Fiction_L Archives Books for Senior Women Discussion Group Dates: 3/17/03,2:37 PM  through  3/20/03,9:13 AM  (13 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to March 2003 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: "Mitchell, Melissa" <[removed]@mail.ppld.org>
REC'D: 3/17/03, 2:37 PM

We run a book group whose members are senior women. They seem open to
reading all genres, but don't want anything too sexual, violent, etc. and
not necessarily a best seller. Believe it or not, we have struck out with
some of our selections - such as Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Fig Eater
by Jody Shields. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
in advance.

Melissa Mitchell
Reference Librarian
East Library & Information Center
5550 N. Union Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
(719) 531-6333, ext. 1314

FROM: Viccy Kemp <[removed]@cityofcarrollton.com>
REC'D: 3/17/03, 2:43 PM

Our group loved "Bee season" by Myla Goldberg. It is very short, but very
thought provoking. No sex, no violence, no bad words.
HTH
Viccy Kemp
The opinions are my own; the library wouldn't want 'em!

-----Original Message-----
From: Mitchell, Melissa [[removed]@mail.ppld.org]
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 2:41 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Books for Senior Women Discussion Group

We run a book group whose members are senior women. They seem open to
reading all genres, but don't want anything too sexual, violent, etc. and
not necessarily a best seller. Believe it or not, we have struck out with
some of our selections - such as Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Fig Eater
by Jody Shields. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
in advance.

Melissa Mitchell
Reference Librarian
East Library & Information Center
5550 N. Union Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
(719) 531-6333, ext. 1314

......................................................................
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FROM: Sandy Westbrook <[removed]@crlc.org>
REC'D: 3/17/03, 3:22 PM

Melissa,

We have a book group of senior women who will also read almost
anything. Here's a few titles they've enjoyed:
Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
Gardens of Kyoto by Kate Walbert
Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
In Sunlight in a Beautiful Garden by Kathleen Cambor

I've not read any of these and can't vouch for the appearance of sex or
violence but I'd be surprised if any of them were very graphic.

Sandy Westbrook
Adult Services Librarian
South Windsor Public Library
South Windsor, CT 06074
Ph 860-644-1541
Fax 860-644-7645
[removed]@crlc.org

FROM: Nancy Mulder <[removed]@kdl.org>
REC'D: 3/17/03, 3:39 PM

I put together this list for a discussion group of seniors from a local
retirement center.

Good Books for Senior Discussion Groups
All are available in Large Print and on Audiocassette

Fiction

Austen, Jane.
Emma.
Emma, matchmaker extraordinaire to all her friends, is determined not to
fall in love or marry, but this gently humorous novel shows how her
determination is wrecked on the shoals of events.

Barrett, Andrea.
The Voyage of the Narwhal.
Erasmus Darwin Wells, the scholar-naturalist aboard the Narwhal, tells of
its fateful trip to the Arctic in the mid-19th century. A New York Times
Notable Book and American Library Association Notable Book.

Belfer, Lauren.
City of Light.
A first novel, a gripping mystery set in 1901 in Buffalo, New York, involves
a school headmistress, the President of the United States, and the building
of the hydroelectric power plant on Niagara Falls.

Brooks, Geraldine.
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague.
Describes the 17th-century plague that is carried from London to a small
Derbyshire village by an itinerant tailor.

Dallas, Sandra.
The Persian Pickle Club
When a group of rural 1930s Kansas women, who gather each week to gossip and
quilt, gains a new friend from the city who uncovers a long-kept secret
about one of the members' husbands, the group bands together to support and
protect one another.

Edgerton, Clyde.
Walking across Egypt.
Mattie Rigsbee, a 78-year-old widow, finds her own life rejuvenated when she
is faced with the challenge of helping Wesley, a juvenile delinquent in need
of a grandmother's love, home-cooking, and stability.

Gibbons, Kay.
Ellen Foster.
When 11-year-old Ellen's mother dies and her abusive father starts to make
sexual advances toward her, Ellen travels from refuge to refuge, always
quietly accepting but shrewdly analyzing life as it comes.

Golden, Arthur
Memoirs of a Geisha.
The renowned geisha Sayuri tells her life story in this fictional memoir
about a young girl from a poor fishing village who is sold into near slavery
and trained to become one of the most famous geishas in the Gion district of
old Kyoto.

Milller, Sue.
While I was Gone.
When an old roommate reappears in her life after 30 years, Jo Becker is
forced to relive the period they spent together and the tragedy that
concluded it.

Potok, Chaim.
The Chosen.
In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther (a secular
Jew) and Danny Saunders (the son of a Hasidic rebbe) together. Despite their
differences, the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship.

NonFiction

Ball, Edward.
Slaves in the Family.
Winner of the Southern Book Award for Best Nonfiction and a National Book
Award finalist, this is the story of Ball's attempts to search out his black
relatives.

Dinesen, Isak.
Out of Africa.
Isak Dinesen recounts her marriage to her cousin Baron Bror Blixen, her move
to eastern Africa, and her experiences on the coffee plantation that she and
her husband establish.

