By Marty Round

Hi!

It’s your old friend The Bespectacled Reader, and I do mean old! There was such a warm reception to my last column that I thought I’d bring you up to date on the book selections for next season of the Marsh Creek Book Club.  We meet nine (9) times from October through June on the first Wednesday of the month; therefore, we vote for 9 titles, this year from 20 recommendations from club members.

I will list the books, their authors, and a brief description of each.  This way some of you may decide to join us if a certain book looks appealing…7 pm in the Men’s Card Room. A few of us often have dinner first at 5:30 in the Club dining room.  Here goes!

October: The Daughters of Yalta by Catherine Grace Katz, non fiction.  This is the story of three intelligent young women who accompanied their famous fathers to the Yalta Conference in February 1945: Kathleen Harriman,  Sarah Churchill, and Anna Roosevelt, each fiercely loyal to their fathers.  Their support proved to be crucial during this vastly important meeting.

November: Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict. Although a novel, this book focuses on Winston Churchill’s wife who had great influence on her husband during WW1 and WW11.  Of course, considering the times, Clementine’s intelligence and enthusiasm for politics had to be somewhat restrained.

December:  The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons.  Eudora is 85 and very aware of her mortality.  She knows she does not want to spend her last days in a hospital, kept alive by machines. She has no family so wants to take charge of her own death.  Then a 10-year old girl moves in next door and barges right into Eudora’s life.

January:  The Maid by Nita Prose.  Molly, a chambermaid at the Regency Grand Hotel, finds a wealthy guest dead in his bed.  Foul play?  Molly is, of course, a suspect plus she has some neurological issues, perhaps on the autism spectrum, and therein lies much of the book’s charm.

February:  The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles  A novel set in the 1950’s, this is an adventure about three 18 year olds who meet in a reformatory and a brainy 8 year old who together set out in an old Studebaker to find a better life for themselves.

March:  West with the Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge.  This story was inspired by true events which occurred during America’s Great Depression Era.  It covers a few short weeks in one man’s life as he escorts two African giraffes from the port of New York to the San Diego Zoo, the zoo’s first giraffes.  Most readers said they could not put the book down.  The journey caught America’s eye at the time as well.

April:  The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline   Historical fiction, this book takes its readers to 1840 Australia and two convicted women who are transported from England to Australia’s first penal colony.  Here they meet a young orphaned Aboriginal girl who had been adopted by the Governor of Van Dieman’s Land. Together they fight for their freedom through much hardship.

May:  Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict. Historical fiction.  Clara immigrated to Pittsburgh from Ireland in the 1860’s and takes on another’s identity.  She becomes a maid in Andrew Carnegie’s mansion and, because of her uncanny business acumen, earns his trust.  She becomes the person who spurs him from being just a ruthless industrialist into becoming the world’s first true philanthropist.

June:  This Tender Land by William Kent Kruger. On the Banks of the Gilead River, in 1932, stands the Lincoln Indian Training School.  Odie and Albert, orphaned brothers who are the only white children there, are forced through their own actions to flee, taking their mute friend Mose, and little Emmy with them.  In a canoe they head for the Mississippi, hoping to find a place to call home.