Area book clubs reading extensive range of genres
Many book clubs take a summer break. I’m not sure why this is, though I suspect it’s because some of us still harbor feelings for those summer-long vacations that we stopped having shortly after our 22nd birthdays. But not all stop meeting. And anyway, summer is traditionally the best time to tackle those books that you’ve always wanted to try but never felt as if you had the time.
For example, the reading group that I’ve been a member of for the last few years is in the process of reading “The Adventures of Augie March,” the 1954 novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow. Besides being 544 pages long (even in the Penguin Classics paperback reprint), “Augie March” isn’t particularly easy to get through.
I’ll be curious to see how many of the guys show up for the discussion. And I include myself in the bunch.
But I’m curious about what other book clubs are reading.
The Spokesman-Review Book Club (see related story on D3) is taking on Seattle author Charles Johnson’s novel “Middle Passage” in July, Jonathan Raban’s memoir “Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meaning” in August.
And if I thought “Augie March” was hard, Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club (www.oprah.com/books/books_landing.jhtml) is celebrating “A Summer of Faulkner,” which includes “As I Lay Dying,” “The Sound and the Fury” and “Light In August,” which you can buy in a handy three-paperback pack put out by Vintage Books.
Other clubs are attempting a full range of choices.
•Spokane Public Library: The public library (www.spokanelibrary.org) offers weekly choices in a variety of genres, from nonfiction (“Plundering Paradise,” by Michael D’Orso) to teen (“A Great and Terrible Beauty,” by Libba Bray). For further information, call 444-5300.
•Spokane County Library District (www.scld.org): Similar to Spokane Public Library, the county library system plays host to various genres. Example: Fiction, “An Unfinished Life,” by Mark Spragg. Good News, “The Storekeeper’s Daughter,” by Wanda E. Brunstetter. For more information, call the administration office at 924-4122.
•Auntie’s Bookstore: Several drop-in groups meet at Auntie’s, from the Auntie’s Book Group (“Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons,” by Lorna Landvik for July) to Gay and Lesbian (“What the L,” by Kate Clinton, for July). For further information, call 838-0206.
•The New York Times Reading Group (www.nytimes.com/ref/readersopinions/reading-group-picks.html): July’s read is Kevin Boyle’s “Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age.”
There are many others. To locate them online, try such Web sites as www.book-clubs-resource.com, www.booksonline.com or www.bomc.com.
Give away those books
The Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center needs books to support its summer literary campaign. It’s looking for books by the following children’s authors: Jan Brett, Patricia Polacco, Mem Fox, Eric Carle, Audrey Wood, Kevin Henkes and Eve Bunting. For further information, call Freda Gandy at 455-8722. The center is at 845 S. Sherman St.
Hitting the beaches
Stanley Holloway, a retired farmer now living in Pullman, will speak about and sign copies of the book “Pacific War Marine,” at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday at Ditzys, Neats & Dumb-Dumbs, 103 E. Steptoe, Oakesdale, Wash. (285-4265). “Pacific War Marine” was written by Holloway’s son, Clyde Holloway, who lives in Vancouver, Wash.
Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.
Book talk
•Poetry reading group (747-3454), 3 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).
•Children’s author workshop with Deb Lund, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore. Note: Lund will hold a children’s storytime beginning at 5 p.m.
•Gay and Lesbian Book Group (“What the L,” by Kate Clinton), 7 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
•Harry Potter Book Discussion Group (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”), 7 p.m. Friday, Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague (924-0667).
•Literary Freedom Book Group (“Kalahari Typing School For Men”) by Alexander McCall Smith, 1 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
The reader board
•Peter Anderson (“First Church of the Higher Elevation: Mountains, Prayer and Presence”), John Harrington (“Renewing the Countryside: Washington”), readings, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
•Darlene Matule (“Under the Gallus Frame”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
•John Zaiss (“A Dedication”), signing, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Coeur d’Alene Borders, 450 W. Wilbur (208-762-4497).