We had just four people online (Brad, Beth, Christine, and Peggy) and book lists from Peggy and Beth, so only 13 books total for this month.
Brad’s vision problems continue, so fewer books from him. He is working his way through Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series, and has started Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.
Book Lovers SIG always meets on the second Sunday of each month; next month is May 11. We meet online using Zoom, so it is easy to join in.
Folks generally start checking in around 2 p.m. for a bit of socialization. Book discussions begin around 2:30 p.m. more or less, or when Peggy says, “OK, Let’s talk about books!”
To join us on Zoom, simply click on the link shown below: https://tinyurl.com/BookLoversSIG
You can also open your Zoom app and use these parameters:
Meeting ID: 946 0436 4344
Passcode: 844358
The Book Lovers SIG Book Talk reports which have been submitted are archived and can be found here:
https://www.mamensa.org/category/book-lovers-sig-book-talks/
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Beth
Lone Wolf: Gregg Hurwitz. X takes on the internet and social media and the crazy people who run it and rescues a dog and a few others in the process.
Deadly Education: Naomi Novik. Magical Education with a deadly twist. There are mundanes, yes, who don’t believe in magic and can neutralize it just because they don’t believe. Then there are young witches and wizards, who are the tastiest and most vulnerable of the breed to mals: bundles of malevolent energy in myriad forms that eat young wizards. To keep their kids safe, there is the Scholomance: a school built into the void where students are educated, and “every” effort is made to keep the mals out so that the odds of living to 18 increases from one in 10 to 1 in four. Except the school is not that safe. The story centers on two extraordinary students as they approach graduation. Effective world building which examines themes such as capitalism, power, and the lengths people will go for the sake of their children or to achieve power.
The Last Graduate: Naomi Novik. It’s senior year for our protagonists and they have a different idea about how to get out of the school.
The Golden Enclaves: Naomi Novik. Now that the class has graduated, all is not well. How do we fix the system that supports the power grab at the cost of the lives of the powerless?
Not quite by the Book: Julie Hatcher. Eldest daughter loves her bookstore and is happy to have “taken it over” from her parents and pregnant younger sister. Until she’s not happy and decides to emulate her heroine Emily Dickinson in Amherst: home of ED and where both daughters went to college. Many false starts and dead ends as she seeks to grow as a person and find her people.
Journal of a Thousand Years: C.J. Archer. Families are coming together and falling apart as the clues continue to come to light about Sylvia’s past and how the evil Lord Coyle sought to collect them all. Mystery, magic, and romance.
Bacchanal: Veronica Henry. It’s a carnival of true freaks, and there are demons and demonic energy involved. An orphan joins the circus hoping to reunite with her father and finds her power.
The Snake Agent: Liz Webber. Inspector Chen is a detective in China, but he’s also married to a demon. This detective story about the disappearance of the young daughter of a prominent politician leads to the discovery of a kidnapping ring that steals young girls to work as zombie prostitutes while using their souls to feed youth and life to the most powerful demons. A good mystery with a fully realized hell, complete with devils and demons.
The Women’s War: Jenna Glass. Power and the hierarchy are determined by access to the magic wells and controlled by the men with a very strict patrimony. Excess, shamed, or used up women are sent to the brothels. Until a new well is found. The struggle for the women to gain power over their lives is serious and deadly and focused on producing an heir for the top rulers.
Murder the Truth: David Enrich. What is the libel law that Trump wants to open up. Here it is, in detail, with a few of the seminal cases. How it works, why the rich and powerful want it changed, and how it affects the news you read.
Peggy
The Indigo Girl, by Natasha Boyd. Eliza Lucas Pinckney was born in Antigua and then moved to South Carolina. Her father went off to war in 1740 and left her in charge of their farms. She knew of the indigo seeds that could make dye and ultimately harvested a successful crop that became, along with rice, one of the two most successful crops in South Carolina. The bones of the story have been embellished with romance and attitudes about slavery that are too contemporary, but it was enjoyable.
An Island of Suspects, a Brittany Mystery, by Jean-Luc Bannalec. Commissaire Georges Dupin is forced to take a speedboat to Belle-Ile, Breton’s biggest island. Everyone in his small town has a motive for killing the greatly disliked sheep farmer and landowner but which one did it? Great food, great coffee, great whiskey. Tenth in the series.
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. This month’s library book club pick was something I hadn’t read in 60 years or so. If anything, it’s more topical now as the substitution of visual material for books seems even more insidious. Which book chapter would you choose to memorize for the library of the future?
