Ravenous Readers of Vero,
Beach, Florida recommends:
TALES OF A FEMALE NOMAD: LIVING AT LARGE IN
THE
WORLD by Rita Golden Gelman (Crown, 2001),
Nonfiction, 320
pages
"This account of very
different cultures and parts of the world is
fascinating. The
author lives in
Central America for a few years, and then she goes
to Bali,
where
she rents a room for many years and
learns the country's language and
culture. She also uses Bali as a base to
travel to other, less developed locations in
Indonesia. In a sense, she creates a new family for
herself from
those she meets abroad, and the personal
connections she makes shows that travel is as much
about people as
it is
about places. The book depicts the situation
many middle-aged women find themselves in--empty
nest
and divorce--
and shows that for some women those endings
open the
door to
freedom, travel, and an entirely different life.
We found that message inspiring, although we also
realized
that not
everyone would embrace the option she chooses.
"
WOW (Women of Words) of Green Valley,
Arizona
recommends:
FIRST MOTHERS: THE WOMEN
WHO
SHAPED THE PRESIDENTS by Bonnie Angelo (William
Morrow,
2000), Nonfiction, 451 pages
"Our book club really enjoyed FIRST MOTHERS.
Angelo, a
veteran reporter and writer for TIME, gave factual
accounts
of
the presidents' mothers along with colorful
background
information. The book is fairly long so we divided the
chapters among our members with each reviewing
one of the
mothers. We discussed how each mother was
a "pusher" for
success. Education was stressed in their homes. The
biggest
difference seemed to be money. Some were from
impoverished but hardworking environments and
others
were
from wealthy backgrounds. After all the mini-
reviews we
had a general discussion and discovered that we all
had read
more than our own assigned chapter."
Paired with: a fruit pie from the chapter on
Richard Nixon's mother, "Fifty Pies Before
Breakfast." "Nixon's mother
used to get up
very early and bake fifty pies to
sell in their roadside market. Nixon would drive
the truck into the city at the crack of dawn
(or
earlier!) to pick up supplies, and spend the pre-
breakfast hours with his mother cutting fruit, rolling
dough,
and baking the pies."
Thoreau Reading Group of Concord, Massachusetts
recommends:
WILL IN THE WORLD: HOW SHAKESPEARE
BECAME
SHAKESPEARE by Stephen Greenblatt
(Norton, 2004), Nonfiction, 386 pages
"We were overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of
Greenblatt's knowledge of Shakespeare and his
ability to
write in
such an accessible manner. Most of us learned an
enormous
amount about
Shakespeare and the world he lived in. We
discussed
Shakespeare's religion, writing processes,
business sense,
family relationships, sexual orientation, and, most of
all,
his impact on
the theater and his ability to produce plays that still
feel
current and relevant. We were also struck by the
number of new words
that
Shakespeare created in his work."
Bookenders of Lee's Summit, Missouri
recommends:
SO BIG by Edna Ferber
(1924; Harperperennial,
2000), Fiction, 272 pages
"At the age of nineteen, Selina finds herself teaching
in a farm town
outside of Chicago after the loss of her father.
Having grown up
accustomed to finer things, she is now living in a
farmhouse without
conveniences. She marries a widower and after a few
years, becomes a
widow herself with a young son, and is determined to
raise him to be successful. Ferber writes of all
classes of people in turn-of-the-century Chicago:
the poor, the farmers, the
working class, a
woman in a man's world, and the rich. We talked
about the physical
characteristics Ferber refers to in people, such as
their hands,
their smile, their eyes. Ms. Ferber was a noted
feminist, and in this
book she made her female characters strong and at
times controlling.
Money was another strong theme. The characters
who earn their money,
respect it, and those who inherit money, do not. Ms.
Ferber's small
book has more details, characters, themes, and
layers, than most
books written today. A must read."
Paired with: apple desserts to reflect the
book's farm setting, including
apple pie
and applesauce
spice cake (see recipe)