Sorry for the delay... was waiting for a couple of late voters. Our next book is All We Know of Heaven by Jacquelyn Mitchard. I believe it is still only in hardcover but it is pretty cheap at Amazon ($13 or $14).

P.S. Why is the font all funky? It was the same font and size on the document I copied and pasted from... annoying!

Here is the next list. Please get your votes to me by Friday morning at 9:00 a.m.

The Gathering - Anne Enright (272 pages, paperback) From Publishers Weekly:
In the taut latest from Enright (What Are You Like?), middle-aged Veronica Hegarty, the middle child in an Irish-Catholic family of nine, traces the aftermath of a tragedy that has claimed the life of rebellious elder brother Liam. As Veronica travels to London to bring Liam's body back to Dublin, her deep-seated resentment toward her overly passive mother and her dissatisfaction with her husband and children come to the fore. Tempers flare as the family assembles for Liam's wake, and a secret Veronica has concealed since childhood comes to light. Enright skillfully avoids sentimentality as she explores Veronica's past and her complicated relationship with Liam. She also bracingly imagines the life of Veronica's strong-willed grandmother, Ada. A melancholic love and rage bubbles just beneath the surface of this Dublin clan, and Enright explores it unflinchingly.

Hurry Down Sunshine – Michael Greenberg (240 pages, hardcover but only $13.20 @ Amazon) Amazon.com Review: Amazon Best of the Month, September 2008: Michael Greenberg's spare, unflinching memoir begins with a bang: "On July 5, 1996, my daughter was struck mad." Hurry Down Sunshine chronicles the summer when fifteen-year-old Sally experienced her first full-blown manic episode—an event that in a "single stroke" changed her identity and, by extension, that of her entire family. Simply told and beautifully written, Greenberg's memoir shines a stark light on mental illness, painting a vivid picture of a brain and body under siege—mania as a separate living thing squatting within the patient. As a writer who lives "so much in his head," Greenberg is particularly anguished by his daughter's fractured psyche, and his honesty about being both sickened and fascinated by his daughter's condition is breathtaking: "During the worst moments, I think of her as my disease—the disease I must bear...I am intoxicated with Sally's madness in both senses of the word: inebriated and poisoned." So desperate is he to understand her, that he relentlessly researches mental illness (the book is peppered with fascinating insights into drug therapy and anecdotes about writers who struggled with madness), and even goes so far as to sample a full dose of his daughter's medication. Startling, heart-wrenching, and yet unwaveringly unsentimental, Hurry Down Sunshine is an unforgettable story of a young girl's descent into madness, told through the eyes of a harried and helpless father trying desperately to bring her back. --Daphne Durham

The Blood of Flowers: A Novel - Anita Amirrezvani (400 pages, paperback) From Publishers Weekly:
In Iranian-American Amirrezvani's lushly orchestrated debut, a comet signals misfortune to the remote 17th-century Persian village where the nameless narrator lives modestly but happily with her parents, both of whom expect to see the 14-year-old married within the year. Her fascination with rug making is a pastime they indulge only for the interim, but her father's untimely death prompts the girl to travel with her mother to the city of Isfahan, where the two live as servants in the opulent home of an uncle—a wealthy rug maker to the Shah. The only marriage proposal now in the offing is a three-month renewable contract with the son of a horse trader. Teetering on poverty and shame, the girl weaves fantasies for her temporary husband's pleasure and exchanges tales with her beleaguered mother until, having mastered the art of making and selling carpets under her uncle's tutelage, she undertakes to free her mother and herself. With journalistic clarity, Amirrezvani describes how to make a carpet knot by knot, and then sell it negotiation by negotiation, guiding readers through workshops and bazaars. Sumptuous imagery and a modern sensibility (despite a preponderance of flowery language and schematic female bonding and male bullying) make this a winning debut.

All We Know of Heaven: A Novel - Jacquelyn Mitchard (320 pages, Hardcover $12.40) Product Description: Bridget Flannery and Maureen O'Malley have been BFFs since forever. Then a brief moment of inattention on an icy road leaves one girl dead and the other in a coma, battered beyond recognition. Family and friends mourn one friend's loss and pray for the other's recovery. Then the doctors discover they have made a terrible mistake. The girl who lived is the one who everyone thought had died. Based on a true case of mistaken identity, All We Know of Heaven is a universal story that no one can read unmoved: a drama of ordinary people caught up in an unimaginable tragedy and of the healing power of hope and love.

Serena - Ron Rash (Amazon top 10 of 08, 384 pgs, hardcover $14.99@Amazon) Amazon.com Review:
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains--but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning. Rash's masterful balance of violence and beauty yields a riveting novel that, at its core, tells of love both honored and betrayed.

Illumination Night - Alice Hoffman (272 pages, Paperback)Product Description:
With her signature "vivid, convincing characters [and] uncommon insight," (People) Alice Hoffman in Illumination Night follows the lives of an old woman whose last mission is to save her granddaughter's soul; a family torn apart by a wife's fears and a husband's desires-and a high school girl who comes to Martha's Vineyard against her will, and who will bring everyone together in a web of yearning, sin, and ultimate redemption.

HI Guys,
I'm sorry, I have to bow out tonight as well. I got a stomach flu this weekend, and though I thought I was doing better, today is showing me that's not the case. I'm sorry!!! Have a blast! See you soon....

I've just made a reservation for 6 people between 7:30 and 8pm (They said they would put us near the fireplace. Best, Wendy

I won't be able to make it. I have a prior commitment that night.

Sadly, I am going to have to bow out of our book club meeting this week. School is taking up a lot of my time and this week looks like it will be the toughest I've had in a while. I think I'm next for creating the list and will post it mid-week. Have fun and let me know how the meeting goes!

The 27th is on my calendar. Work has been quite unpredictable lately, should be able to make it, but won't know for sure until the day is here.

The 27th works for me!

Just to remind you, the book is: "Where are the customers yachts"

I suggest we eat at The Vault in the financial district at 8:00pm (I have a short meeting from 5:15-6:00 in Worcester)...

The Vault ($$$)
American (Traditional)

105 Water St, Boston 02109
At Batterymarch St

Phone: 617-292-3355

I hope you like the book.

:)

Wendy

The 27th is fine for me!

I can do the 27th.......7:30 at the Vault is fine with me...

I have plans tomorrow night, so I can't meet. I could do the 27th though. Let me know what you decide!

Okay, I have made progress on the Book now.

I could make it tomorrow, but that might be short notice for others. What about teh 27th, and then we'd move back to being on the last Tuesday of the month.

The vault works. - 7:30?

so are we on for Tues 20th?

Bummer. That means I don't have plans for Tuesday. Let me know if anyone wants to go drink instead! ;-)

Tuesday of this week won't work for me either... I have the book but am not very far into it yet. I think I am on deck for the next list, which I've already been working on.

I haven't finished the book either...it is going to be awhile for me. Work/life has been crazy busy. If you want to go on Tues. no problem or I will try and be ready for a future date.

No problem, when is Kelly back in town? Perhaps we can reschedule during her next trip?

I haven't read the book yet, and doubt I'll get to it by the 13th. But if others have read it, go ahead and meet without me.