January 2010
www.stocktonbookclubut.blogspot.com
Edition #1
****HAPPY 2011!!!!!****
This is Our First Issue!!!!
We are really excited for our first issue of the Book Club Newsletter. The Stockton Book Club start as an idea from RonnaLee in the Summer of 2009, she posted the idea on Facebook and Jamie responsed to the idea. The conversations started and thus a Book Club was born. Our first Book Club Meeting was held on Labor Day weekend at RonnaLee’s House and we discussed To Kill a Mocking Bird by Lee Harper. We have enjoyed and discussed many books since then. We have also read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, just to name a few. All of our Book Titles have been chosen by our members. We have evolved to having a Facebook Group Page and Blog. We are always looking for new members and new book choices.
Let’s Back Track a Little Bit!!!!
All of us have been busy through November and December due to the Holidays and we haven’t discussed our books for those months.
 In November we read Wednesdays Letters by Jason F. Wright.
 Also, In December we read a Collection of Short Christmas Stories by Various Authors. Our Collection included The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, The Little Match Girl and The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson and The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Higgins. We made copies of all the stories and put them in a book…there are more left if you would like a copy. To get a copy of the Collection of Christmas Short Stories, please email Jamie at wildeflower1977@yahoo.com. We’ll be discussing our two back books (November and December) at January’s Book Club Meeting.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg (January’s Book Choice)
We’ll be reading Fried Green Tomatoes for January. The meeting will be announced when and where at a later time.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is an engrossing tale told in different voices. It metes out to us pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that come together to show a community of individuals who lived in Depression era Alabama. They exist in an oasis of compassion and tolerance centered on the Whistle Stop Cafe and its two owners, the wild and wilful Idgie and the sweet, centered Ruth.
We see this community back and forth in time and through repeated tragedy, with a strong mix of humour in their daily lives. Its people deal with tough issues - prejudice and discrimination, abuse of women, maiming and murder - with wisdom and pragmatic justice. The picture evolves slowly through the eyes of Evelyn Couch, a middle aged wife and mother, who has always done what was expected of her and lost herself in the process.
Depressed and overweight, Evelyn encounters Ninny Threadgoode while visiting her mother-in-law at an old folks' home in the 1980's. At first she listens politely but soon looks forward to regular accounts of life and times at the Whistle Stop Cafe. These reminiscences are interspersed with third person accounts of the same events and with delightful tidbits from the Whistle Stop weekly bulletin, that make the characters feel like neighbours.
Evelyn is changed and empowered by Ninny's stories of Idgie's exploits. At first, while fighting the hormonal surges of menopause, she develops a fantasy life as Towanda the Avenger (some of whose ideas have a definite appeal) but Evelyn eventually achieves a balance and a strong gratitude towards Ninny, who treats her as a daughter. This is one of the best messages of the book, what the old and seemingly powerless still have to offer us.
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (February’s Book Choice)
We’ll be reading Stargirl in February. The book centers on an eccentric and compassionate 10th grade student at Mica Area High School in Arizona named Susan "Stargirl" Caraway, who has spent her previous years in homeschooling. Eleventh-grader Leo Borlock narrates throughout the story. Between the story and the epilogue, the narrator implies that 15 years have elapsed.
Suggestion:
RonnaLee suggested that we read Like Father, Son? by Roger T. Muir and Greg D. Boyle in the future months. Visit www.FixtheFathers.com for more information. She is friends with the Author.
Current Stockton Book Club Members
RonnaLee Hesford - Founder Jamie West - Co-Founder
Nadine West
Kathleen Memmott
Lela Anderson
Mary Durtschi
Debbie Rusk
Suzanne Thompson
Jim Wilde
Donna Wilde
Don West Jr.
Josie West
Books We Have Read in the Past Months
2009 -
Sept. - To Kill a Mocking Bird by Lee Harper
Oct. - Peyton Place by Grace Metalicous
Nov. - Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson
Dec. - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
2010-
Jan. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffennegger
Feb. The Importance of Being Eanest by Oscar Wilde
Mar. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Apr. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini
May. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Jun. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Jul. Agent Bishop by Mike Peters
Aug. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Sept. Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lighting Thief by Rick Riodan
Oct. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Lerouix
Nov. The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright
Dec. Collection of Christmas Stories by Various Authors
2011-
Jan. Fried Green Tomatoes of the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg.
- ****Please Join our Group Page and Like our Page on Facebook
- (www.facebook.com). Also, Follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com). Keep watching our Blog for updates www.stocktonbookclubut.blogspot.com.****
Happy Reading!!!!!
If you have an idea for a book and would like to host a book club meeting or if you have any questions or comments please call Jamie at 435-840-8183 or Ronnalee at 435-843-9657(home) 435-830-6632 (cell).
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