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Singles of Solano Book Club meets the fourth Thursday of every
month at 7:00pm at various members homes. The host of the
meeting picks the book and leads the discussion. For more
information, call Beverly Black at 707-446-2303. |
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complete list of previous book club selections, enter
here. |
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Current
Selections ...
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"The Madonnas
of Lenigrad"
by Debra Dean
August 23, 2007
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Russian emigre Marina Buriakov, 82, is
preparing for her granddaughter's wedding near Seattle while
fighting a losing battle against Alzheimer's. Stuggling to
remember whom Katie is marrying (and indeed that there is to be a
marriage at all), Marina does remember her youth as a Hermitage
Museum docent as the siege of Leningrad began; it is into these
memories that she disappears. After frantic packing, the
Hermitage's collection is transported to a safe hiding place until
the end of the war. The museum staff and their families remain,
wintering (all 2,000 of them) in the Hermitage basement to avoid
bombs and marauding soldiers. Marina, using the technique of a
fellow docent, memorizes favorite Hermitage works; these memories,
beautifully interspersed, are especially vibrant. Dean, making her
debut, weaves Marina's past and present together effortlessly. The
dialogue around Marina's forgetfulness is extremely well done, and
the Hermitage material has depth. Although none of the characters
emerges particularly vividly (Marina included), memory, the hopes
one pins on it and the letting go one must do around it all take
on real poignancy, giving the story a satisfying fullness. |
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"Incidents in the
Life of a Slave Girl"
by Harriet A. Jacobs
September 27, 2007
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As a child, Harriet Jacobs remained blissfully
unaware that she was a slave until the deaths of both her mother and
a benevolent mistress exposed her to a sexually predatory master,
Dr. Flint. Determined to escape, she spends seven years hidden away
in a garret in her grandmother’s house, three feet high at its
tallest point, with almost no air or light, and with only glimpses
of her children to sustain her courage. In the face of seemingly
insurmountable odds, she finally wins her battle for freedom by
escaping to the North in 1842.
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"The Big Alma:
San Francisco's Alma Spreckels"
by Bernice Scharlack
October 25, 2007
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Bernice Scharlach's sparkling biography of the beautiful, outrageous
woman who was born on a farm in the Sunset District, scandalized San
Francisco society, became an artists' model, posed for the statue at
the top of the column in Union Square, who married Adolph Spreckels,
befriended European royalty, brought the works of Auguste Rodin to
America and built the Palace of the Legion of Honor to hold them,
who lived in the grandest house in San Francisco, who fought two
World Wars, invented the Garage Sale, and at age 57 chartered a
plane and eloped with a cowboy.
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