BOOK GROUP NEWSLETTER
AUGUST 2021
Throughout my reading life I've come to realize that it's always good to have a book by my side whenever I'm doing any sort of waiting. In fact, I do some of my best reading at my laundromat. Every other Thursday I pack up my dirty clothes, laundry soap, spot remover, quarters and, most importantly, a few books, and drive to the laundromat. Last Thursday I finished a novel and started another in the two and a half hours I was there. The swishing of the washers and the whirling of the dryers lull me into a reading trance. And by the time I'm folding my clothes, my bookmark has moved through quite a few pages.  

Now that I'm a senior citizen, I have more doctor appointments than ever before. And whether I'm meeting my foot doctor, my general practitioner, my eye doctor, my endocrinologist, my sleep doctor or the lab technician I always take a book along to fill the waiting time. Because of Covid-19 the magazines have disappeared from waiting rooms, so a book is essential to keep me from staring at the receptionist or counting the ceiling tiles.  

When I have my car serviced at the dealer I always arm myself with a book. Since they have a big screen television in their waiting room usually playing loudly, I have to make sure the book of my choice has enough reading power to cancel out the din of the television. A quiet book will just not do!

Before the pandemic, I'd take myself out for breakfast and always have a book to read. Amazing how fast your order comes when you're reading.

I guarantee that reading a good book can make your waiting time fly by. Try it next time the receptionist tells you that your doctor will be a little late. Or your mechanic tells you it might be another hour or two before your car is finished.   

I've chosen four great novels for you this month, all worthy of accompanying you while you wait. I hope you enjoy them.


Happy Reading!

Ken
kenbksco@gmail.com
by Katherine Center

This is a book about love, loss and finding joy... finding joy even in the most troubling times. The plot in a nutshell: Samantha Casey is the school librarian for a small private school on Galveston Island, Texas. When her beloved principal dies she finds out that the school board has picked Duncan Carpenter for his replacement. Duncan was the principal of another school she worked at in another lifetime. But why is he so serious when he walks into his new school? What happened to his juggling, his bad joke telling, his wanky hair? Now he wears a three-piece suit and never smiles. Why doesn't he remember her? And what happened to his joy? In the back of the paperback, Katherine Center talks about joy: "My understanding of joy has changed a lot as I've grown up. I used to think of joy as something that had to be big---a huge, monolithic emotion that you couldn't miss. But the older I get, the more I see it as less like a roaring bonfire than little twinkle lights. One little light might not make much of an impact, but hundreds? Thousands? Suddenly, the world is different. More and more I feel like joy is cumulative---the more of it you notice, and pay attention to, and savor, and remember, the more there suddenly is all around you." Kirkus Reviews says, "The story's message, that people should choose joy even (and especially) in difficult and painful times, seems tailor-made for this moment. A timely, uplifting read about finding joy in the midst of tragedy, filled with quirky characters and comforting warmth." Some refer to Katherine Center as a modern Jane Austen. A Reading Group Guide follows the novel.
by Emma Donoghue

Donoghue's latest novel is set over three days in a maternity/fever ward in a Dublin hospital during the 1918 flu pandemic. Nurse Julia Powers works in the understaffed ward administering to pregnant mothers who have come down with flu-like symptoms. Not only does she grow attached to the patients she's assigned to, she also finds strength from Bridie Sweeney, a young volunteer helper, and Kathleen Lynn, a doctor rumored to be a traitor on the run from the police. Donoghue has re-imagined the way nurses took care of people during those troubled times. It's amazing the details she includes in her narrative. As she said in an Atlantic Magazine article, "I've been lucky enough to have both a midwife vet it for the delivery-and-labor scenes and an emergency doctor copy edit it; discussing fictional matters with these two frontline health workers, a time when battling a virus couldn't be more real, has filled me with a sense of urgency to get it right. Not just the symptoms and the procedures, the psychology of nurses and doctors in desperate times." Bookseller Lynn says, "You might not want to read a story that takes place during a pandemic, but there is much more to this story. Donoghue brings to the table a unique perspective of women in 1918 Ireland. Compassionate and visceral." NPR's Maureen Corrigan says, 'In doing a deep dive into the miseries and terrors of the past, Donoghue presciently anticipated the miseries and terrors of our present... A deft, lyrical, and sometimes even cheeky writer... she's given us our first pandemic caregiver novel--an engrossing and inadvertently topical story about health-care workers inside small rooms fighting to preserve life." The novel includes a conversation with Emma Donoghue and questions for your group.   
by Gregory Brown

