Book
Nook The WTHS Faculty Book Club
The Book Nook Club meets at 2.45 p.m. in the Media Center.
Book
Nook
The WTHS Faculty Book Club
The Book Nook Club meets at
2.45 p.m. in the
Media Center.
Selections for 2007-2008
Thursday, May 1st
Sara Gruen--Water for Elephants
Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the
circus as a young man during the Great Depression, and his friendship with
Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them
hope.
Previously Discussed Titles
Khaled
Hosseini - A Thousand Splendid Suns
"Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and
family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by
loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in
their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that
makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will
ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next
generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a
woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of
self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that
is often the key to survival."
Discussion Guide for a Thousand Splendid Suns
Latifa
- My Forbidden Face
"In a moving tale of oppression and courageous defiance, sixteen-year-old
Latifa tells her story of growing up in war torn Afghanistan. She was a prisoner
in her own home as the Taliban wreaked havoc on the lives of Afghan girls and
women. The regime banned women from working, from schools, from public life,
even from leaving their homes without a male relative. Female faces were
outlawed as the burka, or head-to-toe veil, became mandatory. Like a
contemporary Anne Frank, Latifa was forced to observe, absorb, and make sense of
what was happening to women, to her country, to her family, from the confines of
her four walls. In 2001, after escaping to Pakistan, then to Paris, with her
parents, Latifa's future finally opened up. Written during exile, this book is
an extraordinarily powerful account of a teenager's life under terrible
circumstances and a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit."
Jodi
Picoult - Nineteen Minutes
"In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a
third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth
filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five....In nineteen
minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it.
In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens — until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families."
Discussion Guide for Nineteen Minutes
Summaries from Barnes and Noble
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