Chris Cleave’s
Little Bee
February 15, 2012
Discussion begins at 7:30pm in the Lecture Hall.
Bring in your suggestions for the April ballot to the next meeting.
This book discussion group combines the enjoyment of reading a single title and the desire to share insights, observations, and feelings about that one book with others who have read it. So many novels create a need in some readers to share their reactions about the book with others, as well as an opportunity to personally grow from the discussions of related themes and common experiences.
While reading, please consider: What happens to the characters that carry their stories with them, both physically and mentally? What happens when we try to forget our past? How much control over their own stories do the characters in the book seem to have?
gathering of Beebe Library’s book discussion group, Books By the Lake, will discuss Chris Cleave’s Little Bee. In this discussion group favorite, Little Bee, a young Nigerian refugee, has just been released from the British immigration detention center where she has been held under horrific conditions for the past two years, after narrowly escaping a traumatic fate in her homeland of Nigeria. Alone in a foreign country, without a family member, friend, or pound to call her own, she seeks out the only English person she knows. Sarah is a posh young mother and magazine editor with whom Little Bee shares a dark and tumultuous past. A sense of humor and an unflinching moral compass allow each woman, and the reader, to believe that even in the face of unspeakable odds, humanity can prevail.
Book Discussions are planned for the third Wednesday of the month September through July at 7:30pm (We skip June & August.). All adult patrons enthusiastic about reading and talking about what they have read are invited to attend as often as they can. The conversations are lively, intelligent, and insightful–come and join us!
There are some copies of each title available at the Beebe Library, so reserve and pick up your copy as soon as possible.
The Group Leader brings copies of the next title to each meeting.
SCHEDULE For September 2011 to July 2012
To be read over the summer and discussed in September.
In 1939 New York City, Joe Kavalier, a refugee from Hitler’s Prague, joins forces with his Brooklyn-born cousin, Sammy Clay, to create comic-book superheroes inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Winner. 2000.
Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher’s soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe’s maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver. 2008
Feeling at the top of her game when she is suddenly diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease, Harvard psychologist Alice Howland struggles to find meaning and purpose in her life as her concept of self gradually slips away. 2008
A tale loosely inspired by the life of Alexis de Tocqueville is set in the early nineteenth century and follows an unlikely friendship between a survivor of the French Revolution and an itinerant English engraver’s son. 2010.
Holiday Potluck begins at 6:30pm.
Twin brothers born from a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone come of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, where their love for the same woman drives them apart. 2009.
Bring your ballot suggestions to the next two meetings.
The compelling voice of a refugee illuminates the life-changing friendship between two women that began with a horrifying encounter on a secluded Nigerian beach. 2009
Bring your suggestions got the 2012-2013 ballot.
Reveals the workings of the U.S. Supreme Court, as seen through the eyes and writings of Justice Harry A. Blackmun, as he reflects on issues including the death penalty, abortion, and sex discrimination. 2006.
When artifacts from Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War II are uncovered during renovations at a Seattle hotel, Henry Lee embarks on a quest that leads to memories of growing up Chinese in a city rife with anti-Japanese sentiment. 2009.
Ballots due before 12N, May 7, 2012.
In 1944, after the fall of Russia and the failed D-Day landings, half of Britain is occupied by enemy forces, and Sarah Lewis, a young farmer’s wife, awakens to find that her husband has disappeared, along with all of the men from her remote Welsh village. 2007.
Ballot winners announced for 2012-2013
Chronicles the life of America’s second president, including his youth, his career as a Massachusetts farmer and lawyer, his marriage to Abigail, his rivalry with Thomas Jefferson, and his influence on the birth of the United States. 2001
End-of-Year Potluck begins at 6:30pm.
Previous Discussions (1998 to 2011)
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