ROSH HODESH BOOK GROUP

Shir Tikvah women are invited to be part of the Rosh Hodesh Book Group.  Please contact Anne Whitaker if you would like to be on the e-mail list.  Otherwise check the Week’s Worth and website.

Upcoming Events

The next meeting of the book group has been changed from Sunday, September 19 to 2 pm Sunday, October 3, 2010 at Caroline’s home.  Naomi will lead the discussion.

The book we will discuss is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  Here’s a synopsis from Amazon.com:

In Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their South Carolina peach farm, spends hours imagining a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These consoling fantasies are her heart’s answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words “Tiburon, South Carolina” scrawled on the back. The search for a mother, and the need to mother oneself, are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background of racial violence and unrest. When Lily’s beloved nanny, Rosaleen, manages to insult a group of angry white men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the only place she can think of–Tiburon, South Carolina–determined to find out more about her dead mother. Although the plot threads are too neatly trimmed, The Secret Life of Bees is a carefully crafted novel with an inspired depiction of character. The legend of the Black Madonna and the brave, kind, peculiar women who perpetuate Lily’s story dominate the second half of the book, placing Kidd’s debut novel squarely in the honored tradition of the Southern Gothic. –Regina Marler

Our November meeting is scheduled for Sunday, November 21, at 2 PM at Anita’s home. The book is The Butcher’sTheater by Jonathan Kellerman.  Robbie will lead the discussion.

From Library Journal - The Butcher’sTheater
The horribly mutilated body of a young woman the first of a grim series is discovered in Jerusalem, and Chief Inspector Daniel Sharavi takes charge. The ambitious scope of this extensively detailed and forcefully written novel, however, encompasses much more than mystery. Kellerman immerses the reader in the cultural ambiance of Jerusalem and delves deeply into character and motivation; he creates well-drawn images, a vicious and unnerving psychopathic villain, and a chillingly gruesome confrontation scene. A stunning work from the author of When the Bough Breaks . REK           Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Books Read in 2010

January 10-The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finklestein and Neil Asher Silberman
February 21-The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
April 4-Sarah the Priestess by Savina Teubal
May 16-All Other Nights by Dara Horn
July 11- The Color of Water by James McBride
August- The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan

Books Read in 2009

February 1 - As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg
March 22 - Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
May 3 - Women’s Minyan by Naomi Ragen
June 14 - The Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur
July 19 - The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnano
September 13 - A Double Thread: Growing up English and Jewish in London by John Gross
October 25 - A Life Worth Living by Byron Sherwin
November 22 - Miriam’s Kitchen by Elizabeth Erlich

Books Read in 2008

May 31 - The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks - Our initial meeting
August 13 - Rashi’s Daughters: Joheved by Maggie Anton
September 24 - Rachel Calof’s Story by Rachel Calof
November 12 - The Mezuzah in the Madonna’s Foot by Trudi Alexy

ONLINE BOOK CLUB

Ask about participating in our online Book Club at GoodReads. Send an e-mail to Leah Hershey.