Krakauer, Jon.
Into the Wild.
So why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future--a college
education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm--for death by
starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska? This book attempts to
answer that question.

Lamott, Anne
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith.
Lamott offers her trademark wit and irreverence in describing her reluctant
journey into faith.

Larson, Erik.
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History.
A blend of science and history tells the story of Galveston, its people, and
the hurricane that devastated them.

Philbrick.
In the Heart of the Sea.
An examination of the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the
telling of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale.
This story, which inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick, includes
cannibalism and rescue.

Roberts, Cokie
We are our Mothers' Daughters.
The author poses the question that has long been a real doozy: "What is
woman's place?" in stories of women she has known through the years.

Sobel, Dava.
Galileo's Daughter.
This biography melding history, science, religion, and technology is
written in highly readable prose.

Wincheseter, Simon
Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the
Oxford English Dictionary.
The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, 70 years in the making,
was an intellectually heroic feat with a twist worthy of the greatest
mystery fiction: one of its most valuable contributors was a criminally
insane American physician, locked up in an English asylum for murder.

-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Westbrook [[removed]@crlc.org]
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 4:21 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Re: Books for Senior Women Discussion Group

Melissa,

We have a book group of senior women who will also read almost
anything. Here's a few titles they've enjoyed:
Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
Gardens of Kyoto by Kate Walbert
Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
In Sunlight in a Beautiful Garden by Kathleen Cambor

I've not read any of these and can't vouch for the appearance of sex or
violence but I'd be surprised if any of them were very graphic.

Sandy Westbrook
Adult Services Librarian
South Windsor Public Library
South Windsor, CT 06074
Ph 860-644-1541
Fax 860-644-7645
[removed]@crlc.org

......................................................................
Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
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FROM: "Carol Kubala" <[removed]@columbiapl.libct.org>
REC'D: 3/17/03, 3:50 PM

Girl with a pearl by Tracy Chevalier
Secret life of bees Sue Monk Kidd
Wish you well David Baldacci

Some recent favorites of our patrons.

--
Carol Kubala
Adult Services Librarian
Columbia/Saxton B. Little Free
Voice 860-228-0350 Fax 860-228-1569

were recent favorites of our patrons

"Mitchell, Melissa" wrote:

> We run a book group whose members are senior women. They seem open to
> reading all genres, but don't want anything too sexual, violent, etc. and
> not necessarily a best seller. Believe it or not, we have struck out with
> some of our selections - such as Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Fig Eater
> by Jody Shields. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
> in advance.
>
> Melissa Mitchell
> Reference Librarian
> East Library & Information Center
> 5550 N. Union Blvd.
> Colorado Springs, CO 80918
> (719) 531-6333, ext. 1314
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org

FROM: Marilyn Boatright <[removed]@pacbell.net>
REC'D: 3/18/03, 12:12 AM

If you want something current, try Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.
It's available in paperback, but not in large print yet. If they have a sense
of humor, try Bonesetters Daughter, by Amy Tan.
Marilyn Boatright
San Rafael Public Library

"Mitchell, Melissa" wrote:

> We run a book group whose members are senior women. They seem open to
> reading all genres, but don't want anything too sexual, violent, etc. and
> not necessarily a best seller. Believe it or not, we have struck out with
> some of our selections - such as Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Fig Eater
> by Jody Shields. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
> in advance.
>
> Melissa Mitchell
> Reference Librarian
> East Library & Information Center
> 5550 N. Union Blvd.
> Colorado Springs, CO 80918
> (719) 531-6333, ext. 1314
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org

FROM: Spencer Ms Martha <[removed]@usmc-mccs.org>
REC'D: 3/18/03, 7:40 AM

Growing Up by Russell Baker was a big hit with our older readers.

Martha

-----Original Message-----
From: Mitchell, Melissa [[removed]@mail.ppld.org]
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 3:41 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Books for Senior Women Discussion Group

We run a book group whose members are senior women. They seem open to
reading all genres, but don't want anything too sexual, violent, etc. and
not necessarily a best seller. Believe it or not, we have struck out with
some of our selections - such as Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Fig Eater
by Jody Shields. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
in advance.

Melissa Mitchell
Reference Librarian
East Library & Information Center
5550 N. Union Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
(719) 531-6333, ext. 1314

......................................................................
Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org

FROM: "Diane Premo" <[removed]@mcls.rochester.lib.ny.us>
REC'D: 3/18/03, 9:17 AM

You might consider Bobbie Ann Mason's wonderful memoir "Clear Springs" about
growing up in rural Kentucky in the 1950s and 60s (but she also describes
her parents' and grandparents' lives). It is beautifully written, often
reading like a novel.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mitchell, Melissa" <[removed]@mail.ppld.org>
To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 3:40 PM
Subject: Books for Senior Women Discussion Group

