Paul Knopick
Robson’s Just Good Readin’ Book Club has selected 12 excellent reads and started discussing these on March 3. Robson’s group meets on the first Monday of every month (except holidays) at 7 p.m. in the clubhouse. All are invited.
March 3: The Optimist’s Daughter, by Edora Welty. Said one reviewer, “Welty is a gifted writer. Each sentence beautifully contributes to character development and plot.” And another, “A book I read slower and slower so that it lasts longer. So beautiful.”
April 7: The Briar Club, by Kate Quinn. Set in Washington, D.C., in 1950, the Joseph McCarthy “Red Scare” era, Quinn writes evocatively about the changing roles of women in postwar America. Imaginative, sharply drawn, this is a gripping novel about intimate secrets and the price of loyalty.
Dates to be announced.
The Women, by Kristen Hannah. The most popular novel in America, it features a nurse serving in Vietnam during the conflict and returning home to angry protestors and a country that wants to forget the war and the service of the men and women in that foreign land. This best seller is richly drawn, featuring a memorable heroine.
Celine, by Peter Heller. Celine, a private eye, is hired to investigate the death of a nature photographer in Wyoming. A gorgeously wrought story.
The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters. Set in Maine, pickers hired from Nova Scotia lose a four-year-old daughter. She vanishes. Love, race, brutality, and the balm of forgiveness combined.
The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon. A New York Times bestseller and winner of Best of the Year prizes, Lawhon works storytelling magic with a drama set in Maine.
The Color of Lightning, by Paulette Jiles, is a colorful, entertaining, and carefully researched story of the untamed Texas frontier, the true Wild Wild West after the Civil War.
Horse, by Geraldine Brooks. A moving narrative about a horse, race issues, and art. Oprah on the Pulitzer Prize-winning author: “Reading Horse feels like watching a neck-and-neck horse race.”
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, by Judi Dench. From acting as Shakespearean characters from Lady MacBeth to Cleopatra, Dench writes a witty, provocative, and inspirational love letter to William Shakespeare and the acting business.
In the Garden of the Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family, by Erik Larson. The non-fiction story of America’s ambassador to Germany during the rise of Hitler’s evil. Larson is a well-known, popular historian.
Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck. Humorous and poignant. A tough yet charming portrait of people who unabashedly put the highest value on the intangibles—human warmth, camaraderie, and love. Few write as well as Steinbeck.
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande. Award-winning author, a Best Book of the Year choice, argues that aging and death have inescapable realities and modern medicine too often runs counter to what it should be providing.
For information about the club or schedule of books, please contact Peggy Backes at 940-262-3390.