Book Club

Name: Moscow Neighbors Book Group

City: Moscow, Idaho

Group history: group of a dozen women has been meeting for about six years. Meets on various Thursdays once a month. Members pick books by consensus, choosing from review lists and articles; lately books have been chosen by hosts. Read primarily fiction such as “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden, “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck and “A Patchwork Planet” by Anne Tyler.

Book reviewed: “The Brothers K” (Bantam Books, 656 pages, $13.95 paper) by David James Duncan.

Group representative: Agnes Luft.

The review: Set in Washington, “The Brothers K” is an ambitious novel that tells the story of one family - a baseball-playing father, a religious mother and the sons that they raise - coming to grips with life in the mid-20th century. “It was a baseball story, primarily, so we thought that maybe just mostly men would enjoy it,” says Agnes Luft. “But a lot of the gals did enjoy it.” Why? “Just the variety, the different characters, and it included episodes from the Vietnam War. The conflicts that were in the family, and how important family was to the boys growing up.”

Book Club is a weekly feature that emphasizes what area book groups are reading. If you want to participate, contact Dan Webster at (509) 459-5483 or by e-mail at danw@spokesman.com.