Wednesday, April 8, 2020

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey - April 2020

April 2020 selection         To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group

Thursday, April 9th 7pm





To the Bright Edge of the World

By Eowyn Ivey


I hope you are surviving these strange times during the Shelter in Place order.
The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet virtually on Zoom Thursday, April 9th at 7pm  to discuss our April selection, To the Bright Edge of the World
Here are some links for additional background and info:
Lt. Henry Allen’s bio on Wikipedia (he had a long career afterwards)


UPCOMING BOOKS


Thursday, May 14th 
The Death and Life of the Great Lakes    by Dan Egan

The Great Lakes--Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior--hold 20 percent of the world's supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan's compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come. ~ dust jacket



Thursday, June 11th
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

Halliday's beautiful debut novel is written in three distinct parts. In the first, Alice, a young editor in New York, embarks on a relationship with Ezra, a much older, multi-Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. In the novel's second part, readers meet Amar, an Iraqi American who is being detained at Heathrow Airport en route to his brother in Kurdistan. Amar's story is told mostly in flashbacks, illuminating both the joys of his family and also the tragedies of a war-torn country and its people. Amar's and Alice's stories are, at first glance, completely unrelated and can easily be enjoyed as such. Halliday moves from sparse, purposeful prose in the first to an almost brooding narration in the second, and only the lightest touches seem to link them, until one final moment. The third and final section is an interview with Ezra, and it is here that Halliday deftly and subtly intersects the two disparate stories, resulting in a deep rumination on the relation of art to life and death. ~Booklist

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

The Soul of An Octopus by Sy Montgomery - March 2020

March 2020 selection - The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group

Thursday, March 12th 7pm



The Soul of an Octopus By Sy Montgomery


The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, March 12th at 7pm
in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our March selection, The Soul of an Octopus.
Here are some links for additional background and info:


UPCOMING BOOKS


Thursday, April 9th 


To the Bright Edge of the World     by Eowyn Ivey

In the winter of 1885, decorated war hero Colonel Allen Forrester leads an exploratory expedition
up the Wolverine River and into the vast, untamed Alaska Territory. Leaving behind Sophie, his newly
pregnant wife, Forrester records his extraordinary experiences in hopes that his journal will reach her
if he doesn't return. As they map the territory and gather information on native tribes, whose understanding
of the natural world is unlike anything they have ever encountered, Forrester and his team can't escape
the sense that some great, mysterious force threatens their lives. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, Sophie
chafes under the social restrictions of a pregnant woman on her own, and yearns to travel alongside her
husband. She, too, explores nature, through the new art of photography, unaware that the coming winter will
test her own courage and faith to the breaking point. adapted from book jacket

Thursday, May 14th 
The Great Lakes - Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior - hold 20 percent of the world's supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan's compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come. ~dust jacket

Thursday, June 11th
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
Halliday's beautiful debut novel is written in three distinct parts. In the first, Alice, a young editor in New York,
embarks on a relationship with Ezra, a much older, multi-Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. In the novel's
second part, readers meet Amar, an Iraqi American who is being detained at Heathrow Airport en route to
his brother in Kurdistan. Amar's story is told mostly in flashbacks, illuminating both the joys of his family and
also the tragedies of a war-torn country and its people. Amar's and Alice's stories are, at first glance,
completely unrelated and can easily be enjoyed as such. Halliday moves from sparse, purposeful prose in
the first to an almost brooding narration in the second, and only the lightest touches seem to link them, until
one final moment. The third and final section is an interview with Ezra, and it is here that Halliday deftly and
subtly intersects the two disparate stories, resulting in a deep rumination on the relation of art to life and death.
~Booklist

 
Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group

2097 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Fairfax, CA 94930

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips - February 2020

February 2020 selection - Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips



The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, February 13th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our February book, Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips.

I apologize to anyone who wasn’t able to borrow the book in time for our discussion. It got very popular after we chose it. Feel free to join us for the discussion and see if you’d like to read it afterwards.

