Downtowners Book Group
When: Every Third Wednesday at Noon (unless otherwise noted, see individual listings)
Where: Central Library, Chairman's Office
Contact: Kaite Stover at 816.701.3683
The Downtowners book group discusses a lively mix of fiction, nonfiction, classics, and genres.
2012 Schedule
January 18
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.
Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republica in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands.
February 15
City of Thieves by David Benioff.
A writer visits his retired grandparents in Florida to document their experience during the infamous siege of Leningrad. His grandmother won’t talk about it, but his grandfather reluctantly consents. The result is the captivating odyssey of two young men trying to survive against desperate odds.
March 21
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
In post-World War II Barcelona, young Daniel is taken by his bookseller father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a massive sanctuary where books are guarded from oblivion. Told to choose one book to protect, he selects The Shadow of the Wind, by Julian Carax. He reads it, loves it, and soon learns it is both very valuable and very much in danger because someone is determinedly burning every copy of every book written by the obscure Carax.
April 18
Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard.
James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.
May 16
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
June 27
Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick.
Moby-Dick is perhaps the greatest of the Great American Novels, yet its length and esoteric subject matter create an aura of difficulty that too often keeps readers at bay. Fortunately, one unabashed fan wants passionately to give Melville's masterpiece the broad contemporary audience it deserves. He sets his sights on the fiction itself, offering a cabin master's tour of a spellbinding novel rich with adventure and history.
July 18
A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse.
Former comic-book seller Ivan "Van" Georg and stylish Francesca Aldo-Valbelli team to establish the Good Novel, a bookshop that will stock only masterpieces in fiction, which are selected by a secret committee of writers. At first, the warm welcome of the bookstore results in soaring sales. Then attacks in the press, the opening of rival bookstores, and attempts against the lives of committee members by persons unknown sour the atmosphere for the Good Novel's community of readers and writers.
August 15
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 26
Just Kids by Patti Smith.
It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-second Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Max's Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous—the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe.
October 17
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
An unnamed narrator listens to a male friend reading a manuscript written by a former governess whom the friend claims to have known and who is now dead. The manuscript tells the story of how the young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the death of their parents. A classic ghost story that will be paired with the film adaptation The Innocents, starring Deborah Kerr.
November 14
Tinkers by Paul Harding.
An old man lies dying. Propped up in his living room and surrounded by his children and grandchildren, George Washington Crosby drifts in and out of consciousness, back to the wonder and pain of his impoverished childhood in Maine. As the clock repairer’s time winds down, his memories intertwine with those of his father, an epileptic, itinerant peddler and his grandfather, a Methodist preacher beset by madness. At once heartbreaking and life affirming, Tinkers is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, illness, faith, and the fierce beauty of nature. Winner of the National Book Award.
December 19 – Readers’ Roundup
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 Downtowners Book Group, contact Kaite Stover at 816.701.3683.
Previous Reads:
November 16 Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff.
October 19 The Good Soldiers by David Finkel.
September 21 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
August 17 Almost Dead by Assaf Gavron.
July 2011 The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
June 2011 So Much for That by Lionel Shriver.
May 2011 My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor.
April 2011 Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.
March 2011 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.
February 2011 Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
January 2011 The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
