December '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 12/18
Time: 530pm
Place: Texas Roadhouse/Meridian
Book: Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier

Will Cooper narrates his own story in retrospect, beginning with his days as an orphaned, literate "bound boy" who is dispatched to run a musty trading post at the edge of the Cherokee Nation. Nearly nine mesmerizing decades later, Will is an eccentric elder of great accomplishments and gargantuan failures, perched cantankerously on his front porch taking potshots at passenger trains rumbling across his property (he owns "quite a few" shares of the railroad). Over the years, Will—modeled very loosely, Frazier acknowledges, on real-life frontiersman William Holland Thomas—becomes a prosperous merchant, a self-taught lawyer and a state senator; he's adopted by a Cherokee elder and later leads the clan as a white Indian chief; he bears terrible witness to the 1838–1839 Trail of Tears; a quarter-century later, he goes to battle for the Confederacy as a self-anointed colonel, leading a mostly Indian force with a "legion of lawyers and bookkeepers and shop clerks" as officers; as time passes, his life intersects with such figures as Davy Crockett, Sen. John C. Calhoun and President Andrew Jackson. After the Civil War, Will fritters away a fortune through wanderlust, neglect and unquenched longing for his one true love, Claire, a girl he won in a card game when they were both 12, wooed for two erotic summers in his teen years and found again several decades later.

November '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 11/20
Time: 530pm
Place: Asian Fusion/Meridian (Eagle/Franklin; btwn Krispy Kreme & Denny's)
Book: Alphabet Weekends by Elizabeth Noble

Natalie and Tom have been best friends forever, but Tom wants them to be much more. When Natalie's longtime boyfriend walks out on her just when she thinks he's going to propose, Tom offers her a different and wildly romantic proposition. He suggests that they spend twenty-six weekends together, indulging in twenty-six different activities from A to Z, and at the end of that time Tom's convinced they'll be madly in love. Natalie, however, is not so sure.
As Natalie's touring the alphabet with Tom, her mother's going through her own romantic crisis—while Tom's unhappily married sister-in-law, Lucy, struggles with temptation. And over the course of six amazing months, three generations of passionate dreamers are going to discover that, no matter how clever they are, love—and life—is never as easy as A, B, C . . .

October '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 10/16
Time: 530pm
Place: Chili's (by the Towne Square Mall/Boise)
Book: Comeback by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine

A nightmarish saga of a teenage runaway in L.A. ends triumphantly thanks to love and support from her screenwriter mom and stepdad. At 15, Mia gets involved in a dangerous drug and Wicca scene, stunning her successful, controlling mother, Claire, and stepfather, Paul. But the signs were in place earlier, after Mia's history of being sexually abused by her biological father, a violent, vindictive drug user whom Claire left with difficulty. Sent to Indiana to live with Claire's sister, Mia starts using cocaine heavily and even gets arrested. When the destructive behavior (including self-mutilation) accelerates, Claire and Paul send Mia to the unlikely Morava Academy, in the Czech Republic, a kind of Spartan military institution where 50 teens are rigorously monitored and reprogrammed. Meanwhile, back in L.A., the parents undergo an intensive group therapy called Discovery to learn to shed guilt for their daughter's behavior, and also forgive her. Oddly, Morava is soon shut down after allegations of staff abuse, but Mia goes through a brilliant turnaround at Spring Creek Lodge in Montana. Mia's desperate diary entries appear between Claire's lively, angry, sarcastic narrative, allowing mother and daughter to maintain a heart-wrenching, honest dialogue.

September '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 09/18
Time: 530pm
Place: McGrath's Fish House (Edwards Theaters/Boise)
Book: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

Georgia Walker's entire life is wrapped up in running her knitting store, Walker and Daughter, and caring for her 12-year-old daughter, Dakota. With the help of Anita, a lively widow in her seventies, Georgia starts the Friday Night Knitting Club, which draws loyal customers and a few oddballs. Darwin Chiu, a feminist grad student, believes knitting is downright old-fashioned, but she's drawn to the club as her young marriage threatens to unravel. Lucie, 42, a television producer, is about to become a mother for the first time--without a man in her life. Brash book editor KC finds her career has stalled unexpectedly, while brilliant Peri works at Walker and Daughter by day and designs handbags at night. Georgia gets her own taste of upheaval when Dakota's father reappears, hoping for a second chance.

