May Book Club Meeting

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/9/2/1/a/event_228577402.jpegThe May book is A Mercy by Toni Morrison. It made the New York Times Book Review list of “10 Best Books of 2008”. A Mercy explores the repercussions of an enslaved mother’s desperate act: She offers her small daughter to a stranger in payment for her master’s debt. A Mercy is Toni Morrison’s 9th novel. It was first published in 2008. A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery in early America. It is both the story of mothers and daughters and the story of a primitive America.

In the past, people have frequently been disappointed because they had read the book but "LIFE" interrupted their plans to attend the Thursday night discussion. For May we will offer 2 discussions on the book: 1 discussion at the normal time on Thursday, May 16 and 1 discussion on Saturday, May 18. Choose the date/time that best fits your schedule: attend one or attend both.

Since our discussion is held at the Nordstrom Market Cafe, I plan on enjoying dinner during our discussion. Eating or drinking is optional but I certainly plan on enjoying something to eat and drink during our discussion. The Nordstrom Market Cafe is located on the second floor of Norstroms in the Columbia Mall.

Synopsis

In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in “flesh,” he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives. A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter-a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.

Book Availability at the Howard Count Public Library

A Mercy is available for checkout at the Howard County Public Library. The Howard County Public Library has:

(18) Copies of the book.

(6) Copies in large print of the book.

(7) Copies in audio book on CD of the book.

(1) Copy as a downloadable audio.

I have put in a request to have 5 copies of the book reserved for our book club. These 5 copies should be available for checkout starting April 27. The books will be held at the Central Branch and are available for checkout on a first come, first serve basis. They are at the fiction help desk on the first floor of the Library and are held under the book club name "Meetup." Tell the Librarian that you are a member of the "Meetup" book club and you can check the book out using your Library card. The address and hours for the Central Branch are:

Howard County Library Central Branch

10375 Little Patuxent Pkwy

Columbia, MD 21044

(410) 313-7800

Branch Hours

Mon. - Thurs. 10 am - 9 pm

Fri. - Sat. 10 am - 6 pm