FLSC Book Club
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June: Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
An atmospheric tale of life and love in a Depression-era traveling circus. Nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. It's the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world. Jacob introduces us to Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; to August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus' animal trainer); and to Rosie, a seemingly untrainable elephant.
Beautifully written, with a luminous sense of time and place, Water for Elephants tells of love in a world in which love's a luxury few can afford.
An atmospheric tale of life and love in a Depression-era traveling circus. Nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. It's the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world. Jacob introduces us to Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; to August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus' animal trainer); and to Rosie, a seemingly untrainable elephant.
Beautifully written, with a luminous sense of time and place, Water for Elephants tells of love in a world in which love's a luxury few can afford.
July: Where Did You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle - and people in general - has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence - creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.
After her mother's disappearance, 15-year-old Bee Branch gathers correspondence relating to her mother in order to ascertain what has happened to her. Bee traces the incident back to her perfect report card. Earlier, Bee's parents had told her she could have anything she wanted if she got a perfect report card for all her years in this school. Because of this previous promise, Bee convinces her parents, stay at home mother Bernadette, and father Elgin, a genius who works at Microsoft, to take her to Antarctica. Though Bernadette is mostly housebound she delegates the task of making their arrangements to a personal assistant in India, Manjula.
Because she is housebound, Bernadette has an ongoing feud with some of the mothers at Bee's private school with the main instigator being her neighbor Audrey Griffin. Audrey accuses Bernadette of running over her foot with her car (which Bernadette does not dispute, though it is untrue).
Bee also learns that her mother was once a famous architect, winner of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant because of her creation of the 20 Mile house, so called because it was made from material sourced from within 20 miles of the home. After she won the grant, Bernadette sold the house, only to belatedly realize it had been sold to a hostile neighbor who demolished the home as soon as he obtained it. After the defeat Bernadette moved to Seattle where she had four miscarriages before Bee.
A friend of Audrey's, Soo-Lin Lee-Segal, an admin at Microsoft, goes to work for Elgin Branch. She reveals to him Bernadette's "attacks" on Audrey, causing him to question whether to admit Bernadette to a psychiatric institution. As Soo-Lin and Elgin begin an emotional affair, the FBI also contact Elgin to reveal "Manjula" is actually a Russian money scamming ring who plan to defraud Elgin and Bernadette. Elgin arranges for an intervention with Bernadette at the dentist to reveal these facts to her, but because of a mistake the (unsuccessful) intervention happens at their home with the FBI and police involved. In the middle of the intervention Bernadette goes to the washroom and disappears.
Bee has a place at Choate, and in the aftermath of Bernadette's disappearance she is sent to the school early. Soo-Lin reveals to Audrey that she is pregnant with Elgin's child and he has bought them a family home. Elgin and Soo-Lin learn that Bernadette did take the trip to Antarctica herself and go there to confront her only to have her disappear again. During this time Soo-Lin also reveals to Audrey that her life is miserable and that the pregnancy is a result of a drunken one night stand between her and Elgin, who completely regrets the incident.
At Choate, Bee receives a package that contains the bulk of the correspondence used in the novel up to that point. It is revealed that after discovering that the accusations she levelled against Bernadette were going to result in her being hospitalized, Audrey helped her escape from her house, showed her all the correspondence between Soo-Lin and her husband, stayed silent when Bernadette decided to go to Antarctica in the hopes that she would be able to speak privately to Elgin and Bee there, and sent the package containing all the correspondence to Bee, in the hopes that Bee would understand what happened with Bernadette.
Bee is kicked out of Choate, in part because of the manuscript she is putting together. She guilts her father into going on the trip to Antarctica with her in the name of closure though she secretly believes her mother is still alive and hiding there. After nearly giving up hope Bee learns of Palmer Station, an American base where scientists work and research. Stealing a boat with her father, Bee goes to the station where she in fact finds Bernadette who is surprised to find that her family thought she was dead as she sent Bee a letter.
Bee finds the missing letter when she returns to her old school. The letter reveals that Bernadette went to Antarctica in the hopes of reconciling with her husband and daughter and decided to stay for the cruise. While there she met a scientist who told her about Palmer Station and an architectural project for the South Pole in which every single material would have to be shipped from the U.S. which meant that it was of the utmost importance for everything to be designed to complete perfection. Bernadette snuck on board Palmer Station hoping to work on the project and sent the letter to Bee asking for her blessing and telling her she would return home if she did not get it within a set period of time.
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle - and people in general - has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence - creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.
After her mother's disappearance, 15-year-old Bee Branch gathers correspondence relating to her mother in order to ascertain what has happened to her. Bee traces the incident back to her perfect report card. Earlier, Bee's parents had told her she could have anything she wanted if she got a perfect report card for all her years in this school. Because of this previous promise, Bee convinces her parents, stay at home mother Bernadette, and father Elgin, a genius who works at Microsoft, to take her to Antarctica. Though Bernadette is mostly housebound she delegates the task of making their arrangements to a personal assistant in India, Manjula.
Because she is housebound, Bernadette has an ongoing feud with some of the mothers at Bee's private school with the main instigator being her neighbor Audrey Griffin. Audrey accuses Bernadette of running over her foot with her car (which Bernadette does not dispute, though it is untrue).
Bee also learns that her mother was once a famous architect, winner of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant because of her creation of the 20 Mile house, so called because it was made from material sourced from within 20 miles of the home. After she won the grant, Bernadette sold the house, only to belatedly realize it had been sold to a hostile neighbor who demolished the home as soon as he obtained it. After the defeat Bernadette moved to Seattle where she had four miscarriages before Bee.