Here are some links for additional background and information:




Coming up, we have the following book to look forward to reading:

Thurs. Mar. 12th          The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Thanks for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.

Beth Bailey-Gates
Friends of the Fairfax Library

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1.       1. Most of the chapters of the book are stories of women on the peripheries of the disappearance of the two girls in the first chapter. It has been suggested that the author uses the suppression of these women to trap the reader as effectively as these girls are trapped by their stranger abduction and that the constraining, disheartening, utterly recognizable cages these women navigate are exhaustingly universal to a female reader with the women stuck in the world of the men in their lives. Would you agree or disagree with that assessment?


2.     2.   The Kamchatka Peninsula almost figures as a character in the book from the city center of Petropavlovsk to the lives of indigenous people of the north, including the reindeer herders. Kamchatka is described as a fallen paradise in post-Soviet times (with the removal of much of the military and an influx of immigrants) and an isolated provincial enclave filled with even smaller isolated communities. Did you learn anything about this area of the world? Was the location used to good effect in the novel?

3.      3.  Would you describe the book as a crime thriller, a literary novel, a collection of linked short stories? Or something else?

4.       4. All of the stories told in the book are from the perspective of a woman. Why did the author choose to tell the stories only from women’s perspectives? Was this essential to the novel? Effective?

5.      5.  The novel has as many characters as there are chapters. Each has their own individual story that at least tangentially links to the mystery of the missing girls. Did any of the characters and their situations stand out to you? Why?

6.      6.  The novel shows many of the female characters as oppressed by the people or circumstances around them. Do any of the characters show surprising strength given their circumstances?



Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Women Talking by Miriam Toews - Jan. 2020

January 2020 selection - Women Talking by Miriam Toews



The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, January 9th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our January book, Women Talking by Miriam Toews.

Here are some links for additional background and information:


Vice News investigated the Bolivian Mennonite rapes in Part 1 and Part 2 ten-minute videos


There is a Mennonite Quilt Center in Reedley, CA (outside Fresno)


Coming up, we have the following books to look forward to reading:

Thurs. Feb. 13th          Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
Thurs. Mar. 12th          The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Thanks for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.
Beth Bailey-Gates
Friends of the Fairfax Library

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:


  • Women Talking begins with "A Note on the Novel" which explains that the story is a fictionalized account of real events. What is the difference between reading this novel versus reading a news story or nonfiction book about these events? What questions does Women Talking encourage readers to ask themselves about these events and the environment in which they occur?
    1. The book is told through August Epp's notes from the women's meetings. Why does Toews choose Epp to narrate this story? How does his perspective, gender, and personal history affect the vantage from which the story is told?
    2. The women frequently discuss the complexity of continuing to love many of the men in their community despite their fear and they contemplate the circumstances under which the men would be allowed to join them in their new society. In what ways does the novel explore questions about male experiences, perspectives, and culture?
    3. Which of the options would you have taken if you were one of the women? Explain why. Consider the consequences and benefits of your choice. How would you convince the others to join you?
    4. The book examines both sexual and domestic violence. How does the women's environment and circumstances dictate how they understand, interpret, and, ultimately, deal with violence? How does this intersect with their religious faith and their beliefs about their place in the world?
    5. Discuss the power of language and literacy. How would the women's lives be changed if they could read? How does their ability to interpret the Bible for themselves change the women's understanding of their future?
    6. How does this novel engage with mainstream political and social conversations about women and their rights?

    Tuesday, December 10, 2019

    Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie - Dec. 2019

    December 2019 selection - Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie



    The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, December 12th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our December book, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie.

    Here are some links for additional background and information:



    You may not want to visit Istanbul after reading the ending of Home Fire, but here is a website with lots of info for a first-time visitor

    The story of Parvaiz may remind you of The American Taliban who was from Marin County


    Coming up, we have the following books to look forward to reading:

    Thurs. Jan. 9th               Women Talking by Miriam Toews
    Thurs. Feb. 13th          Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
    Thurs. Mar. 12th          The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

    Thanks for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.

