Creating a Community of Casady Readers:
Books Announced for Year's Reading
As a part of the build up to the Book Fair, the CPO has organized a monthly book club named the “Community of Casady Readers”. Each month we will recommend a book to read which will be followed by a book discussion meeting. In addition, we are researching the best ways to hold “virtual” book discussions for those who cannot meet on campus in person, and we hope to have something definitive to announce in January. In the meantime, we have listed the monthly book selections, discussion dates, times and locations below. We will also repeat this information at casadylibrary.blogspot.com.
All books are available at Full Circle Bookstore, located at 50 Penn Place. Contact Full Circle for your copy today: 405-842-2900.
November’s Selection: Crazy For The Storm by Norman Ollestad:
"An 11-year-old boy, the only survivor of a small-plane crash in the San Gabriel Mountains in 1979, makes his way to safety down an icy mountain face in a blizzard, using the skills and determination he learned from his father."
Discussion: Friday, Dec. 4 at 8:15 a.m. – Cochran Library
December’s Selection: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls: "In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents – Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant,
alcoholic father."
Discussion: Thursday, Jan. 7 at 7:00 p.m. – Crabtree Library
January's Selection: A Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore: includes “a dangerous, homeless drifter who grew
up picking cotton in virtual slavery. An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel. A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream. A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it. It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana . . . and an East Texas honky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a Hollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch. Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, this true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.”
Discussion Friday, Feb. 5 at 8:15 a.m. – Cochran Library
February’s Selection: A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table
by Casady graduate and 2008 Young Alumni Achievement Honoree Molly Wizenberg ’97 (This repeats October’s recommendation because Molly will be on campus in February as a part of the month’s Book Fair events.)
“Molly tells of a life with the kitchen at its center. You won't be able to decide whether to curl up and sink into the story or run to the market to fill your basket with ingredients for one of the delectable recipes such as Pistachio Cake with Honeyed Apricots.”
Discussion: February – Event Dates To Be Announced
March’s Selection: The Real All Americans: The Team That Changed a Game, a People, a Nation by Sally Jenkins:
“In this sprawling, heavily researched sports tale, author and Washington Post reporter Jenkins (It's Not About the Bike, with Lance Armstrong) covers more than a half-century-from mid-19th century battles between the U.S. Army and Native Americans to the 1918 closing of Pennsylvania's seminal Carlisle Indian Industrial School-telling the long-buried story of Carlisle's football team (the Indians, natch), which defied tradition and arguably did more to shape the modern collegiate game than any of its Ivy League competitors."
Discussion: Thursday, April 1 at 8:15 a.m. – Cochran Library
April’s Selection: The Help by Kathryn Stocket:
the book is"set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club set relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams."
Thursday, May 6 at 7:00 p.m. – Crabtree Library