> We run a book group whose members are senior women. They seem open to
> reading all genres, but don't want anything too sexual, violent, etc. and
> not necessarily a best seller. Believe it or not, we have struck out with
> some of our selections - such as Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Fig Eater
> by Jody Shields. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
> in advance.
>
> Melissa Mitchell
> Reference Librarian
> East Library & Information Center
> 5550 N. Union Blvd.
> Colorado Springs, CO 80918
> (719) 531-6333, ext. 1314
>
>
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org
>

FROM: "Marika Zemke" <[removed]@hotmail.com>
REC'D: 3/18/03, 4:08 PM

The Church Ladies by Lisa Samson
The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
China Run by David Ball
Rachel Calof's Story by R. Calof (older but very inspiring)
Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult
The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham

I would recommend any of the above books for a senior women discussion
group. As for bestsellers sometimes falling flat....some of the
bestsellers/award winning books that I've read have left me wondering how
they got to be bestsellers. For example, I just finished "Life of Pi" by
Yann Martel. I was left wondering how it won the Booker award. Maybe it was
just me but it was a "strange" book to say the least. That's just my humble
opinion though.

Marika Zemke
Adult Services Librarian
West Bloomfield Township Public Library
West Bloomfield, MI 48323
[removed]@wblib.org
248-232-2303

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."
Jorge Luis Borges

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*
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FROM: "Wilton Library Association" <[removed]@wiltonlibrary.org>
REC'D: 3/18/03, 5:04 PM

We run a monthly book talk series at the local Senior Center, and believe it
or not, we've had some great success with some of the more accessible
classics. This year they've enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and The Rise of
Silas Lapham. (The Blithedale Romance was a bomb, however.)

Other things which have been successful include: biographies, especially
ones that take them to a different place or time (The Road from Coorain is
next week's title); gentler modern reads (the best discussion I ever lead
was of Fannie Flagg's Welcome to the World Baby Girl); and things to which
they can relate in their own lives (they really "got into" the discussion of
Snow in August because many of them had lived in or near New York during and
after WWII).

Engaging them in the process can be successful, too. I remember many years
ago they did The Daughter of Time, and each member of the group was given a
different non-fiction title about the whole sordid family affair to read as
well. They each came prepared with one historian's theory on what really
happened in the tower (in addition to Tey's conclusions) and had a great
discussion.

Sandy
====================
Sandra Clockedile, MSLIS
Head of Systems
Wilton Library Association
[removed]@wiltonlibrary.org
http://www.wiltonlibrary.org

FROM: "christine jeffords" <[removed]@hotmail.com>
REC'D: 3/19/03, 7:02 AM

>From: "Diane Premo" <[removed]@mcls.rochester.lib.ny.us>
>Reply-To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
>To: Fiction_L <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
>Subject: Re: Books for Senior Women Discussion Group
>Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 10:10:47 -0500
>
>You might consider Bobbie Ann Mason's wonderful memoir "Clear Springs"
>about
>growing up in rural Kentucky in the 1950s and 60s (but she also describes
>her parents' and grandparents' lives). It is beautifully written, often
>reading like a novel.

And why not Sterling North's "Rascal," "The Wolfling," or "So Dear to My
Heart"?

Then, of course, there's my perennial recommendation, Weldon Hill's
"Lonesome Traveller." Though it may be harder to find.

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

FROM: "Waznis, Betty" <[removed]@sdcounty.ca.gov>
REC'D: 3/19/03, 5:16 PM

A book just crossed our desk that might provide some ideas for a senior
women's discussion group. It is that rare item, a self-published book that
actually appeared interesting and worthwhile. The tile is Good Books, Good
Friends, Good Food: a successful recipe for your own book club, by Elizabeth
Weiler and Karisa Creer. (available on Amazon or from the authors at
801-294-4811) The authors pull together the experiences of their successful
women's book club in Salt Lake City. Includes book club etiquette, how to
get started, picking books. Includes the seasonal monthly themes that the
club has used, listing 4 books for each theme, with discussion questions and
author background for each book. PLUS, there is a recipe that the club
enjoyed at each one of the discussions. The club is made up of younger
women, but the choices are definitely gentle, some classics, some
inspirational, some contemporary international, etc. Might give you some
ideas for your senior women's group.

Betty Waznis
San Diego County Library

FROM: "Hogan, Jean E." <[removed]@nvcc.edu>
REC'D: 3/20/03, 9:13 AM

I'm not a senior (yet) but I am a female. I absolutely adored Rosalind
Miles' Guenevere Trilogy and just finished the first of the Tristan and
Isolde trilogy. I am eagerly awaiting the second. ( I saw it recently on
the Borders/Amazon site and tried to buy it....it's not even available
yet!!!)

-----Original Message-----
From: Mitchell, Melissa [[removed]@mail.ppld.org]
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 3:41 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Books for Senior Women Discussion Group

We run a book group whose members are senior women. They seem open to
reading all genres, but don't want anything too sexual, violent, etc. and
not necessarily a best seller. Believe it or not, we have struck out with
some of our selections - such as Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Fig Eater
by Jody Shields. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
in advance.

Melissa Mitchell
Reference Librarian
East Library & Information Center
5550 N. Union Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
(719) 531-6333, ext. 1314

......................................................................
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Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org

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