    Beth Bailey-Gates
    Friends of the Fairfax Library

    DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

    1. The opening section begins with Isma Pasha nearly missing her flight. Talk about her treatment at the hands of "immigration" officials at Heathrow. How did the indignities she suffered at their hands make you feel?

    2. Isma's voice is one of compromise and accommodation: how else might you describe her?

    3. Talk about Parvaiz Pasha and his quest to honor his father, Adil. What kind of man, husband, and father was Adil, and what did his faith mean to him? When Parvaiz's eyes are opened to the caliphate and its atrocities, did you wonder how he could have been so misled?

    4. What do you think of Isma and Eaamon Lone's relationship? Do they have a genuine connection? Why doesn't Isma let on that she knows who Eaamon's father is?

    5. What are your thoughts about Aneeka? How does she define herself in relation to her faith, and how does her attitude toward Islam differ from her sister's?

    6. Talk about the vast differences between the two families, the Pashas and the Lones.

    7. Consider Aneeka's relationship with Eamonn — she is clearly manipulating him, but does she have a higher purpose? As she puts it: "Why shouldn’t I admit it? What would you stop at to help the people you love most?"

    8. After Isma informs the police that Parvaiz has left for Syria, Aneeka is appalled: "You betrayed us, both of us. Don't...expect me to ever agree to see your face again. We have no sister." Is Aneeka's anger justified? Would it have been bettier directed at her brother who betrayed them both? What do you think?

    9. Where should Isma's loyalty lie: with her brother or her country? By informing the police of Parvaiz's intentions, did she make the right or wrong decision? Can there be a correct moral decision when faced with the impossible choice between family loyalty and duty to society?

    10. What is mean by the title, "Home Fire." How does it differ from the World War I meaning, "keep the home fires burning."

    11. Talk about the relevance of Home Fire in today's world. What do you see in the novel that illuminates and/or resonates with current concerns.

    12. Kamila Shamsie has drawn inspiration from the ancient playwright Sophocles and his drama Antigone. Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, was prohibited by law from burying her brother.


    13. What differences, if any, would it have made if the characters in the book were American?

    14. Should someone like Parvaiz be allowed back into Britain after joining ISIS? 



    Tuesday, November 12, 2019

    There There by Tommy Orange - Nov. 2019

    November 2019 selection - There There by Tommy Orange



    The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, November 14th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our November book, There There by Tommy Orange.

    Here are some links for additional background and information:


    Check out the California Pow Wow website to find other pow wows



    Coming up, we have the following book to look forward to reading:

    Thurs. Dec. 12th          Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

    Thanks for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.

    Beth Bailey-Gates
    Friends of the Fairfax Library

    DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

    1. The prologue of There There provides a historical overview of how Native populations were systematically stripped of their identity, their rights, their land, and, in some cases, their very existence by colonialist forces in America. How did reading this section make you feel? How does the prologue set the tone for the reader? Discuss the use of the Indian head as iconography. How does this relate to the erasure of Native identity in American culture?

