Books & Beans Meetup

142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

NOTE: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot at the St. Augustine Winery, a block away (catty-corner to Carmelo's).

This month we will be reading a member selection. Caroline, thank you so much for the suggestion. I'm always excited to read new books and learn.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Sparrow: A Novel (The Sparrow Series): Russell, Mary Doria: 9780449912553: Amazon.com: Books
Length: 408 pages

FROM THE BACK COVER:
A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.

Praise for The Sparrow
“A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Provocative, challenging . . . recalls both Arthur C. Clarke and H. G. Wells, with a dash of Ray Bradbury for good measure.”—The Dallas Morning News

“[Mary Doria] Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense.”—USA Today

142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot at the St. Augustine Winery, a block away (catty-corner to Carmelo's).
~~~

We are celebrating one of Gail's recommendations this month. Thank you so much for the high praise for The Midnight Library. We look forward to reading your book!

And no, Gail's choice didn't make me think of next month's choice (Midnight in the Blackbird Cafe). That one has been on the schedule since last year. 🥰 The pairing will give us a chance to talk about the significance of midnight.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Amazon.com: The Midnight Library: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel) (Audible Audio Edition): Matt Haig, Carey Mulligan, Penguin Audio: Books
Length: 299 Pages

From Amazon:

The number one New York Times best-selling worldwide phenomenon
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick

Independent (London) 10 Best Books of the Year

"A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits." (The Washington Post)

The dazzling favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How to Stop Time and The Comfort Book.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

We will meet at The Parfait Pastry Shop, downtown St. Augustine.
142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot across the street.
~~~

# The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

Get it from Amazon:
Amazon.com: The Sudden Appearance of Hope: 9780316335966: North, Claire: Books

FROM AMAZON:
The World Fantasy Award-winning thriller about a girl no one can remember, from the acclaimed author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and 84K.

My name is Hope Arden, and you won't know who I am. But we've met before -- a thousand times.

It started when I was sixteen years old. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger.

No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit, you will never remember who I am.

That makes my life difficult. It also makes me dangerous.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is a riveting and heartbreaking exploration of identity and existence, about a forgotten girl whose story will stay with you forever.

142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot at the St. Augustine Winery, a block away (catty-corner to Carmelo's).
~~~

Middlesex by Jeffrey Euugenides: Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club): Jeffrey Eugenides: 9780312427733: Amazon.com: Books $11.27 New / $5.00 Used
Length: 544 Pages

This book won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2003. Some of you may know him from his short novel, The Virgin Suicides. Have you ever read a book and thought: This person is talented? And I mean like gifted in knowing exactly where to place the perfect string of words on the page. I won't fib, the plot can be confusing and hard to keep up with in places. However, it is worth the read, just give yourself some time. I thought with school starting back, we should do something challenging and studious.

FROM THE BACK COVER:

The breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of 1967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Primarily a coming-of-age story (Bildungsroman) and family saga, the 21st-century gender novel chronicles the effect of a mutated gene on three generations of a Greek family, causing momentous changes in the protagonist's life. According to scholars, the novel's main themes are nature versus nurture, rebirth, and the differing experiences of what society constructs as polar opposites, such as those found between men and women. It discusses the pursuit of the American Dream and explores gender identity. The novel contains many allusions to Greek mythology, including creatures such as the Minotaur, half-man and half-bull, and the Chimera, a monster composed of various animal parts.

142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot at the St. Augustine Winery, a block away (catty-corner to Carmelo's).
~~~

This month we'll be reading My Name is Asher Lev. Years ago, one of my students encouraged me to read this book. I'm not going to lie; it's shocking and irreverent. It's also a beautifully written (and somewhat heartbreaking) story. It is certainly impactful. We will probably have a split table like Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods. But isn't that when book club is at its best?

Did you ever have to read The Chosen in high school or college (it is generally assigned). This is the same author.

Chaim Potak - My Name Is Asher Lev - My Name Is Asher Lev by Potok, Chaim (amazon.com)

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this modern classic from the National Book Award–nominated author of The Chosen, a young religious artist is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels, even when it leads him to blasphemy.

“A novel of finely articulated tragic power .... Little short of a work of genius.”—The New York Times Book Review

Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. He grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. He is torn between two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other devoted only to art and his imagination, and in time, his artistic gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores.

As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous, visionary portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant.

142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot at the St. Augustine Winery, a block away (catty-corner to Carmelo's).
~~~

I first read this book over ten years ago, and I remember finding it heartwarming and heartbreaking. This story is about a mother (and an author) who suffers from a serious illness. She has a young son and a mother who endure this illness with her. My mother had not yet passed of Ovarian cancer when I first read the book (had not even been diagnosed). I imagine I'll have a different perspective on the read this second time around because of my life experiences. It's so interesting how we can read the same book at different points in our lives and take away something different each time. I'm looking forward to the read. I believe you will enjoy it as well. It's in a genre called Magical Realism. Works in this genre paint a realistic vision of the world, but also sprinkle it with a big of magic. It's different from fantasy.

NOTE: A movie adaption of this book was made with Liam Neeson. Please don't watch it until you finish the book.

When a Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - Amazon.com: A Monster Calls: Inspired by an Idea from Siobhan Dowd (Audible Audio Edition): Patrick Ness, Jason Isaacs, Brilliance Audio: Books

FROM THE BACK COVER:

NOW A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor.

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting - he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd - whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself - Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot at the St. Augustine Winery, a block away (catty-corner to Carmelo's).
~~~

When I was a junior at the University of Alabama, I took a class that kind of changed my perspective of the world in major ways. At the time, the class was known as The Modern Novel. Now, everything we read then is 30+ years older, like me. I remember my final exam in this class though (because it was important), and I'd love to share it with you if you'll let me.

