Tuesday Book Discussion Group 

Tuesday has been meeting for more than ten years! This is a general interest discussion group. Selected books range from classics to recent releases in all genre including fiction, nonfiction, and biography.

When: Second Tuesday of each month from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Where: The Oliver Wolcott Library Community Room.
Facilitated by: Lauren Savastio

2010 Selections

February 9

Wife of the Chef

by Courtney Febbroriello (Bob)
Courtney Febbroriello, the titular Wife of the Chef, tells all with acerbic wit in this exposé of life behind-the-scenes of a small Connecticut restaurant. Febbroriello tells how she met her husband, Chris, and shares a day in the life of the restaurant she now runs with him. It's a stressful job--it doesn't pay well, there are no benefits, they never get to spend any time together without talking about work, and no one appreciates her.

March 9

Life Class

by Pat Barker (Susan)
Set initially in 1914 before the start of WWI, Barker's novel tells the story of two students at London's Slade School of Fine Art, Paul Tarrant and Elinor Brooke, along with that of Kit Neville, a promising young painter. Paul begins an affair with Teresa Halliday, a troubled artist's model, and Kit woos Elinor, but both men rush off to the Continent at the outset of hostilities to work with the wounded.

April 13

Travels with Charley

by John Steinbeck (Alida)
With his dog Charley,John Steinbeck set out in his truck to explore and experience America in the 1960s. As he talked with all kinds of people, he sadly noted the passing of region speech, fell in love with Montana, and was appalled by racism in New Orleans.

May 11

Next

by Michael Crichton (Clemence)
This novel questions the impact of bio-research on the world's population. Crichton presents several scenarios, including the question of ownership of one man's cells, the use of new therapies in humans without proper animal testing, and the idea of crossing human DNA with that of animals. The characters in the novel struggle with these issues, issues that seem outrageous at first but quickly begin to hit home with the readers. Like many of his other works of fiction, Next leaves Crichton's readers more frightened than they might have been if they had curled up with a good horror novel.

June 8

Homer and Langley

by E.L. Doctorow (Morgan)
When WWI hits and the Spanish flu pandemic kills Homer and Langley's parents, Langley, the elder, goes to war, with his Columbia education and his godlike immunity to such an ordinary fate as death in a war. Homer, alone and going blind, faces a world considerably dimmed though more deliciously felt by his other senses. When Langley returns, real darkness descends on the eccentric orphans: inside their shuttered Fifth Avenue mansion, Langley hoards newspaper clippings and starts innumerable science projects, each eventually abandoned, though he continues to imagine them in increasingly bizarre ways, which he then recites to Homer. Occasionally, outsiders wander through the house, exposing it as a living museum of artifacts, Americana, obscurity and simmering madness.

July 13

The Voyage of the Beagle

by Charles Darwin (Bob)
Charles Darwin writes about his explorations of various places he visits as a 19th century naturalist during a long voyage around the world. He ships aboard the Beagle, a ten-gun brig, anchoring at St. Jago (Sao Tiago), the primary island in the Cape de Verd group located west of Africa. From there he sails to St. Paul's Rocks, Brazil, Patagonia, East Falkland Island, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, Peru, the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, Mauritius and St. Helens Island before returning home. The entire trip takes five years to complete.

August 10

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

by Barbara Kingsolver (Susan)
This book chronicles the year that Barbara Kingsolver, along with her husband and two daughters, made a commitment to become locavores–those who eat only locally grown foods. This first entailed a move away from their home in non-food-producing Tuscon to a family farm in Virginia, where they got right down to the business of growing and raising their own food and supporting local farmers. While the volume begins as an environmental treatise–the oil consumption related to transporting foodstuffs around the world is enormous–it ends, as the year ends, in a celebration of the food that physically nourishes even as the recipes and the memories of cooks and gardeners past nourish our hearts and souls.

September 14

Strangers on a Train

by Patricia Highsmith (Alida)
Tennis pro Guy Haines chances to meet wealthy wastrel Bruno Anthony on a train. Having read all about Guy, Bruno is aware that the tennis player is trapped in an unhappy marriage to wife Miriam and has been seen in the company of senator's daughter Ann Morton. Baiting Guy, Bruno reveals that he feels trapped by his hated father. As Guy listens with detached amusement, Bruno discusses the theory of "exchange murders." Suppose that Bruno were to murder Guy's wife, and Guy in exchange were to kill Bruno's father? With no known link between the two men, the police would be none the wiser, would they? When he reaches his destination, Guy bids goodbye to Bruno, thinking nothing more of the affable but rather curious young man's homicidal theories. And then, Guy's wife turns up strangled to death.

October 12

Sea of Cortez

by John Steinbeck (Clemence)
In 1940 Steinbeck sailed in a sardine boat with his great friend the marine biologist, Ed Ricketts, to collect marine invertebrates from the beaches of the Gulf of California. The expedition was described by the two men in "Sea Of Cortez", published in 1941. The day-to-day story of the trip is told here in the Log, which combines science, philosophy and high-spirited adventure. This book is an exhilarating and highly entertaining read.

November 9

Continental Drift

by Russell Banks (Morgan)
On the extravagant, shallow promises of his brother, Bob Dubois, 30, a burnt-out New Hampshire oil burner repairman, takes his family to Florida. There the Duboises meet their destiny in the form of a counterpoint family: that of Vanise Dorsinville, a woman who has fled Haiti with her infant and nephew for a better life in the U.S.

December 14

Over the Edge of the World

by Lawrence Bergreen (Bob)
Ferdinand Magellan's ship was the first to circumnavigate the globe. While the accomplishment is recognized as a historic milestone, less known are the details of that voyage around the world. Magellan spent years trying to win the favor of the king of Portugal, and failing that he swore loyalty to the Spanish crown. After finally receiving Spain's backing for a trip to the Spice Islands, the king imposed numerous stipulations that would affect Magellan's crew and his authority over them. Once his fleet finally embarked, he had to contend with violent storms, mutinous crewmembers, and hostile natives. Bergreen tells a well-rounded story of Magellan, not just that of the romanticized hero but also that of the explorer's darker side.

January 11

Fat City

by Leonard Gardner (Alida)
Set in the small-time boxing circuit of Stockton, California in the late 1950s, the novel concerns the revival of a semi-retired Billy Tully's career and the first fights of a novice, Ernie Munger. At twenty-nine years old and discouraged by his defeat to another lightweight fighter in Panama, as well as the desertion of his wife two years previous, Tully meets Munger at the local YMCA and remarks on his talent. Disgusted by his lack of fitness and power, Tully entertains the idea of returning to the ring in a bid to reclaim his self-respect and possibly his ex-wife. Munger meanwhile impregnates his girlfriend, Faye, and marries her out of obligation, vowing to support his young family by winning fights.