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Our reading group averages 25 people in attendance. Some people talk and many do not. Sometimes some of us enjoy the selections, other times, we don't, but whatever we choose, we can always count on a lively discussion. We do try to stay within certain guidelines: accept selections with an open mind; read with diligence and focus; allow for everyone's opinions and viewpoints, no matter how divergent from each other; accept others for who they are and their individual likes and dislikes; avoid allowing personal issues to get in the way of the group discussions.
The books we've read so far include The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom; The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd; The Mermaid Chair, by Sue Monk Kidd; The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards; Marley & Me, by John Grogran; The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold; Three Weeks with My Brother, by Nicholas Sparks, with Micah Sparks; To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee; Leave It to Claire, by Tracey Bateman; The Christmas Hope, by Donna VanLiere; Father Joe, by Tony Hendra; Monique and the Mango Rains, by Kim Holloway; The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls; Daddy's Girl, by Lisa Scottoline; The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle; Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, by Alan Alda; Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks; The Christmas Promise, by Donna Van Liere; The God of Animals, by Aryn Kyle; Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, by Immaculèe Ilibagiza with Steve Erwin; Eye Contact, by Cammie McGovern..

A Light in the Window is the second installment in this enormously popular series about a smalltown rector, Father Tim, and the heartwarming cast of characters surrounding him. This time Father Tim, a lifelong bachelor, finds his heart distracted by his free-spirited neighbor Cynthia, but his stomach and the rectory cash box are distracted by Edith, a wealthy widow who is wooing the rector with love potion casseroles. At every turn, imcluding when a brooding Irish cousin decides to move in, Father Tim must decide wether he will practice what he preaches.

The Battle of Iwo Jima, fought in the winter of 1945 on a rocky island south of Japan, brought a ferocious slice of hell to earth: in a month's time, more than 22,000 Japanese soldiers would die defending a patch of ground a third the size of Manhattan, while nearly 26,000 Americans fell taking it from them. The battle was a turning point in the war in the Pacific, and it produced one of World War II's enduring images: a photograph of six soldiers raising an American flag on the flank of Mount Suribachi, the island's commanding high point.
One of those young Americans was John Bradley, a Navy corpsman who a few days before had braved enemy mortar and machine-gun fire to administer first aid to a wounded Marine and then drag him to safety. For this act of heroism Bradley would receive the Navy Cross, an award second only to the Medal of Honor.

In Dec.of 2007, a normal,active and out going 16 year old boy went from starring on the soccer field to suddenly and unexpectedly, battling a devastating genetic condition that was causing his heart to deteriorate rapidly. He needed a heart. This story is told through the eyes of his parents as they lived this nightmare 24/7while never leaving the hospital for 58 days of pure hell.

During a piercingly hot summer, a few kilometres from a bone-dry hamlet in rural Tuscany, a shy, nervy, nine-year-old boy called Michele explores a derelict house and discovers, under moldering leaves, a horrifying secret. The novel is saved from sensationalism by Ammaniti's almost cinematic ability to conjure detail-the look of scraps of meat on a plate, the sheen of a new bike, the whispers of adults in the night-and by his utterly convincing re-creation of a child's perspective, as Michele's discovery propels him into ever more uncertain territory.

In 1915, as War began to loom, and her brothers were off fighting, Beata Wittgenstein, a young, beautiful, intelligent German Jewish woman, fell in love with a handsome and caring French officer. Both loved their families and their countries, but the love they had for each other had no equal. Defying their parents,their traditions, and being cut out of the families, never to be allowed contact again, they sought comfort in each other's arms and married. Not an easy life, they managed to make a home and life for themselves and their two beautiful daughters. Beata converting to Catholicism for her husband, but never forgetting her own deep roots

A short but rich exploration of the lives of four Wabanaki women in northeastern US and southern Canada. The narrative begins with Molly Mathilde, a mother, peacemaker, and daughter of a famous chief. Born in the mid-1600s, when Wabanakis first experienced the full effects of colonial warfare, disease, and displacement, she provided a vital link for her people through her marriage to the French baron of Castin. The saga continues with the shrewd and legendary healer Molly Ockett and the reputed witchwoman Molly Molasses. The final chapter focuses on Molly Dellis Nelson (known as Spotted Elk), a celebrated performer on European stages who lived to see the dawn of Wabanaki cultural renewal in the modern era. "Women of the Dawn" is lyrical and poetic but based on many years of fieldwork and scholarship. Winner of the Friends of American Writers Literary Award.

The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman's courageous flight to freedom with her eight children. When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn's heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband's psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. For a start there's the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. Despite Katz's overwhelming desire to find cozy restaurants, he and Bryson eventually settle into their stride, and while on the trail they meet a bizarre assortment of hilarious characters. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson's acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America's last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is destined to become a modern classic of travel literature.

Charlotte Brontë's most beloved novel describes the passionate love between the courageous orphan Jane Eyre and the brilliant, brooding, and domineering Rochester. The loneliness and cruelty of Jane's childhood strengthens her natural independence and spirit, which prove invaluable when she takes a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall. But after she falls in love with her sardonic employer, her discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a heart-wrenching choice. Ever since its publication in 1847, Jane Eyre has enthralled every kind of reader, from the most critical and cultivated to the youngest and most unabashedly romantic. It lives as one of the great triumphs of storytelling and as a moving and unforgettable portrayal of a woman's quest for self-respect.