A friend of Audrey's, Soo-Lin Lee-Segal, an admin at Microsoft, goes to work for Elgin Branch. She reveals to him Bernadette's "attacks" on Audrey, causing him to question whether to admit Bernadette to a psychiatric institution. As Soo-Lin and Elgin begin an emotional affair, the FBI also contact Elgin to reveal "Manjula" is actually a Russian money scamming ring who plan to defraud Elgin and Bernadette. Elgin arranges for an intervention with Bernadette at the dentist to reveal these facts to her, but because of a mistake the (unsuccessful) intervention happens at their home with the FBI and police involved. In the middle of the intervention Bernadette goes to the washroom and disappears.
Bee has a place at Choate, and in the aftermath of Bernadette's disappearance she is sent to the school early. Soo-Lin reveals to Audrey that she is pregnant with Elgin's child and he has bought them a family home. Elgin and Soo-Lin learn that Bernadette did take the trip to Antarctica herself and go there to confront her only to have her disappear again. During this time Soo-Lin also reveals to Audrey that her life is miserable and that the pregnancy is a result of a drunken one night stand between her and Elgin, who completely regrets the incident.
At Choate, Bee receives a package that contains the bulk of the correspondence used in the novel up to that point. It is revealed that after discovering that the accusations she levelled against Bernadette were going to result in her being hospitalized, Audrey helped her escape from her house, showed her all the correspondence between Soo-Lin and her husband, stayed silent when Bernadette decided to go to Antarctica in the hopes that she would be able to speak privately to Elgin and Bee there, and sent the package containing all the correspondence to Bee, in the hopes that Bee would understand what happened with Bernadette.
Bee is kicked out of Choate, in part because of the manuscript she is putting together. She guilts her father into going on the trip to Antarctica with her in the name of closure though she secretly believes her mother is still alive and hiding there. After nearly giving up hope Bee learns of Palmer Station, an American base where scientists work and research. Stealing a boat with her father, Bee goes to the station where she in fact finds Bernadette who is surprised to find that her family thought she was dead as she sent Bee a letter.
Bee finds the missing letter when she returns to her old school. The letter reveals that Bernadette went to Antarctica in the hopes of reconciling with her husband and daughter and decided to stay for the cruise. While there she met a scientist who told her about Palmer Station and an architectural project for the South Pole in which every single material would have to be shipped from the U.S. which meant that it was of the utmost importance for everything to be designed to complete perfection. Bernadette snuck on board Palmer Station hoping to work on the project and sent the letter to Bee asking for her blessing and telling her she would return home if she did not get it within a set period of time.
August: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
This 1998 autobiographical book by travel writer Bill Bryson, describing his attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail with his friend "Stephen Katz". The book is written in a humorous style, interspersed with more serious discussions of matters relating to the trail's history, and the surrounding sociology, ecology, trees, plants, animals and people.
The book starts with Bryson explaining his curiosity about the Appalachian Trail near his house. He and his old friend Stephen Katz start hiking the trail from Georgia in the south, and stumble in the beginning with the difficulties of getting used to their equipment; Bryson also soon realizes how difficult it is to travel with his friend, who is a crude, overweight recovering alcoholic, and even less prepared for the ordeal than he is. Overburdened, they soon discard much extra food and equipment to lighten their loads.
After hiking for what seemed to him a large distance, they realize they have still barely begun while in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and that the whole endeavor is simply too much for them. They skip a huge section of the trail, beginning again in Roanoke, Virginia. The book recounts Bryson's desire to seek easier terrain as well as "a powerful urge not to be this far south any longer". This section of the hike finally ends (after nearly 800 miles (1,300 km) of hiking) with Bryson going on a book tour and Katz returning to Des Moines, Iowa, to work.
In the following months Bryson continues to hike several smaller parts of the trail, including a visit to Centralia, Pennsylvania, the site of a coal seam fire, and eventually reunites with Katz to hike the Hundred-Mile Wilderness in Maine, which again proves too daunting. The fact that Bryson did not complete the trail is not surprising, since fewer than 25% of through-hike attempts are successful; he quotes the older figure of 10%.
At the time of his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, Bryson was in his forties.
This 1998 autobiographical book by travel writer Bill Bryson, describing his attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail with his friend "Stephen Katz". The book is written in a humorous style, interspersed with more serious discussions of matters relating to the trail's history, and the surrounding sociology, ecology, trees, plants, animals and people.
The book starts with Bryson explaining his curiosity about the Appalachian Trail near his house. He and his old friend Stephen Katz start hiking the trail from Georgia in the south, and stumble in the beginning with the difficulties of getting used to their equipment; Bryson also soon realizes how difficult it is to travel with his friend, who is a crude, overweight recovering alcoholic, and even less prepared for the ordeal than he is. Overburdened, they soon discard much extra food and equipment to lighten their loads.
After hiking for what seemed to him a large distance, they realize they have still barely begun while in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and that the whole endeavor is simply too much for them. They skip a huge section of the trail, beginning again in Roanoke, Virginia. The book recounts Bryson's desire to seek easier terrain as well as "a powerful urge not to be this far south any longer". This section of the hike finally ends (after nearly 800 miles (1,300 km) of hiking) with Bryson going on a book tour and Katz returning to Des Moines, Iowa, to work.
In the following months Bryson continues to hike several smaller parts of the trail, including a visit to Centralia, Pennsylvania, the site of a coal seam fire, and eventually reunites with Katz to hike the Hundred-Mile Wilderness in Maine, which again proves too daunting. The fact that Bryson did not complete the trail is not surprising, since fewer than 25% of through-hike attempts are successful; he quotes the older figure of 10%.
At the time of his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, Bryson was in his forties.
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