    2. Discuss the development of the “Urban Indian” identity and ownership of that label. How does it relate to the push for assimilation by the United States government? How do the characters in There There navigate this modern form of identity alongside their ancestral roots?
    3. Consider the following statement from page 9: “We stayed because the city sounds like a war, and you can’t leave a war once you’ve been, you can only keep it at bay.” In what ways does the historical precedent for violent removal of Native populations filter into the modern era? How does violence—both internal and external—appear throughout the narrative?
    4. On page 7, Orange states: “We’ve been defined by everyone else and continue to be slandered despite easy-to-look-up-on-the-internet facts about the realities of our histories and current state as a people.” Discuss this statement in relation to how Native populations have been defined in popular culture. How do the characters in There There resist the simplification and flattening of their cultural identity? Relate the idea of preserving cultural identity to Dene Oxendene’s storytelling mission.
    5.  Tony Loneman’s perspective both opens and closes There There. Why do you think Orange made this choice for the narrative? What does Loneman’s perspective reveal about the “Urban Indian” identity? About the landscape of Oakland?
    6. When readers are first introduced to Dene Oxendene, we learn of his impulse to tag various spots around the city. How did you interpret this act? How does graffiti culture work to recontextualize public spaces?
    7. Discuss the interaction between Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield and Two Shoes that occurs on pages 50–52. How does Opal view Two Shoes’s “Indianness”? What is the import of the Teddy Roosevelt anecdote that he shares with her? How does this relate to the overall theme of narrative and authenticity that occurs throughout There There?
    8. Describe the resettlement efforts at Alcatraz. What are the goals for inhabiting this land? What vision does Opal and Jacquie’s mother have for her family in moving to Alcatraz?
    9. On page 58, Opal’s mother tells her that she needs to honor her people “by living right, by telling our stories. [That] the world was made of stories, nothing else, and stories about stories.” How does this emphasis on storytelling function throughout There There? Consider the relationship between storytelling and power. How does storytelling allow for diverse narratives to emerge? What is the relationship between storytelling and historical memory?
    10. On page 77, Edwin Black asserts, “The problem with Indigenous art in general is that it’s stuck in the past.” How does the tension between modernity and tradition emerge throughout the narrative? Which characters seek to find a balance between honoring the past and looking toward the future? When is the attempt to do so successful?
    11. Discuss the generational attitudes toward spirituality in the Native community in There There. Which characters embrace their elders’ spiritual practices? Who doubts the efficacy of those efforts? How did you interpret the incident of Orvil and the spider legs?
    12. How is the city of Oakland characterized in the novel? How does the city’s gentrification affect the novel’s characters? Their attitudes toward home and stability?
    13. How is femininity depicted in There There? What roles do the female characters assume in their community? Within their families?
    14. Discuss Orvil’s choice to participate in the powwow. What attracts him to the event? Why does Opal initially reject his interest in “Indianness”? How do his brothers react to it?
    15. Discuss the Interlude that occurs on pages 134–41. What is the import of this section? How does it provide key contextual information for the Big Oakland PowWow that occurs at the end of the novel? What is the significance of this event and others like it for the Native community?
    16. Examine the structure of There There. Why do you think Orange chose to present his narrative using different voices and different perspectives? How do the interlude and the prologue help to bolster the themes of the narrative? What was the most surprising element of the novel to you? What was its moment of greatest impact?


    Tuesday, October 8, 2019

    Less by Andrew Sean Greer - Oct. 2019

    October 2019 selection - Less by Andrew Sean Greer



    The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, October 10th at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our October book, Less by Andrew Sean Greer.

    Here are some links for additional background and information:






    Coming up, we have the following books to look forward to reading:

    Thurs. Nov. 14th          There There by Tommy Orange
    Thurs. Dec. 12th          Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

    Thanks for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.

    Beth Bailey-Gates
    Friends of the Fairfax Library

    DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

    1. Have you ever had days, weeks, years, like what Arthur Less is feeling — times when nothing, absolutely nothing, seems to be going your way? What's your solution?

    2. Everyone points to the books laugh-out-loud humor. What do you find particularly funny — dialogue, Arthur's haplessness and pratfalls, random observations, the entire tone of the book?

    3. How would you describe Arthur? Are you sympathetic to him, or is he primarily a self-pitying guy in midlife crisis? Does he exhibit any humanity or is he too self-indulgent to connect with others? Or do you find yourself falling and rooting for him? Does your attitude toward him change during the course of the novel?

    4. Talk about the writing seminar Arthur gives in Berlin — his inventiveness in attempting to get students to fall in love with literature.

    5. What do you think of the consolation his former lover/mentor offers him during the phone call from Japan? Is turning 50 all that bad (for those who've been there, done that)?

