Let's travel to Haiti!

Our next book for April 2008 is Breathe, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat. Here's a brief description of her book:

A distinctive new voice with a sensitive insight into Haitian culture distinguishes this graceful debut novel about a young girl's coming of age under difficult circumstances. The burden of being a woman in Haiti, where purity and chastity are a matter of family honor, and where "nightmares are passed on through generations like heirlooms," is Danticat's theme.

Born after her mother Martine was raped, Sophie is raised by her Tante Atie in a small town in Haiti. At 12 she joins Martine in New York, while Atie returns to her native village to care for indomitable Grandmother Ife. Neither Sophie nor Martine can escape the weight of the past, resulting in a pattern of insomnia, bulimia, sexual trauma and mental anguish that afflicts both of their lives.

Join our discussion on Sunday April 27, 2008 at 2pm at Cafe Reverie on 848 Cole Street! Don't forget purchasing your book at BookSmith (near our next venue) to get a 10% discount.

Let's discover the history behind our city!

Reading Vowell's book took us on a different path, where we were discovering different factoids about three different US presidents. One of them we all know, President Lincoln and two others that some of us were discovering for the first time: Garfield and McKinley.

The author took us along on her journey as she travels around the US visiting historical places that were relevant to these three presidential assassinations. I think the one thing that we all were inspired to do after reading this book is to take one right here in San Francisco!

Some book club members were not able to get into the book and chickened out on coming to the discussion. Even if you don't like the book or haven't read it, we love for you to join us, as having different opinions makes the discussion more interesting.

Stay tune for a historical tour of our city coming near you!

Support your local independent bookstore!

We've started a great relationship with BookSmith, an independent bookstore in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood (1644 Haight St). The Booksmith has been in business since 1976. To check out their interesting history please go to http://www.booksmith.com/storehistory.html

BookSmith is very supportive of our book club and will provide us a 10% discount on our book choice for the club when purchsed individually and if we purchase 5 books together, our discount goes to 15%.

In any case, if you're ever in the Haight area, go inside BookSmith and browse around!

What rhymes with vacation?

Assassination!

What do you get when a woman who's obsessed with death and U.S. history goes on vacation? This wacky, weirdly enthralling exploration of the first three presidential assassinations. Vowell (The Partly Cloudy Patriot), a contributor to NPR's This American Life and the voice of teenage superhero Violet Parr in The Incredibles, takes readers on a pilgrimage of sorts to the sites and monuments that pay homage to Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, visiting everything from grave sites and simple plaques to places like the National Museum of Health and Medicine, where fragments of Lincoln's skull are on display.

An expert tour guide, Vowell brings into sharp focus not only the figures involved in the assassinations, but the social and political circumstances that led to each — and she does so in the witty, sometimes irreverent manner that her fans have come to expect.

Vowell also draws frequent connections between past events and the present, noting similarities between McKinley's preemptive war against Cuba and the Philippines and the current war in Iraq. This is history at its most morbid and most fascinating and, fortunately, one needn't share Vowell's interest in the macabre to thoroughly enjoy this unusual tour."

Please join us on Sunday March 16 at 2pm to discuss the book Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell at Maxfield's House of Caffeine in the Mission district.

A Story of Survival

We all seem to agree that this book was an easy read in spite of its heavy topic and that the simple yet compelling writing facilitated our access to Cambodian history, awareness and to a story of basic survival. We raised the question of how does a country survive and heal itself after going through what Luong Ung went through in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge took over.

Her story and of her family was full of courage at the same time unpredictable. We already know what will happen to the father (thanks to the title), so we're already getting prepared for that event when we start reading the book. Unfortunately, her father's death is only one of the many tragic turns Luong faces as she finds her own way to survive this war.

The author wrote her memoir to share her experience as a way to bring awareness and expose what many Cambodians went through during this time. We felt we needed to continue this awareness, as something we can take away from this book.

One of our book club members has shared an article that brings an update of some justice coming to Cambodia. Please read the following article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080226/wl_nm/cambodia_rouge_dc

Tough Love in February?

This month WOW Exchange Book Group is choosing to read the story of Loung Ung through her memoir "First they killed my father; A daugther of Cambodia remembers."

Here's a brief description of the book:

In 1975, Luong Ung was the five-year-old child of a large, affluent family living in Phnom Penh, the cosmopolitan Cambodian capital. As extraordinarily well-educated Chinese-Cambodians, with the father a government agent, her family was in great danger when the Khmer Rouge took over the country and throughout Pol Pot's barbaric regime. Her parents' strength and her father's knowledge of Khmer Rouge ideology enabled the family to survive together for a while, posing as illiterate peasants, moving first between villages, and then from one work camp to another.

Her restrained, unsentimental account of the four years she spent surviving the regime before escaping with a brother to Thailand and eventually the United States is astonishing--not just because of the tragedies, but also because of the immense love for her family that Ung holds onto, no matter how she is brutalized. Skillfully constructed, this account also stands as an eyewitness history of the period, because as a child Ung was so aware of her surroundings, and because as an adult writer she adds details to clarify the family's moves and separations. Thirty-three years after the rise of the Khmer Rouge, this powerful account is a triumph.

Come join the discussion at Javaholic in the Inner Richmond neighborhood (Balboa St. on the corner of 6th Ave.) on Sunday February 24 at 2pm.

Geraldine Brooks in the Inner Sunset?

So, some of you might've remembered Geraldine Brooks, the author of "Year of Wonders" - our book read for last June. Well, she has decided to come visit San Francisco to promote her latest book "People of the Book" and is arranging a lunch through Books Inc. at our local Park Chow restaurant in the Inner Sunset and you can totally meet her!

Here's the information:
Time: Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at noon
Where: Park Chow, 1240 9th Avenue, San Francisco
Price: $60 - on sale at all Books Inc. locations and will include a signed copy of the book

Lunch with Geraldine Brooks
This event will include appetizer, entree, wine, dessert, a signed copy of People of the Book and great conversation!