August '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 08/21
Time: 530pm
Place: Johnny Carino's (Edwards theaters, Boise)
Book: I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis
Alternate books: The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal or The Mapmaker's Wife by Robert Whitaker

Set against a backdrop of political and religious conflicts in 15th-century Medici-ruled Florence, identifies the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's painting as Lisa di Antonio Gherardini. Lisa was the daughter of Madonna Lucrezia, wife of a wealthy wool merchant who also enchanted both da Vinci and Lorenzo de' Medici's brother Giuliano, murdered by conspirators in 1478. Giuliano's assassination—and the later murder of Lucrezia—presage a reign of religious terror led by a monk known as Savonarola and the retreat of the Medicis in the face of invasion from France's King Charles. An adult Lisa attracts the romantic attentions of a young Medici scion, whom she marries for love. (His father, Lorenzo, commissions her portrait from da Vinci.) But violent events soon separate the couple and a brutal Savonarola follower tells Lisa that her husband is dead—and her father's life in danger—unless she marries him instead. Lisa survives, an avenging angel, proving herself worthy of da Vinci's immortal artistry.

July '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 7/17
Time: 530pm
Place: Qdoba (NW corner of Eagle/Overland) - Canceled
Book: Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

Heres a fast-paced novel featuring a reality TV show that is like The Amazing Race and Treasure Hunt combined. Contestants have personal secrets and have been chosen specifically because producers hope that they will spill their guts for ratings. The action focuses on four characters. Justin and Abby are a married couple, a lesbian and a gay man who have renounced their lifestyles and proudly carry the banner of their newfound faith while they both struggle to remain straight. Although described as young, these two seem much older than their years in their pursuit of a traditional marriage. Meanwhile, the mother-daughter team of Laura and Cassie deals with the fact that the girl gave birth without anyone even noticing that she was pregnant. When she is given the chance to choose a different teammate–and does–emotions and rivalry ratchet up exponentially.

June '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 6/19
Time: 530pm
Place: Dickey's BBQ (NW of Eagle/Overland on south side of the street)
Book: Intuition by Allegra Goodman

A struggling cancer lab at Boston's Philpott Institute becomes the stage for its researchers' personalities and passions, and for the slippery definitions of freedom and responsibility in grant-driven American science. When the once-discredited R-7 virus, the project of playboy postdoc Cliff, seems to reduce cancerous tumors in mice, lab director Sandy Glass insists on publishing the preliminary results immediately, against the advice of his more cautious codirector, Marion Mendelssohn. The research team sees a glorious future ahead, but Robin, Cliff's resentful ex-girlfriend and co-researcher, suspects that the findings are too good to be true and attempts to prove Cliff's results are in error. The resulting inquiry spins out of control.

May '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 5/15
Time: 530pm
Place: Whitewater Pizza (Meridian)
Book: The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan

The age-old intergenerational struggle between mothers and daughters gets a curried twist in Pradhan's debut, in which the subcontinent meets the modern West. As children, first-generation Americans Kiran Deshpande, Preity Chawla Lindstrom and Rani McGuiness Tomashot gently mocked their Indian mothers, collectively nicknamed "The Hindi-Bindi Club" for their Old World leanings. Though the three are now successful adults, they aren't necessarily seen as such by their parents. For starters, none married Indian men. But now, Kiran's parents may get their chance to "semi-arrange" a marriage for their divorced daughter as she considers the possibility that there may be something to the old ways. Preity, mostly happily married to business school beau Eric, carries a small torch for a long-lost love—a Muslim her parents didn't approve of—and considers seeking him out. Meanwhile, rocket scientist Rani's passion for art starts to pay off as she becomes spiritually listless.

April '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 4/17
Time: 530pm
Place: Qdoba (Meridian)
Book: Wild Swans by Jung Chang

Bursting with drama, heartbreak and horror, this extraordinary family portrait mirrors China's century of turbulence. Chang's grandmother, Yu-fang, had her feet bound at age two and in 1924 was sold as a concubine to Beijing's police chief. Yu-fang escaped slavery in a brothel by fleeing her "husband" with her infant daughter, Bao Qin, Chang's mother-to-be. Growing up during Japan's brutal occupation, free-spirited Bao Qin chose the man she would marry, a Communist Party official slavishly devoted to the revolution. In 1949, while he drove 1000 miles in a jeep to the southwestern province where they would do Mao's spadework, Bao Qin walked alongside the vehicle, sick and pregnant (she lost the child). Chang, born in 1952, saw her mother put into a detention camp in the Cultural Revolution and later "rehabilitated." Her father was denounced and publicly humiliated; his mind snapped, and he died a broken man in 1975. Working as a "barefoot doctor" with no training, Chang saw the oppressive, inhuman side of communism. She left China in 1978 and is now director of Chinese studies at London University.

