Cafe parlez for July

This month, we read any book by Carl Hiaasen, so we have a Flamingo theme to our decorations, and a tropical theme for our refreshments.  This is our party month.  We will be doing trivia quizzes, and giving away books.  These are books we’ve collected through the year, books that Oprah and ALA sends us whenever Oprah picks a book, books that we’ve picked up at conferences.  Announcements, packets, people getting food and punch.   J is announcing next month’s book, and the list for the rest of the month.  We’ll post them on the Plumb Library website, in the Cafe Parlez page. 

The first four people got to get books.  M got “The Lace Reader” – awesome book!! 

People’s opinions of Carl Hiaasen – his characters are caricatures.  RB says they work well as audio books, nice and light, you don’t mind interrupting them.  LM likes how the bad guys get theirs in a bad way, especially in “Skinny Dip”.  All of his books are black and white.  All of the characters are crazy.   But the descriptions of the characters are excellent.  There’s one character that appears in two books, so there is some discussion of this guy: braided beard, glass eye, very wacky.  Used to be the governor of Florida.  Hiaasen seems to write himself into most of his books.  These books were “no brainers”, but you need these types of books once in a while. 

LM suggests C.J. West’s “Taking Stock”, a local author writing about – Rochester!  Suspense, nice and light. 

Time to play!  Florida trivia with the Flamboyant Flamingos vs. the Perfect Palmtrees.  Some of these questions are hard, but the Flamingos just pulled one out of a hat!  Go, Flamingos!!  But ML has just gotten back from Florida, so the Palmtrees have an edge.  The winning team gets first crack at the books, but everyone will get a book.  Palmtrees win! 

Next month, we’ll discuss “The Kite Runner”.  Be sure to be there.

We’re also thinking of starting a nonfiction book club that will start in October on the third Tuesday at 6:30.  Sign up at the desk.  If we get 6 people to sign up, we’ll start the club with Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed”.

Staff Review: The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry

There’s already a bit of buzz about this book, and it’s not even out till the end of the month!  But I got my hands on an advance copy, and I couldn’t put it down.  Towner Whitney is dragged back to Salem, MA, when her beloved aunt dies under mysterious circumstances.  Aunt Eva was a “lace reader”, rather like a tea-leaf reader, and was well-known in certain circles in Salem.  Towner’s mother lives on nearby Yellow Dog Island with abused women, who weave the lace used in lace reading.  Slowly, through the book, we learn Towner’s history, about her defiant and reclusive mother; about Lyndley, Towner’s twin sister, who committed suicide when the girls were 18; about Emma, another aunt who was so beaten by her husband that she is now blind; Cal, Emma’s ex-husband and former alcoholic turned rabid born-again preacher; Rafferty, the police detective who becomes involved with Towner; and Salem itself, with its tourists, New Age hippies, Old Age townies, and its history.  Like lace, the story weaves a web around the reader and draws you in.  I predict that you will be hearing a lot about this book very soon.