Here you can find information on the many titles housed in the Millcreek Community Center Library's book club collection. We have summaries of each book, as well as links to our catalogue, and other resources for reading groups. All titles can be checked out singly or as a set to anyone with a Salt Lake County Library card.
A first-generation Chinese-American woman
recounts growing up in America within a tradition-bound Chinese family,
and confronted with Chinese ghosts from the past and non-Chinese ghosts
of the present.
“A classic, for a reason” – Celeste Ng via Twitter
Named by The New York Times as one of the 50 best memoirs of the last 50 years.
In her award-winning book The Woman Warrior, Maxine
Hong Kingston created an entirely new form—an exhilarating blend of
autobiography and mythology, of world and self, of hot rage and cool
analysis. First published in 1976, it has become a classic in its
innovative portrayal of multiple and intersecting identities—immigrant,
female, Chinese, American.
As a girl, Kingston lives in two
confounding worlds: the California to which her parents have immigrated
and the China of her mother’s “talk stories.” The fierce and wily women
warriors of her mother’s tales clash jarringly with the harsh reality of
female oppression out of which they come. Kingston’s sense of self
emerges in the mystifying gaps in these stories, which she learns to
fill with stories of her own. A warrior of words, she forges fractured
myths and memories into an incandescent whole, achieving a new
understanding of her family’s past and her own present.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
From the bestselling
author of The Ragged Edge of Night comes a powerful and poetic novel of
survival and sacrifice on the American frontier.
Wyoming,
1870. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and
Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for
miles, it is a matter of survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife,
Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn’t think
of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to
prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse.
Losing
her husband to Cora’s indiscretion is another hardship for stoic Nettie
Mae. But as a brutal Wyoming winter bears down, Cora and Nettie Mae
have no choice but to come together as one family—to share the duties of
working the land and raising their children. There’s Nettie Mae’s son,
Clyde—no longer a boy, but not yet a man—who must navigate the road to
adulthood without a father to guide him, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah,
who is as wild and untamable as her prairie home.
Bound by the
uncommon threads in their lives and the challenges that lie ahead, Cora
and Nettie Mae begin to forge an unexpected sisterhood. But when a love
blossoms between Clyde and Beulah, bonds are once again tested, and
these two resilient women must finally decide whether they can learn to
trust each other—or else risk losing everything they hold dear.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
An extraordinary new novel about the influence of history on a contemporary family, from the New York Times-bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of Another Brooklyn and Brown Girl Dreaming.
Two families from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces. Moving forward and backward in time, with the power of poetry and the emotional richness of a narrative ten times its length, Jacqueline Woodson's extraordinary new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these
families, and in the life of this child.
As the book opens in
2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age
ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by
her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the soundtrack of
Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not
without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured
and sewn for a different wearer: Melody's mother, for her own ceremony--
a celebration that ultimately never took place.
Unfurling the
history of Melody's parents and grandparents to show how they all
arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and
successes but also the costs, the tolls they've paid for striving to
overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. As it explores
sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class
and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone
most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often
make long-lasting decisions about their lives--even before they have
begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
A Natural History of the Senses is a vibrant celebration
of our ability to smell, taste, hear, touch, and see. Poet, pilot,
naturalist, journalist, essayist, and explorer, Diane Ackerman
weaves together scientific fact with lore, history, and voluptuous
description. The resulting work is a startling and enchanting
account of how human beings experience and savor the world.
It
asks and answers such questions as: How do perfumers know which
scents allure? Why does music move us? How did kissing on the mouth
begin? What is our craving for chocolate? It illuminates the
phenomenon of pheromones and looks into the question of whether
they control us. Incorporated in its superb reporting and splendid
prose are fascinating facts: Humans have about 10,000 taste buds,
cows 25,000. What are they tasting, and what are we missing?
It probes such everyday mysteries as why leaves turn color in the
fall and why we see them in color; and what it is that causes
lovers to feel delight when they touch.
A Natural History of the Senses is at once an ingenuous
exploration of the physical processes underlying our perceptions
and an eloquent ode to life — a rare combination of
science and poetry.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
Forced into a suffocating marriage, Forugh runs away and falls into an affair that fuels her desire to write and to achieve freedom and independence. Forugh’s poems are considered both scandalous and brilliant; she is heralded by some as a national treasure, vilified by others as a demon influenced by the West. She perseveres, finding love with a notorious filmmaker and living by her own rules—at enormous cost. But the power of her writing grows only stronger amid the upheaval of the Iranian revolution.
Inspired by Forugh Farrokhzad’s verse, letters, films, and interviews—and including original translations of her poems—Jasmin Darznik has written a haunting novel, using the lens of fiction to capture the tenacity, spirit, and conflicting desires of a brave woman who represents the birth of feminism in Iran—and who continues to inspire generations of women around the world..
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
Ann Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder,
returns with her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story
that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of
their childhood, and a past that will not let them go.
"'Do you think it's possible to ever see the past as it
actually was?' I asked my sister. We were sitting in her car, parked in
front of the Dutch House in the broad daylight of early summer."
At
the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a
single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire,
propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order
of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs
outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house
sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
The story is
told by Cyril's son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly
acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they
grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back
into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they
have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between
them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House
is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their
past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only
truly comfortable when they're together. Throughout their lives they
return to the well-worn story of what they've lost with humor and rage.
But when at last they're forced to confront the people who left them
behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his
ever-protective sister is finally tested.
The Dutch House
is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into
questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see
ourselves and of who we really are. Filled with suspense, you may read
it quickly to find out what happens, but what happens to Danny and Maeve
will stay with you for a very long time.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
A sweeping historical novel about a dance-hall girl and an orphan
boy whose fates entangle over an old Chinese superstition about men who
turn into tigers, set in 1930s Malaysia.
Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice
dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her
mother's Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally
leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure
she has been longing for.
Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his
former master's dying wish: that Ren find the man's finger, lost years
ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so,
or his master's soul will wander the earth forever.
As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths wracks
the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin
and Ren's increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush
plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes.
Yangsze Choo's The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants
and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry
and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the
intimate coming of age of a child and a young woman, each searching for
their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
A richly imagined, powerful new novel about how we explain the world to ourselves, ourselves to others, and the meaning of our lives in a universe that remains impenetrably mysterious.
On a dark midwinter's night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed.
Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.
Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son's secret liaison, stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson's housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone's. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl's identity can be known.
Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling, transporting you through worlds both real and imagined, to the triumphant conclusion whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
From O. Henry Prize–winning author Emily Ruskovich comes a stunning debut novel about love and forgiveness, about the violence of memory and the equal violence of its loss.
Ann and Wade have carved out a life for themselves from a rugged terrain in northern Idaho, where they are bound together by more than love. With her husband's memory fading, Ann attempts to piece together the truth of what happened to Wade's first wife, Jenny, and to their daughters. In a story written in exquisite prose and told from multiple perspectives—including Ann, Wade, and Jenny, now in prison—we gradually learn of the mysterious and shocking act that fractured Wade and Jenny's lives, of the love and compassion that brought Ann and Wade together, and of the memories that reverberate through the lives of every character in Idaho.
In a wild emotional and physical landscape, Wade's past becomes the center of Ann's imagination, as Ann becomes determined to understand the family she never knew—and to take responsibility for them, reassembling their lives, and her own.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
