Hello All (and Happy Holidays),

January is a fiction month. Here are the book nominees. The selection will be made at the meeting on Wednesday, December 16th. However, if you cannot be there and would like to give some input, please email me. The number of pages is in ( ):

A Mercy by T. Morrison (224) is set at the close of the 17th century, the book details America's untoward foundation: dominion over Native Americans, indentured workers, women and slaves. A slave at a plantation in Maryland offers up her daughter, Florens, to a relatively humane Northern farmer, Jacob, as debt payment from their owner. The ripples of this choice spread to the inhabitants of Jacob's farm, populated by women with intersecting and conflicting desires.

Northanger Abbey by J. Austen (256) is both a perfectly aimed literary parody and a withering satire of the commercial aspects of marriage among the English gentry at the turn of the nineteenth century. But most of all, it is the story of the initiation into life of its na?ve but sweetly appealing heroine, Catherine Morland, a willing victim of the contemporary craze for Gothic literature who is determined to see herself as the heroine of a dark and thrilling romance.

The Attack by Y. Khadra (272) is the story of Dr. Amin Jafaari, a well-respected and successful surgeon in a Tel Aviv hospital who also happens to be an Israeli-Arab. After a devastating suicide bomb attack, it is suspected is wife was the bomber.

Wishin' and Hopin' by W. Lamb (288). LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyone's turntable, and Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth grade?easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy.

The Missouri Riders by G. Banks (332) is set in post Civil War Missouri, this novel tells how a devoted son and two life-long friends deal with a major disaster in their lives. They forget the old adage that "Two wrongs don't make a right", and pay dearly for it.


PLEASE also email me with more fiction suggestions (for March).