Common Grounds Book Group
When: Last Saturday of every other month at 11 a.m. (unless otherwise noted, see individual listings)
Where: Central Library, Nine Muses Café
Contact: Kaite Stover at 816.701.3683
The Common Grounds Book Group focuses on contemporary American authors of fiction and nonfiction who explore modern issues.
2012 Schedule
January 28
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.
Larson's ambitious, engrossing tale of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 focuses primarily on two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect who was the driving force behind the fair, and Henry H. Holmes, a sadistic serial killer working under the cover of the busy fair. The passages about Holmes are compelling and aptly claustrophobic; readers will be glad for the frequent escapes to the relative sanity of Holmes's co-star, architect and fair overseer Daniel Hudson Burnham, who managed the thousands of workers and engineers who pulled the sprawling fair together 0n an astonishingly tight two-year schedule.
March 31
The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian.
In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts. The home's new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain due to double engine failure. The body count? Thirty-nine.
May 19
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.
Begin in contemporaryish New York with kleptomaniac Sasha and her boss, rising music producer Bennie Salazar, before flashing back, with Bennie, to the glory days of Bay Area punk rock, and eventually forward, with Sasha, to a settled life.
July 28
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.
A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family-motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce-pulls itself up to face another day.
September 22
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years.
November 17
Unwind by Neal Shusterman.
In America after the Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life armies came to an agreement: The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, a parent may choose to retroactively get rid of a child through a process called "unwinding." Unwinding ensures that the child's life doesn’t “technically” end by transplanting all the organs in the child's body to various recipients. Now a common and accepted practice in society, troublesome or unwanted teens are able to easily be unwound.
Group Leader
Kaite Stover is the Readers' Services Manager for the Kansas City Public Library, where serves as the resident expert on book groups. She hosts workshops and presentations nationwide that focus on improved book group experiences. Booklist magazine publishes her side of its regular column "He Reads/She Reads." For more info on the Common Grounds Book Group, contact Kaite Stover at 816.701.3683.
Previous Reads:
November 2011 Almost Dead by Assaf Gavron.
September 2011 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
July 2011 Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.
May 2011 Netherland by Joseph O’Neill.
March 2011 Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones.
January 2011 The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
