Thursday, November 20, 2008

December Book Club Meetings


The Monday Evening Book Club will meet on December 8th in the Program Room on the 1st floor of the library. We will discuss Digging to America by Anne Tyler.

Two families arrive at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport in August 1997 to claim the Korean infants they have adopted. Strangers until that evening, they are destined to begin a friendship that will span their adoptive daughters' childhoods. Bitsy and Brad Donaldson are the quintessential middle-class, white American couple. Sami and Ziba Yazdan are Iranian Americans. From the beginning, the differences in the ways they will raise their daughters are obvious: Bitsy's well-meaning but overzealous efforts to retain her child's Korean heritage are evident in the chosen name–Jin-Ho–and in the Korean costumes that she dresses the girl in every year as they mark the anniversary of the adoption date. The Yazdans are comfortable with their daughter Susan's assimilation into their own Iranian-American culture. When Bitsy's widowed father begins to show romantic interest in Susan's grandmother, cultural differences are brought to a head. Tyler weaves a story that speaks to how we come to terms with our identity in multicultural America, and how we form friendships that move beyond the unease of differences. She does not dwell on the September 11 attacks, but subtly portrays the distrust that the Yazdans have to endure in the following months. Tyler's gift, as in her other novels, is her ability to infuse the commonplace with meaning and grace. (Source: School Library Journal)


The Seniors Book Club will hold its annual Christmas Party on December 10th in the Library's Training Room on the second floor. Please come prepared to tell us a bit about a favourite book you read (other than our book club choices) and don't forget to bring a wrapped book (it need not be new, can be gently used) for our "secret" gift exchange. We'll provide coffee/tea and Christmas baking - a fine time will be had by all!







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