Desert Exploration:
Mary Doria Russell’s Dreamers of the Day
and Janet Wallach’s Desert Queen
September 15, 2010
Discussion begins at 7:30pm.
In the Lecture Hall
“Fiction is a great lie that tells the truth about how the world really works.” Abraham Verghese
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.
The next gathering of Beebe Library’s book discussion group, Books By the Lake, is on September 15, 2010 in the Lecture Hall at 7:30pm for the discussion of two books with the theme of Desert Exploration: Mary Doria Russell’s Dreamers of the Day and Janet Wallach’s nonfiction title, Desert Queen.
Please consider: While reading these two books, compare how the authors deal with character and setting, bearing in mind that Russell’s book is fiction and Wallach’s book is nonfiction.
Janet Wallach’s nonfiction Desert Queen recounts the extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell, an English adventurer–adviser to kings, ally of Lawrence of Arabia–who explored the Arab world and helped create the modern Middle East. Mary Doria Russell’s fictional Dreamers of the Day takes place in the wake of the Great War and the devastating influenza pandemic of 1919, forty-year- old Ohio schoolteacher Agnes Shanklin decides to use her inheritance to take a trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land, where she meets T. E. Lawrence and Karl Weilbacher, a charming German spy with an intense interest in Lawrence.
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.
The 2010-2011 selections for Books by the Lake:
To be read over the summer and discussed in September.
Janet Wallach’s Desert Queen recounts the extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell, an English adventurer–adviser to kings, ally of Lawrence of Arabia–who explored the Arab world and helped create the modern Middle East. 2005. NONFICTION.
Mary Doria Russell’s Dreamers of the Day takes place in the wake of the Great War and the devastating influenza pandemic of 1919, forty-year-old Ohio schoolteacher Agnes Shanklin decides to use her inheritance to take a trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land, where she meets T. E. Lawrence and Karl Weilbacher, a charming German spy with an intense interest in Lawrence. 2008. FICTION.
This expansive chronicle of a geologically unstable hot spot between the islands of Java and Sumatra, scene of the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, conveys not only a wealth of scientific detail related to the event, but also addresses long-term ramifications for the social, political, economic, and religious fabric of the region. During the volcano’s final 20 hours and 56 minutes, sounds from Krakatoa’s eruption were heard 2968 miles away, and the air shock waves it created were recorded circling the globe seven times. The author cuts a broad swath as he transitions among topics as diverse as plate tectonics, the 16th-century Dutch-colonial spice trade, and the seeds of radical Islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia, but the telling is masterful and conscientious readers are rewarded by his elucidation of complex interrelationships. 2003.
Rendered a confident and supportive friend for her willingness to listen to her neighbors in genocide-stricken Rwanda, baker Angel Tungaraza provides decadent confections and transforming counsel to a series of troubled customers. 2009.
The lives of Jack and Joy Griffin always seem to come back to Cape Cod, where they honeymooned, as they experience the ups and downs of life, including the deaths of Jack’s parents, the marriage of their daughter, and Jack and Joy’s separation. 2009.
Holiday Potluck begins at 6:30pm at a group member’s home.
In seventeenth-century Amsterdam, Miguel Lienzo, a Portuguese-Jewish trader desperate to recover his lost fortune, enters into a partnership with seductive Geertruid Damhuis to introduce coffee to the city, and confronts a ruthless adversary. 2003.
Bring your ballot suggestions to the next two meetings.
Blink is about the first two seconds of looking–the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. 2005.
Bring your suggestions got the 2011-2012 ballot.
At the edge of the continent, in the small town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large but doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Winner. 2007.
Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project. 2009.
Ballots due before 12N, May 9, 2011.
Captures the delicate balance of class and gender in contemporary India as witnessed through the lives of two women–Sera Dubash, an upper middle-class housewife, and Bhima, an illiterate domestic hardened by a life of loss and despair. 2006.
Ballot winners announced for 2011-2012
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.
End-of-Year Potluck begins at 6:30pm at a group member’s home.
Previous Discussions (1998 to 2010)
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