This month we'll be reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History.
The Secret History: Tartt, Donna: 9781400031702: Amazon.com: Books

I loved the book in 1994 when I first read it. Our professor assigned it and asked us if it would become a classic. Like Faulkner? Like Hemingway? Like Twain? Another Great American Novelist? Maybe a Judith Shakespeare (oh wait, Virginia Woolf helped us see she doesn't exist)? Sadly, my essay said it wouldn't become a classic, even though this novel has every single element it needed to become one. And here it is 30 years later, and I'm pretty sure none of you have heard of this book. I was right, but not because I wanted to be.

Tartt's The Goldfinch is more widely known and more widely read (and it is an amazing read). But the fact that she wrote The Secret History at 21 years of age is phenomenal. Let's read it and discuss more.

Side note: It do find it a little funny that the novel is now a "Read with Jenna" pick, since Jenna was maybe eight when it was written.

A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Goldfinch.

Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.

“A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment.... Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —The New York Times

We will meet at The Parfait Pastry Shop, downtown St. Augustine.
142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot across the street.
~~~

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

Get it from Amazon:
The Murmur of Bees: Segovia, Sofía, Bruni, Simon: 9781542040501: Amazon.com: Books

I was looking through my library, considering captivating books and rediscovered this one. This book begins with an infant child, who is not able bodied and has been abandoned. When he is found, he is covered in bees, but they aren't stinging him. They are talking to him, comforting him. It's a special book of magical realism mixed with historical events (a boy covered in bees that give him a sixth sense -- something desperately needed during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic and the Mexican Revolution).

I found a review on Amazon quite apt. Here it is if you want to read it: It’s like Pan’s Labyrinth meets We Were the Mulvaneys

If any of you are familiar with Del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth and Joyce Carol Oates' We Were the Mulvaneys, then you know this is a must read.

From the Back Cover:

From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel - her first to be translated into English - about a mysterious child with the power to change a family’s history in a country on the verge of revolution.

From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can - visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats - both human and those of nature - Simonopio’s purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.

Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, The Murmur of Bees captures both the fate of a country in flux and the destiny of one family that has put their love, faith, and future in the unbelievable.

Sovas Award - Audiobook Narration - Fiction, Best Voiceover - 2019

142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot at the St. Augustine Winery, a block away (catty-corner to Carmelo's).
~~~

We are doing another member suggestion this month, The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. I have read Verghese's Cutting for Stone (a great read). Judging from the reviews, I anticipate this one will be as good.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Amazon: The Covenant of Water..Paperback: Abraham Verghese: Amazon.com: Books

From the Back Cover:

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.
A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.

142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home
~~~

This is required reading for my World Literature classes. Initially, they see the size of the novel and freak out. Don't. Even though it's roughly 600 pages, it is not a difficult read. Most copies have multiple spacing for type setting, and the pages are filled with dialogue. If it helps, I can tell you that I read this book straight through in 13 hours (I was on a flight from Europe). It's funny. When we landed at the airport, I had 50 pages left. When we got home, I ran upstairs and told my husband not to disturb me for an hour. I just had to know how it ended. You'll understand what I mean when you are 50 pages from the end. You won't be disappointed. You may sob, but again, you won't be disappointed.

There is no book in my life that I have read more than this one. I read it each time I teach it and I teach it a LOT. I always spend two weeks on it with my classes, so my worry with book club is that we can't talk about all the important parts in a single two-hour setting. We will try though.

It's a heavy subject--the Holocaust, but it has a twist. It's told from Death's perspective. And one of my favorite lines from all of literature is from Him (Death) in this book. It goes something like this: "You humans say you are afraid of Death? The truth is, I'm afraid of you."

NOTE: DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE, not even after you've read the book. I mean it. It robs this book of all of its beauty.

Those of you who read Zusak's I Am the Messenger when we first started with me a year ago will be amazed at how far his writing progressed. Oh, also, look at the cover above. That's the European cover. The American cover has dominoes. I'll bring both to our meeting. On the cover of the European version (above), you'll see Death dancing with a little girl; both are happy. This is called the "dance macabre" (the dance of death). And it's not a bad thing. It's the idea that Death is the great unifier. It unifies us all (think of John Lennon's song Imagine. That's what the dance macabre does). <3

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
From Amazon:
The Book Thief: Markus Zusak: 9780375842207: Amazon.com: Books

### From the Back Cover

The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times.

When Death has a story to tell, you listen.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

“The kind of book that can be life-changing.” —The New York Times

“Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” —USA Today