Friday, August 21, 2009

Want to read like a president?

The online site, The Daily Beast, pulled together every book that the Reader in Chief has been spotted with since the campaign. So, if you are looking for your next book to read -- perhaps you will want to borrow an idea from the First Reader Barack Obama.

The Barack Obama Book Club Reading List:
  • What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers
  • Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
  • Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs
  • Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan
  • Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope by Jonathan Alter
  • FDR by Jean Edward Smith
  • Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll
  • Collected Poems, 1948 to 1984 by Derek Walcott
  • Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman
  • Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age by Larry Bartels
  • Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Book Discussion Groups for Adults

The afternoon book discussion group for adults will be meeting on Thursday, August 27 at 1:00 to discuss Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes.

Description of Under the Tuscan Sun from Amazon.com: In this memoir of her buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in Tuscany, Frances Mayes reveals the sensual pleasure she found living in rural Italy, and the generous spirit she brought with her. She revels in the sunlight and the color, the long view of her valley, the warm homey architecture, the languor of the slow paced days, the vigor of working her garden, and the intimacy of her dealings with the locals. Cooking, gardening, tiling and painting are never chores, but skills to be learned, arts to be practiced, and above all to be enjoyed. At the same time Mayes brings a literary and intellectual mind to bear on the experience, adding depth to this account of her enticing rural idyll.


The evening book discussion group for adults will be meeting on Thursday, August 27 at 6:30 pm to discuss Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier.

Description of Thirteen Moons from Amazon.com: This is the story of one man’s remarkable life, spanning a century of relentless change. At the age of twelve, an orphan named Will Cooper is given a horse, a key, and a map and is sent on a journey through the wilderness to the edge of the Cherokee Nation, the uncharted white space on the map. Will is a bound boy, obliged to run a remote Indian trading post. As he fulfills his lonesome duty, Will finds a father in Bear, a Cherokee chief, and is adopted by him and his people, developing relationships that ultimately forge Will’s character. All the while, his love of Claire, the enigmatic and captivating charge of volatile and powerful Featherstone, will forever rule Will’s heart.

New members are always welcome.