    6. So at the end of his peregrinations, what has Arthur Less come to understand about his life and life in general?

    7. Finally, were you surprised by the big reveal at the end?

    8. The novel’s opening line reads: “From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad.” Arthur Less, the book’s protagonist, is introduced as nearly 50, with “washed-out” blonde hair and “watery” blue eyes. As we soon learn, he’s also a writer less successful than his peers. How do you see Arthur Less in the opening chapters? Do you see him as a hero, as a man deserving of pity, as something else?
    9. When we meet the character of Freddy, Arthur Less’s soon-to-be-former-lover, he is described as “dreamy, simple, lusty, bookish, harmless, youthful.” It is Freddy’s marriage invitation that Less so studiously avoids — choosing to go on a round-the-world trip simply to avoid having to decline the invitation without a good reason. What do you make of this decision? Have you ever found yourself doing something similarly absurd?
    10. Arthur Less’s trip itinerary is as a follows: New York to interview a more popular writer, Mexico City for an obscure conference, Turin for an unknown award, Berlin for a teaching gig, Morocco for someone else’s birthday, India for a writer’s retreat (possibly during the monsoon), Japan for an article. And somewhere along the way he will turn 50. Does his sojourn remind you of any others in literature?
    11. The book Arthur Less is writing is about a man on a journey through a place and his past, as he looks back on a series of disappointments. Freddy complains that Less is always writing “gay Ulysses.” Do you see echoes of or references to Ulysses or the Odyssey throughout “Less”?

    12. Less’s other major relationship in the book is with the famous poet Robert Brownburn. In the chapter “Mexican,” Less recalls a day of losing his ring in the grocery store, and how, in telling Robert about it, Robert saw Less’s infidelities written across his face. “That’s what it was like to live with genius,” he writes. How does Robert’s success and genius impact their relationship at the time, and how does it influence him in the end?
    13. So much of Less’s focus during the round-the-world trip is on his own mishaps and foibles — or his perceived mishaps and foibles. Getting into a car with what he believes is the wrong driver because the name was a letter off. Believing he can speak German well when in fact he is bungling the words. Bringing athletic bands to every country that he will only half use. Do you see these as actual mishaps and foibles or is it a problem of perception for Less? Do you identify with that feeling at all?
    14. The book alternates between Less’s trip in the present to memories of his youth — mostly memories involving nostalgia or regret. And yet the narrator tells us that Less also understands the pleasures of age: “comfort and ease, beauty and taste, old friends and old stories….” How does Less’s grappling with age play a role in the book? Is it something you can relate to?
    15.  In a scene at a party in Paris, Less is told that in fact he is not a bad writer, as he had come to believe, but a bad “gay writer,” in that he is not telling the narratives the gay writing community wants him to. What do you make of this critique?
    16. In several countries, simply being around Less seems to make other characters sick. Why?
    17. Arthur Less is self-deprecating throughout the book to a fault; in one of many descriptions he calls himself insignificant compared to other writers he knows, “as superfluous as the extra a in quaalude.” (Earlier, though, he asks if there is “any more perfect spelling” than the word quaalude “with that lazy superfluous vowel.”) Did you find these negative descriptors by Less funny or frustrating or silly or all of these? How does Greer complicate these descriptions by having some of them echo back?
    18. A number of people try to tell Less about what happened at Freddy’s wedding. And while the wedding dominates his thoughts, he doesn’t listen to them. What is keeping him from hearing the story? What do you think (or hope) happened?
    19. In the book, “Less” is always referred to by his last name, while Javier only by his first, and Robert Brownburn by both. Why do you think Greer chose to refer to the characters in these different ways?
    20. What lines in the book made you laugh out loud?
    21. Toward the end of the book, Less reunites with his supposed enemy and Freddy’s father, Carlos. When they meet, Carlos tells him that he believes that people’s lives are half-comedy and half-tragedy and that those just appear at different times. What do you make of this theory?
    22. Were you surprised (or glad) to find out who the narrator was? Do any elements of the book change for you when you revisit them with Freddy as the narrator in mind?