of the vice-president of a poor Latin American country. Young terrorists storm the party in a failed attempt to take the country's president hostage. Determined to have their demands met, the inept guerrillas settle in for a long siege. Joined by no common language other than music, 58 international hostages and their captors forge unexpected bonds. (NOLA 2002)

Paterniti, Michael. DRIVING MR. ALBERT: A TRIP ACROSS AMERICA…... Non-fiction. 2001. Albert Einstein's brain floats in a Tupperware bowl in a gray duffel bag in the trunk of a Buick Skylark barreling across America. Driving the car is journalist Michael Paterniti. Sitting next to him is an eighty-four-year-old pathologist named Thomas Harvey, who performed the autopsy on Einstein in 1955 -- then simply removed the brain and took it home. And kept it for over forty years. On a cold February day, the two men and the brain leave New Jersey and light out on I-70 for sunny California, where Einstein's perplexed granddaughter, Evelyn, awaits. And riding along as the imaginary fourth passenger is Einstein himself, an id-driven genius, the original galactic slacker with his head in the stars. Part travelogue, part memoir, part history, part biography, and part meditation, Driving Mr. Albert is one of the most unique road trips in modern literature. (NOLA 2003)

Proulx, E. Annie. THE SHIPPING NEWS. Fiction. 1993. When Quoyle, a two-bit reporter, moves with his aunt and two children to his ancestral home in Newfoundland, he discovers that his life is about to change forever. It is here that he begins covering the shipping news for a weekly paper and learning things he never suspected about his forebears. 337p. (NOLA 1994)

Rendell, Ruth. ADAM AND EVE AND PINCH ME. Fiction. 2003. In Adam and Eve and Pinch Me, the mills of the gods appear to have ground Jock Lewis to dust--or have they? Jock's obsessive-compulsive girlfriend, Minty, thinks he was killed in a train crash and is tormented by his ghost. But the cheerfully amoral Jock--AKA Jerry Leach and Jeff Leigh, depending on which woman he's romancing--faked his death to move on to yet another unsuspecting lady. His one legal wife has swept their union hastily under the rug and married a conservative member of Parliament, who has his own urgent secrets. Jock's most recent fiancée, a successful banker, hasn't minded keeping him in the manner to which he's become accustomed--that is, until the day he doesn't come home. When his body is found in a cinema, the intersections of his past collapse in a way that destroys some lives and rebuilds others. (NOLA 2003)

Rinaldi, Ann. COFFIN QUILT: THE FEUD BETWEEN THE HATFIELDS…... Fiction. 2001. Feuds among the mountain folks of West Virginia and Kentucky, particularly the bloody skirmishes between the Hatfield and McCoy families, are often celebrated in American legend and folksongs. In The Coffin Quilt, Ann Rinaldi mines this rich vein of Americana for a fascinating tale that closely follows the real events of the Hatfield-McCoy feud, but which also has implications for our own violent times. (NOLA 2003)

Russo, Richard. EMPIRE FALLS. Fiction. Tale of blue collar life in a failing town in New England. The very appealing protagonist, Miles Roby, is the owner of a greasy spoon and newly divorced father of a teenaged daughter. Peopled by interesting characters and a number of plot lines, it is both sad and funny. (NOLA 2002)

Ryan, Terry. PRIZEWINNER OF DEFIANCE OHIO. Non-fiction. A loving and enjoyable tribute from a daughter to her mother. Terry Ryan tells of her mother's remarkable style and grace in keeping her family financially afloat by writing jingles and essays. (NOLA 2002)

Schlosser, Eric. FAST FOOD NATION. Non-fiction. 2001. "A stomach-churning critique of the health and labor practices of the burger business." (NOLA 2002)

See, Lisa. ON GOLD MOUNTAIN. Non-fiction. A personal history of two cultures meeting in Los Angeles' Chinatown. From the author's great-grandfather who cam from China to serve as an herbalist to combat disease, to her grandfather who sold antiques and supplied them to Hollywood studios, and the tales of her father's generation and their intermarriages with Caucasians, this is a riveting story. (NOLA 2000)

Tan, Amy. BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER. Fiction. This story deals with a number of types of relationships; mothers and daughters, adult children and aging parents, and men and women though the story of LuLing and her daughter Ruth. While tending her ailing and exasperating mother, Ruth finds her mother's account of her early life and begins to learn more about this very unusual woman and more about herself. (NOLA 2002)

Tey, Josephine. THE DAUGHTER OF TIME. Fiction. 1951. A revisionist view of Richard III written as a mystery to be solved by a present-day Scotland Yard Inspector. It is based on respectable source material and illuminates the confusing lineage of the Lancaster/Yorks culminating in the War of the Roses.

Trollope, Joanna. THE RECTOR'S WIFE. Berkley, 2001 Fiction. For 20 years, Anna Bouverie has been an Anglican priest’s wife, an unpaid helper who also has to scrimp to provide for her family on her husband’s meager wages. She watches as he retreats more and more into his work and away from the family. In desperation, she takes a job at a supermarket, something that “isn’t done” by a rector’s wife. As Anna’s life changes dramatically, we watch what happens as public expectations collide with real life. This was a Library Journal word-of-mouth book and an offering on Masterpiece Theatre. (NOLA 2001)

Truman, Margaret. FIRST LADIES. Margaret Truman says that the First Lady has the "World’s second toughest job." The President’s role is defined by the constitution but not a word about the First Lady. She performs her undefined role under the glare of the press and public opinion. Truman explores the fluctuating role during our county’s turbulent history. (NOLA 1997)

Welty, Eudora. THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER. Fiction. 1990. The author tells the story of the death of a small town southern judge. The ensuing conflict between his well-bred daughter and his tacky , hard-scrabble second wife is a dead-on depiction of southern life in a by-gone era. (NOLA 2002)