March '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 3/20
Time: 530pm
Place: Texas Roadhouse (Meridian) - new location
Book: Summer People by Brian Groh

Nathan Empson lands in Brightonfield Cove, Maine, with the intention of sorting out his life—his last relationship faltered, he dropped out of college, and he wants to be a graphic novelist—while caring for Ellen Broderick, an ailing elderly Cleveland woman who summers there. His caretaker responsibilities are more demanding than he'd imagined, and through time spent with Ellen, Nathan befriends Eldwin Lowell, an Episcopalian pastor with a drinking problem and a depressed wife, and Leah, the nanny to Eldwin's children who becomes the necessary love interest. As the weeks tick by, Nathan learns intriguing bits about Ellen's past, agonizes over his romantic and artistic woes and, among other things, gets beat up and watches a house burn down.

February '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 2/21 - Canceled
Time: 530pm
Place: Texas Steakhouse (Meridian)
Book: The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks

Julie Barenson's young husband left her two unexpected gifts before he died - a Great Dane puppy named Singer and the promise that he would always be watching over her. Now four years have passed. Still living in the small town of Swansboro, North Carolina, twenty-nine-year-old Julie is emotionally ready to make a commitment to someone again. But who? Should it be Richard Franklin, the handsome, sophisticated engineer who treats her like a queen? Or Mike Harris, the down-to-earth nice guy who was her husband's best friend? Choosing one of them should bring her more happiness than she's had in years. Instead, Julie is soon fighting for her life in a nightmare spawned by a chilling deception and jealousy so poisonous that it has become a murderous desire...

January '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 1/17
Time: 530pm
Place: Johnny Carino's (Edwards, Boise)
Book: Pope Joan by Donna Cross

Cross makes an excellent, entertaining case in her work of historical fiction that, in the Dark Ages, a woman sat on the papal throne for two years. Born in Ingelheim in A.D. 814 to a tyrannical English canon and the once-heathen Saxon he made his wife, Joan shows intelligence and persistence from an early age. One of her two older brothers teaches her to read and write, and her education is furthered by a Greek scholar who instructs her in languages and the classics. Her mother, however, sings her the songs of her pagan gods, creating a dichotomy within her daughter that will last throughout her life. The Greek scholar arranges for the continuation of her education at the palace school of the Lord Bishop of Dorstadt, where she meets the red-haired knight Gerold, who is to become the love of her life. After a savage attack by Norsemen destroys the village, Joan adopts the identity of her older brother, slain in the raid, and makes her way to Fulda, to become the learned scholar and healer Brother John Anglicus. After surviving the plague, Joan goes to Rome, where her wisdom and medical skills gain her entrance into papal circles. Lavishly plotted, the book brims with fairs, weddings and stupendous banquets, famine, plague and brutal battles. Joan is always central to the vivid action as she wars with the two sides of herself, "mind and heart, faith and doubt, will and desire." Ultimately, though she leads a man's life, Joan dies a woman's death, losing her life in childbirth. In this colorful, richly imagined novel, Cross ably inspires a suspension of disbelief, pulling off the improbable feat of writing a romance starring a pregnant pope.

2008 BC Reading List

Hi ladies,

As all of you are much better at using the public library than I am I'm listing all our books for 2008 so that you can get on waiting lists if need be. I will still put together a blog entry by month with book/dinner details but this will give you a head start. If I list books that some of you have read or heard something not so good about please let me know and I can make a change. My TBR (to be read) pile is bulging with books. So check back periodically for updates.

** Really I swear those books just jump off the shelves and beg to go home with me. **

January (1/17) - Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (fiction; may be based on historical facts)
February (2/21) - The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks (get the hankies out) (fiction)
March (3/20) - Summer People by Brian Groh (fiction)
April (4/17) - Wild Swans by Jung Chang (non-fiction)
May (5/15) - The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan (fiction)
June (6/19) - Intuition by Allegra Goodman (fiction)
July (7/17) - Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst (fiction)
August (8/21) - I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis (fiction with historical happenings of the time used in the story)
September (9/18) - The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (fiction)
October (10/16) - Comeback by Claire Fontaine & Mia Fontaine (non-fiction)
November (11/20) - Alphabet Weekends by Elizabeth Noble (fiction)
December (12/18) - Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (fiction)

I'm listing alternate reading selections in case we change our minds from those listed above. These selections aren't nearly as diverse as our list for 2008 and reflect some of my personal reading tastes right now.

Alternates: 1- Marley & Me by John Grogan; 2 - Around the Next Corner by Elizabeth Wrenn; 3 - Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan; 4 - The Book of Loss by Julith Jedamus; 5 - The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal; 6 - The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall; 7 - Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey; 8 - Beneath A Marble Sky by John Shors; 9 - Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi