The WTHS Staff Book Club
The Staff Book Club meets at
2.45 p.m. in the
Media Center.
Join the online book discussion at
Twp Booksters
(Registration Required)
Selections for 2009-2010
October
Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas
“Hennie
Comfort is eighty-six and has lived in the mountains of Middle Swan, Colorado
since before it was Colorado. Nit Spindle is just seventeen and newly married.
She and her husband have just moved to the high country in search of work. It's
1936 and the depression has ravaged the country and Nit and her husband have
suffered greatly. Hennie notices the young woman loitering near the old sign
outside of her house that promises "Prayers For Sale". Hennie doesn't sell
prayers, never has, but there's something about the young woman that she's drawn
to. The harsh conditions of life that each have endured create an instant bond
and an unlikely friendship is formed, one in which the deepest of hardships are
shared and the darkest of secrets are confessed.”
Book Discussion Questions
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December
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
“For
Kelly Corrigan, family is everything. At thirty-six, she had a marriage that
worked, two funny, active kids, and a weekly newspaper column. But even as a
thriving adult, Kelly still saw herself as the daughter of garrulous
Irish-American charmer George Corrigan. She was living deep within what she
calls the Middle Place—"that sliver of time when parenthood and childhood
overlap"—comfortably wedged between her adult duties and her parents' care. But
Kelly is abruptly shoved into coming-of-age when she finds a lump in her
breast—and gets the diagnosis no one wants to hear. When George, too, learns
that he has late-stage cancer, it is Kelly's turn to take care of the man who
had always taken care of her—and to show us a woman who finally takes the leap
and grows up.”
Book
Discussion Questions
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January
The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity by William Young
“Mackenzie
Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family
vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an
abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of
his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God,
inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he
arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest
nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.”
Discussion Guide from Book Browse
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March
Falling
Leaves: the Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah
“Born
in 1937 in a port city a thousand miles north of Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah was
the youngest child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges
during a time of political and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could
not shield Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of
a cruel and manipulative Eurasian stepmother. Determined to survive through her
enduring faith in family unity, Adeline struggled for independence as she moved
from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a
physician and writer. A compelling, painful, and ultimately triumphant story of
a girl's journey into adulthood.”
Book Discussion Questions
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Staff and Student Book Discussion
April
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to
Promote Peace One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
One
day in 1993, high up in the world's most inhospitable mountains, Greg Mortenson
wandered lost and alone, broken in body and spirit, after a failed attempt to
climb K2, the world's deadliest peak. When the people of an impoverished village
in Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya took him in and nursed him back to health,
Mortenson made an impulsive promise: He would return one day and build them a
school. Although he was a homeless "climbing bum" living out of his aging Buick
in Berkeley, California, Mortenson sold what few possessions he had to launch
one of the most remarkable humanitarian campaigns of our time." "Three Cups of
Tea traces Mortenson's decade-long odyssey to build schools, especially for
girls, throughout the region that gave birth to the Taliban and sanctuary to Al
Qaeda. While he wages war with the root causes of terrorism - poverty and
ignorance - by providing both girls and boys with a balanced, nonextremist
education. Mortenson must survive a kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged
mullahs, death threats from Americans who consider him a traitor, and wrenching
separations from his family.”
Discussion Guide
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May
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
In
the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom
of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl
in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully seems
to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite
as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool and Tully, steeped in
glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact
to be best friends forever. For
thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms
of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived
it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . and puts their courage
and friendship to the ultimate test.”
Discussion Guide
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June
Reading Listed Distributed for 2010-2011 - Happy Summer
Reading
(Summaries from Barnes and Noble)
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