AuThursday: An Update from the Grand Forks Book Club

The Red River Valley Writing Project's Grand Forks Book Club met on Thursday, January 8^th to discuss books we’d read and enjoyed over the holidays.  Here are a few of the books:

·         The Magicians by Lev Grossman – Toted as a Harry Potter for grown-ups, Lev Grossman teleports his readers to the magical world of Brakebills, a university for the magically gifted.  There we meet Quentin Coldwater, a young, brilliant magician, who finds that magic isn’t everything he ever wanted it to be.
·         The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry – The students of St. Ethelreda’s School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma.  Their headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, has been poisoned.  The school will most certainly be closed down, unless these very proper young ladies can hide the murders and convince their neighbors that nothing is wrong.
·         The Peripheral by William Gibson - When Flynne substitutes for her brother in what she thinks is a beta test of a security game, she sees more than she bargained for. What she sees leads her deep into a morass of politics, protests, and Panama City lawyers. Someone knows what she saw and wants her dead, someone with power and connections, someone from the future.
·         Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz - Bolstered by the love and wisdom of his large, warm family, young Malcolm Little was a natural born leader. But when confronted with intolerance and a series of tragedies, Malcolm’s optimism and faith were threatened. He had to learn how to be strong and how to hold on to his individuality. He had to learn self-reliance.
·         The Discovery of Poetry by Frances Mayes – A field guide to poetry written by the author of Under the Tuscan Sun.  (A professional book club pick!)

We will meet again on Wednesday, February 11^th to discuss Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate) by Laura Esquivel.  We also decided to read Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay for March in anticipation of her UND Writer’s Conference appearance.

--Andrea Scherer, Grand Forks Book Club Coordinator