This month we want you to help us choose our next book club selection! Take a moment to the review the titles below and a brief synopsis of each book. Follow this link
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/88ZYJT6 and vote for your favorite. We'll be announcing the winner on Friday, March 8!
Happy Voting!
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
David Sedaris's fourth
book mines poignant comedy from his peculiar childhood in North
Carolina, his bizarre career path, and his move with his lover to
France. Though his anarchic inclination to digress is his glory, Sedaris
does have a theme in these reminiscences: the inability of humans to
communicate.
Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs
Down time" is not a phrase in Tempe Brennan's vocabulary. A string of
disturbing cases has put her vacation plans on hold; instead, she heads
to the lab to analyze charred remains from a suspicious fire, and a
mysterious black residue from a small plane crash. But most troubling of
all are the bones. . . . Tempe's daughter's new boyfriend invites them
to a picnic -- a pig pickin' -- in the North Carolina countryside, where
a cache of bones turns up. But are they animal or human? X-rays and DNA
may link the crimes, but they can't reveal who is closing in on Tempe
and her daughter -- and how far they will go to keep her from uncovering
the truth.
The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal
friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full
pursuit of the good life—boating, swimming, and regular barbecues with
his good-natured buddies—he holds the vague conviction that a serious
relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until
Gabby Holland moves in next door. Despite his attempts to be neighborly,
the appealing redhead seems to have a chip on her shoulder about
him…and the presence of her longtime boyfriend doesn’t help. Despite
himself, Travis can’t stop trying to ingratiate himself with his new
neighbor, and his persistent efforts lead them both to the doorstep of a
journey that neither could have foreseen.
Serena by Ron Rash
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from
Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a
timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough
to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains--but
she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews,
hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness.
Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or
vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will
never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered
without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when
Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the
Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story
moves toward its shocking reckoning.
The Watery Part of the World by Michael Parker
Parker's affecting fifth novel mines two historical anecdotes from 1813
and 1970 to draw parallel narratives around island dwellers off the
North Carolina coast. When a vessel carrying Theodosia, daughter of Vice
President Aaron Burr, is attacked by pirates, she's left for dead on
Nag's Head island. A parchment-thin hermit nurses her back to health and
protects her as she embarks on a new life with a freed slave while
still lamenting the loss of her possessions and her past. And in 1970,
Woodrow, a black man, and Maggie and Whaley, two white sisters, are the
last remaining residents of the same North Carolina island.
Brighten The Corner Where You Are by Fred Chappel
The year
is 1946, and Joe Robert is no ordinary schoolteacher. He is a farmer, a
hunter, a dreamer and a philosopher whose innovative teaching methods
and evenhanded approach to the theory of evolution have irked the local
school board--they have summoned him to a late afternoon meeting. His
ideals and livelihood imperiled, Robert
feels--understandably--apprehensive, and to make matters worse, that
day's bizarre series of events (an unfortunate encounter with a treed
bobcat, a courageous rescue of a drowning child, and several unsettling
metaphysical discussions) have left him battered in mind and body. The
meeting is hilarious, if inconclusive. A finely drawn series of minor
characters, including stoic farmers and wives, tale-spinning coon
hunters and a shrewd local reporter, enriches this modest yet deeply
satisfying chronicle.
Sources:
http://www.amazon.com/Me-Talk-Pretty-One-Day/dp/0316776963; www.goodreads.com
http://www.amazon.com/Bare-Bones-Temperance-Brennan-Novels/dp/074345300; www.fanpop.com;heylady.net;http://www.amazon.com/Serena-Novel-P-S-Ron-Rash/dp/0061470848; http://www.nicholassparks.com/books/the-choice; http://www.amazon.com/Watery-Part-World-Michael-Parker/dp/161620143 ww.buxtonvillagebooks.com; www.shepherd.edu; http://www.amazon.com/Brighten-Corner-Where-You-Are/dp/0312050577
