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Book Club Bulletin August 2021
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City of a Thousand Gates
by Rebecca Sacks
Hamid, a college student, has entered Israeli territory illegally for work. Rushing past soldiers, he bumps into Vera, a German journalist headed to Jerusalem to cover the story of Salem, a Palestinian boy beaten into a coma by a group of revenge-seeking Israeli teenagers. On her way to the hospital, Vera runs in front of a car that barely avoids hitting her. The driver is Ido, a new father traveling with his American wife and their baby. Ido is distracted by thoughts of a young Jewish girl murdered by a terrorist who infiltrated her settlement. Ori, a nineteen-year-old soldier from a nearby settlement, is guarding the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem through which Samar - Hamid's professor - must pass.
These multiple strands open this magnificent and haunting novel of present-day Israel and Palestine, following each of these diverse characters as they try to protect what they love. Their interwoven stories reveal complicated, painful truths about life in this conflicted land steeped in hope, love, hatred, terror, and blood on both sides.
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Last Hummingbird West of Chile
by Nicholas Ruddock
A stunning work of imaginative fiction, Last Hummingbird West of Chile spins a tale of adventure that is in turn comedic, violent, poignant and thoughtful. Through the exploits of a young sailor born in questionable circumstance and a pair of murderous servants, as well as an assortment of other 19th century regulars, the vital subjects of today--race, religion, sexuality, environment--are framed in history and human culture.
Through narration by human protagonists, a tree, a hummingbird, various beasts, and the landscape itself, Guelph author Nicholas Ruddock tells a story of colonialism and environment, brutality and privilege, and the best and worst of human nature.
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The Push
by Ashley Audrain
A Good Morning America book club pick! This is a tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family, about a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for--and everything she feared.
Blythe Connor is determined to be the supportive mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had. But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter--Violet rejects her mother, screams uncontrollably, and becomes a disturbing, disruptive presence at her preschool. Or is it all in Blythe's head? Her husband, Fox, says she's imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity. Then their son Sam is born--and with him, Blythe has the natural, blissful connection she'd always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.
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Ready to Come About
by Sue Williams
When Guelphite Sue Williams set sail for the North Atlantic, it wasn't a mid-life crisis. She had no affinity for the sea. And she didn't have an adventure-seeking bone in her body. In the wake of a perfect storm of personal events, it suddenly became clear: her sons were adults now; they needed freedom to figure things out for themselves; she had to get out of their way. And it was now or never for her husband, David, to realize his dream to cross an ocean. So she'd go too.
Ready to Come About is the story of a mother's improbably adventure on the high seas and her profound journey within, through which she grew to believe that there is no gift more precious than the liberty to chart one's own course, and that risk is a good thing... sometimes, at least.
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Book club questions? We're here to help!
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