Book Club Discussion Group

SPRING 2010 DATES and BOOKS

1:30 to 2:15 in the Casual Reading Area of the Library.


January 27 (Wed) – Please join us in the Casual Reading Area of the Library. We will talk about our format for the semester. Books for this semester are Ron Rash’s “Serena” and Adriana Trigiani “Big Stone Gap: A Novel. For students participating, books will be provided. On this first meeting, we will pass out Serena.

February 3 (Wed) – Discussion of Serena

February 24 (Wed) – Discussion of Serena

March 10 (Wed) – Final discussion of Serena, pass out copies of Big Stone Gap

March 24 (Wed) – Discussion of Big Stone Gap

April 7 (Wed) - Discussion of Big Stone Gap

April 21 (Wed) – Final discussion of Big Stone Gap

Serena by Ron Rash
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton arrive from Boston in the North Carolina mountains to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains—but she soon shows herself the equal of any worker, overseeing crews, hunting rattlesnakes, even saving her husband’s life in the wilderness. Together, this Lord and Lady Macbeth of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she vengefully sets out to kill the son George had without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pemberton’s intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
Ave Maria Mulligan lives in the small town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. She has inherited her father's pharmacy and has settled into the life of a spinster who eagerly awaits the arrival of the Bookmobile each week. The death of her mother, an Italian immigrant, lets some family skeletons out of the closet and she finds her dull stable life has taken on an excitement for which she was not prepared. She suddenly finds herself with romantic suitors and a real father she has never met. Her life is further disturbed by an uproar in the whole town: the impending visit of Elizabeth Taylor.