MEETING: Friday, MAY 24, Begins at 10 A.M.
(NOTE: Earlier Start Time – Library closes at 12:00PM on Fridays for the summer.)
BOOK: LIFE AFTER LIFE by KATE ATKINSON
(An Amazon Best Book of the Month, April 2013)
Every time Ursula Todd dies, she is born again. Each successive life is an iteration on the last, and we see how Ursula’s choices affect her, those around her, and–so boldly–the fate of the 20th-century world. Most impressive is how Kate Atkinson keeps the complexity of her postmodern plotting so nimble. Life After Life approaches the universe in both the micro- and macro sense, balancing the interior lives of Ursula’s friends and family with the weight of two World Wars. (How many writers can make domestic drama as compelling as the London Blitz?) Life After Life is an extraordinary feat of narrative ambition, an audacious genre-bender, and a work of literary genius. (Kevin Nguyen)
PREVIOUS SELECTIONS
2012
The Butterfly Mosque, G. Willow Wilson
Religion for Atheists, Alain de Botton
Red Sorghum, Mo Yan
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
The Seven Sisters, Margaret Drabble
The Prague Cemetery, Umberto Eco
Secret Daughter, Shilpi Somaya Gowda
The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
2011
House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
Cleopatra, Stacy Schiff
Memory, Philippe Grimbert
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
2010
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
Strength in What Remains, Tracy Kidder
Old New York, Edith Wharton
The Lost City of Z, David Grann
Brooklyn, Colm Toibin
The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry
2009
The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich
March, Geraldine Brooks
Starting Out in the Evening, Brian Morton
The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick
August: Osage County, Tracy Letts
2008
Death With Interuptions, Jose Saramago
Run, Ann Patchett
Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
The Gathering, Anne Enright
2007
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The Summer Before the Dark, Doris Lessing
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Immaculée Ilibagiza, Left to Tell
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Zadie Smith, On Beauty
2006
Elizabeth Michael Boyle, Science as a Sacred Metaphor: An Evolving Revelation
Robinson, Marilynne Housekeeping
Ishiguro, Kashuo Never Let Me Go
Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace
Picoult, Jodi My Sister’s Keeper
2005
Robinson, Marilynne Gilead
Hosseini, Khaled The Kite Runner
Wharton, Edith Ethan Frome
McEwan, Ian Saturday
Wilder, Thornton The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Maugham, W. Somerset Of Human Bondage
Shanley, John Patrick Doubt
2004
Kidd, Sue Monk The Secret Life of Bees
Hamill, Pete Forever
Oufkir, Malika Stolen Lives
Smith, Zadie White Teeth
Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time
Mason, Daniel The Piano Tuner
Alexander, Robert The Kitchen Boy
2003
Glass, Julia The Three Junes
Canin, Ethan The Palace Thief
Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451
Fry, Christopher A Sleep of Prisoners
Patchett, Ann Bel Canto
Brown, Dan The DaVinci Code
Erdrich, Louise The Beet Queen
2002
Salzman, Mark Lying Awake
Trevor, William Two Lives
Graham, Martha Personal History
Diamant, Anita The Red Tent
Russo, Richard Empire Falls
McEwan, Ian Atonement
Stone, Elizabeth A boy I once Knew
