We meet at Prairie after a Sunday service. Participants bring food to share. The meeting usually begins around 11:30-11:45 a.m. and continues until 1:00 or 1:30 p.m. For more information or to be put on the e-mail list, contact Mary Mullen, mmullen@chorus.net, 608-298-0843.
Prices are those current at http://amazon.com as of November 18, 2006.
1. Sun., Jan. 14. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim
Edwards. Fiction, about the decision of a
doctor to secretly send his newborn daughter with Downs syndrome to an
institution. 432 pages, $6.72 & up
2. Sun.,
Feb. 11. A Crack in the Edge of
the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester. Nonfiction, about the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake. 480 pages, $2.99 & up.
3. Sun., Mar. 11. Until I Find
You: A Novel by John Irving. Fiction,
“the story of the actor
Jack Burns – his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth
about his parents.” 848 pages, $1.00
& up.
4. Sun., Apr. 8. Confessions of an Economic
Hit Man by John Perkins.
Non-fiction, “a former
respected member of the international banking community describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped
the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by
lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their
economies.” (Democracy Now) 320 pages, $6.44 & up.
5. Sun., May13. The Plot
Against America by Philip
Roth. Fiction, “an alternate history where Franklin Delano Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh… and Jewish-American families like the Roths are persecuted on various
levels. The narrator and central character in the novel is the young Philip,
and the care with which his confusion and terror are rendered makes the novel
as much about the mysteries of growing up as about American politics.”
(Wikipedia) 400 pages, $1.15
& up.
6. Sun. June 10. Eats, Shoots
& Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss and
Bonnie Timmons. Try this
critical review which will make you want to read the book to see if you agree: http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/040628crbo_books1?040628crbo_books1. 228
pages, $0.92 and up.
7. Sun.
July 8. Choose and
read your own book on contemporary political thought. We'll each present and discuss the book we
read. Group discussion will consist of
comparing and contrasting what we read.
If you are at sea for choosing a book, you might consider one of those
listed here. The websites have brief
reviews as well as links to buying the books.
Who Let the Dogs In? Incredible
Political Animals I Have Known by Molly Ivins, from $0.32 < http://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Incredible-Political-Animals-Known/dp/1400062853>
384 pages (essays)
The Genius of Impeachment - The Founders' Cure for Royalism by John
Nichols, from $7.47
http://www.amazon.com/Genius-Impeachment-Founders-Cure-Royalism/dp/1595581405
256 pages
Dick: the Man Who Is President
by John Nichols, from $2.84
http://www.amazon.com/Dick-Man-Who-President-Cheney/dp/1565848403. 224 pages
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not)
Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, from $1.55
http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0805063897. 240 pages
8. Sun.,
Aug 12. THE DEAD, a novella by James Joyce. Available for free as a 26-page e-text (printable
version) at http://www.enotes.com/dead/. This story
presents the thoughts and actions of Gabriel Conroy on the night he and his
wife attend a party given by his two aunts.
His wife reveals a relationship she had when she was a young girl with a
young man who loved her passionately.
The story has many characters and a number of references to the dead,
and many characters are based on Joyce's friends and family members. (Suggested by Nancy Garst)
9. SAT.,
Sept. 15, at Prairie's annual Bethel Horizons' retreat.
MIDNIGHT
AT THE DRAGON CAFÉ by Judy
Fong Bates, exact time to be announced later (Contact Aileen Nettleton,
238-6053, or watch for the Bethel Horizon's schedule a week or two before the
weekend retreat.) from $2.19. http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1582431892/105-3315333-7491661?SubscriptionId=09GE3K6JDGSKCKXKEJG2. This is a Chinese immigrant story set in
Canada where 6-year-old Su-Jen Chou meets her father for the first time when
she and her mother come to join him where he runs a restaurant. It's a first novel by the author. Booklist
says, "The haunting characters in that lonely greasy spoon evoke a tradition
stretching back to Carson McCullers."
317
pages (Suggested by Al Nettleton, from an Oregon "everybody reads" program.)
The narrator of this first novel is a man who
was born poor, black, and brilliant in a Boston ghetto, married a white upper
class woman, became a father, and at 35 is struggling to reconcile his
upbringing and his life as a black father.
He has four days to come up with $12,000 to rent an apartment, pay the
tuition at his children's private school, and rescue his family from New
England where they've spent the summer with their Brahmin grandmother. Flashbacks to his 1970's childhood as a
"social experiment" and the son of an abusive mother and absent father blend
into his more recent history. The New York Times Book Review notes that
in his critique of American Society Thomas relies heavily on "Invisible Man"
and also on T.S. Eliot. 432 pages (Suggested by
Donna Murdoch) 11. Sun., Nov. 11.
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by
Mike Haddon, from $2.22 at http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Night-Time-Today-Show/dp/0385512104 Another debut novel, this
one has a 15-year-old boy with Augsberger's Syndrome (a form of autism) as a
narrator. Christopher finds his neighbor's poodle dead and is accused of
murdering the dog. He spends the night
in jail. Against his father's and the neighbor's wishes, but upon the
encouragement of his school social worker, Christopher resolves to find out
who-done-it and writes a book about his investigations: The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Called "bitterly funny" and an "eye-opening work." 240 pages (Suggested by Robin Proud) 
10. Sun., Oct. 14.
MAN GONE DOWN by
Michael Thomas, from $5.95 at http://www.amazon.com/Man-Gone-Down-Michael-Thomas/dp/0802170293.