This is one of the best books I've read lately. Set along Maine's Penobscot River during the 1980s, this beautifully written novel focuses on two families and their sometimes caustic relationship with each other. Lyman and Grace Creel and their children live not too far from Arnoux and Falon Ames and their three sons. Lyman is a lobsterman and Grace is a social worker. Arnoux builds boats by hand and Falon owns The Lowering Days, the town newspaper, that gives an equal voice to both indigenous and white issues. When a bankrupt mill is burned down on the eve of its reopening Falon receives a letter from a Penobscot teen confessing to the crime... an act of justice for a sacred river under centuries of assault. The fire reveals a stark truth for the residents of the Penobscot Valley. For many, the mill is a lifeline, providing working-class jobs they need to survive. Within the Penobscot Nation, the mill is a bringer of death, spewing toxic chemicals and wastewater products that poison the river's fish and plants. As the divide within the community widens, the building of anger and resentment explodes in tragedy. As author Richard Russo says, "In The Lowering Days, Gregory Brown gives us a lush, almost mythical portrait of a very specific place and time that feels all the more universal for its singularity. There's magic here." Author Nickolas Butler says this about the book: "Unflinching, lyrical, and timely, The Lowering Days marks the emergence of a new and authentic voice in American letters. Brown is bona fide, a writer with incredible storytelling chops, yes, but also a poet's soul, and a balladeer's heart."
by Natalie Jenner

This charming novel is a Masterpiece Theatre series in book form. You don't have to know a lot about Jane Austen to appreciate the novel. Set in the small English village of Chawton, Austen's final home, this is the story of a diverse group of people who come together at the end of World War II to fight to preserve both Austen's home and her legacy for the world. These people-- a farmer, a young war widow, the village doctor, an employee of Sotheby's, a Hollywood movie star, a local solicitor, the anticipated heiress to the estate, a precocious house girl-- could not be more different, and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. The Washington Post says of the novel, "Anyone seeking an antidote to contemporary chaos will find a welcome respite among the members of a group whose outer lives may appear simple, but whose inner lives need the kind of balm Austen knew well." According to author Karen Joy Fowler, "Few things draw disparate people together as quickly as discovering they love the same writer. Few writers cement such friendships as deeply as Austen does. I believe that the readers of Jenner's book will fall in love with the readers inside Jenner's book, all of us thinking and dreaming of Austen the whole while. What could be better? Nothing, that's what! A wonderful book! A wonderful read!" A Reading Group Guide follows.  
BOOKS & COMPANY BOOK GROUPS
Open to the Public

BOOK GROUPS ARE ALL SCHEDULED
AS VIRTUAL MEETINGS VIA ZOOM

Check WWW.BOOKSCO.COM for updates and registration links!
Wednesday, August 25
1:00 p.m.
by Robert D. Harris
ZOOM Meeting


Wednesday, September 22
1:00 p.m.
by Minnie Darke
ZOOM Meeting
Sunday, September 26
3:00 p.m.
by Tom O'Neill
ZOOM MEETING

Sunday, November 28
3:00 p.m.
by David Grann
ZOOM MEETING
Registration coming soon.
Wednesday, August 18
6:30 p.m.
by Samira Ahmed
Zoom Meeting


Wednesday, September 15
6:30 p.m.
by Nick Lake
Zoom Meeting
Tuesday, August 24
6:00 p.m.
by Tim Mason
ZOOM Meeting

Tuesday, September 28
6:00 p.m.
by Halley Sutton
ZOOM Meeting
UPCOMING EVENTS!
WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER
Sunday, August 29
1:00 p.m.
Books & Company
Limited seating available-
We are excited to welcome William Kent Krueger back to Books & Company for an in-person event for his new book Lightning Strike, a prequel in the Cork O'Connor series.

 Books & Company will close from 12:30-2:30 to the public for this event. Our capacity is limited and we want to ensure everyone remains comfortable during the event. Out of caution and with an eye to continuing limited in-person events, we request face masks to be worn during the event.
LAUREN FOX 
In Conversation with 
Daniel Goldin & Lisa Baudoin
Tuesday, September 28
2:00 p.m.
Via ZOOM
Join us for a bonus installment of Readings from Oconomowaukee in which Daniel Goldin of Boswell Books and Lisa Baudoin of Books & Company talk with author Lauren Fox about her novel Send For Me (out in paperback 9/7/21) and other great books!