Washington Co. Public Library

Washington County Public Library Book Group

The Washington County Public Library now has a book group that meets the 4th Thursday of each month at the Jonesborough Library at 6:30 pm.
Below is a listing of the books that will be read and discussed for 2010, as well as 2011.

Books for 2010
Month	Book	Author	Description
July	If I’d Killed Him When I Met Him...(F)	Sharyn McCrumb	Three grievously wronged women take murderous revenge in this sharp-edged, witty tale, the eighth appearance of forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson. Her skills at research and detection come into play when she is hired as an investigator by her brother Bill's Virginia law firm. (20 copies.)
August	Glass Castles (NF)	Jeanette Walls	In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. Her journey across the country, ending up in a poor mining town in West Virginia and then finally in New York City, is a fascinating tale of survival. (16 copies.)
September	A Gracious Plenty (F)	Sheri Reynolds	A Gracious Plenty" centers around Finch, a burn victim whose scarred appearance, coupled with a defiant attitude, have alienated her from her small-town Virginia community. She seeks consolation by talking to dead people in the cemetery she tends. Finch possesses a power that makes it possible to converse with the departed and to observe their behavior, but not to touch them. (5 copies.)
October	The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society (F)	Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows	Set in both London and Guernsey Island, this novel follows author Juliet as she becomes friends with the inhabitants of the island shortly after the end of World War 2. Told in epistolary style, Juliet learns of the occupied island and its deprivations, as well as the resounding spirit of the people who live there. As she writes, she becomes more and more intrigued with the stories of the people who survived the hard times, and she decides to create a book based on their experiences. In order to gather more information, Juliet moves temporarily to the island and soon finds herself immersed in the culture and relationships. (17 copies.)
November	The Help (F)	Kathryn Stockett	Set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer. She is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs her. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club set relies and mistrusts. She enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny. (18 copies.)
December	Paper Bag Christmas (F)	Kevin Alan Milne	In this affable yuletide yarn, brothers Aaron and Molar are understandably preoccupied with the material side of Christmas, until they meet Dr. Ringle, a shopping mall Santa who is also a doctor at a local children's cancer ward. Dr. Ringle encourages them to volunteer at the ward from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and especially encourages their friendship with two children: recalcitrant and angry Katrina, whose postsurgical scarring leaves her afraid to be seen without a paper bag on her head, and effusively optimistic Madhu, who does not understand the story of Christmas. (5 copies.)

Books for 2011
Month	Book	Author	Description
January	Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet (F)	Jamie Ford	Henry Lee is a 12-year-old Chinese boy who falls in love with Keiko Okabe, a 12-year-old Japanese girl, while they are scholarship students at a prestigious private school in World War II Seattle. His father insists that Henry wear an "I am Chinese" button everywhere he goes because Japanese residents of Seattle have begun to be shipped off by the thousands to relocation centers. This is an old-fashioned historical novel that alternates between the early 1940s and 1984, after Henry's wife Ethel has died of cancer. (6 copies.)
February	The Last Lecture (NF)	Randy Pausch	On September 18, 2007, Carnegie Mellon professor and alumnus Randy Pausch delivered a one-of-a-kind last lecture that made the world stop and pay attention. It became an Internet sensation viewed by millions, an international media story, and a best-selling book that has been published in 35 languages. To this day, people everywhere continue to talk about Randy, share his message and put his life lessons into action in their own lives. (20 copies.)
March	Lobster Chronicles (NF)	Linda Greenlaw	Greenlaw, known to readers of The Perfect Storm as the captain of the sister ship to the ill-fated Andrea Gail, gave up swordfishing to return to her parents' home on Isle au Haut off the coast of Maine and fish for lobster. She intersperses her narrative with plenty of eccentrics who live on her tiny island (there are 47 full-time residents, half of whom she's somehow related to). Despite the isolation and lack of services on Isle au Haut readers will somewhat envy the simpler life and sense of community and family that Greenlaw celebrates. (8 copies.)
April	Pride and Prejudice (F)	Jane Austen	Few have failed to be charmed by the witty and independent spirit of Elizabeth Bennet. Her early determination to dislike Mr. Darcy is a prejudice only matched by the folly of his arrogant pride. Their first impressions give way to true feelings in a comedy profoundly concerned with happiness and how it might be achieved. (multiple copies.)
May	Same Kind of Different as Me (NF)	R. Hall & D. Moore	A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery. An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel. A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream. A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it. It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana . . . and an East Texas honky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a Hollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch. Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, this true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love. (5 copies.)
June	Ten Cents a Dance (F)	Christine Fletcher	With her mother ill, it’s up to fifteen-year-old Ruby Jacinski to support her family. But in the 1940s, the only opportunities open to a Polish-American girl from Chicago’s poor Yards is a job in one of the meat packing plants. Through a chance meeting with a local tough, Ruby lands a job as a taxi dancer. Mesmerizing look into a little known world and era. (5 copies.)
July	The Women (F)	T.C. Boyle	Boyle’s latest novel takes on the architect Frank Lloyd Wright by examining his notoriously tumultuous relationships with four women, each unique in her own histrionic way. Narrated in reverse chronological order by a fictional Japanese apprentice, the book is extremely readable and deftly builds a portrait of the artist as pure egoist. (5 copies.)