Women Who Dare Book Group
When: Every Second Tuesday at 6 p.m. (unless otherwise noted, see individual listings)
Where: Central Library, Chairman's Office
Contact: Kaite Stover at 816.701.3683
The Women Who Dare Book Group discusses fiction and nonfiction by and about ordinary women experiencing extraordinary challenges.
2012 Schedule
January 10
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan.
Hannah Payne's life has been devoted to church and family. But after she's convicted of murder, she awakens in a new body to a nightmarish new life. She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love.
February 14
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.
March 6
Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
A discrete advertisement in The Times, addressed to ‘those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine,’ is the prelude to a revelatory month for four very different women. High above a bay on the Italian Riviera stands the medieval castle San Salvatore. Beckoned to this haven are Mrs. Wilkins, Mrs. Arbuthnot, Mrs. Fisher, and Lady Caroline Dester, each quietly craving a respite.
April 10
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender.
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice. To her horror, she finds that her cheerful mother tastes of despair.
May 8
Elegies for the Brokenhearted by Christie Hodgen.
Who are the people you’ll never forget? For Mary Murphy, there are five: A skirt-chasing, car-racing uncle with whiskey breath and a three-day beard. A “walking joke, a sitting duck, a fish in a barrel” named Elwood LePoer. A dirt-poor college roommate who conceals an unbearable secret. A failed piano prodigy lost in middle age. A beautiful mother haunted by her once-great aspirations. In five quirky elegies to lost friends and relatives, Mary tells us the story of her life.
June 12
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.
July 10
A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden McClure.
During June 1998, Tori McClure set out to row across the Atlantic Ocean by herself in a twenty-three-foot plywood boat with no motor or sail. Within days she lost all communication with shore, but nevertheless she decided to keep going. Not only did she lose the sound of a friendly voice, she lost updates on the location of the Gulf Stream and on the weather. Unfortunately for Tori, 1998 is still on record as the worst hurricane season in the North Atlantic.
August 14
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart.
Balthazar Jones has lived and worked in the Tower of London for the past eight years. Being a Beefeater is no easy job, and when Balthazar is tasked with setting up an elaborate menagerie of the many exotic animals gifted to the Queen, life at the Tower gets all the more interesting. Penguins escape, giraffes go missing, and the Komodo dragon sends innocent tourists running for their lives. Still, that chaos is nothing compared to what happens when his wife, Hebe, makes a surprise announcement. What’s a Beefeater to do?
September 11
The Rebellion of Jane Clarke by Sally Gunning.
On the eve of the Revolutionary War, a young woman is caught between tradition and independence, family and conscience, loyalty and love.
October 9
The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of “Little House on the Prairie” by Wendy McClure.
Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder-a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she's never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. Whether she's churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of "the Laura experience." Along the way she comes to understand how Wilder's life and work have shaped our ideas about girlhood and the American West.
November 13
The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon.
It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution, the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and have been left to languish, forgotten. Deeply in love, they escape, and find refuge in the farmhouse of Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow. But the couple is not alone-Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl.
December 11
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson.
In the small village of Edgecombe St. Mary in the English countryside lives Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired). Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, the Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But then his brother’s death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village.
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 Women Who Dare Book Group, contact Kaite Stover at 816.701.3683.
Previous Reads:
December 13 The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton.
November 8 Little Bee by Chris Cleave.
October 11 The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow.
September 13 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
August 9 The Faith Club by Ranya Idliby.
July 2011 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
June 2011 The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
May 2011 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Soceity by Mary Ann Shaffer.
April 2011 Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.
March 2011 Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff.
February 2011 The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.
January 2011 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
