[Hac-announce] Book Group Announcements

[Dan Blinn]

We will be meeting this afternoon at 3:00 pm to discuss "Deer Hunting With
Jesus" by Joe Bageant.

After that, we will discuss  "The Believing Brain" by Michael Shermer on
June 29.

We will select a work of fiction to discuss in July (date to be announced
soon).   The choices are:

1) The Golden Compass<http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Compass-Dark-Materials-ebook/dp/B000FC1ICM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369491224&sr=1-1&keywords=golden+compass>by
Philip Pullman

In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites
readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia,
Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua,
whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is
shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome
uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far
North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called
Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he
suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of
Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the
attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative,
however, *nothing* is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world
in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling
instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are
disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in
terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures
that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and
Mrs. Coulter are involved.

2) Watchmen<http://www.amazon.com/Watchmen-ebook/dp/B005CRQ2IU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369489215&sr=1-1&keywords=watchmen>
:
by Alan Moore

This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a
group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the
concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an
unknown assassin.  One of the most influential graphic novels of all time
and a perennial bestseller, WATCHMEN has been studied on college campuses
across the nation and is considered a gateway title, leading readers to
Tother graphic novels such as V FOR VENDETTA, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT
RETURNS and THE SANDMAN series.

3) "<http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Falling-Cedars-David-Guterson/dp/067976402X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357912644&sr=1-1&keywords=snow+falling+on+cedars+by+david+guterson>"Snow
Falling on Cedars: A
Novel"<http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Falling-Cedars-David-Guterson/dp/067976402X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357912644&sr=1-1&keywords=snow+falling+on+cedars+by+david+guterson>
 by
David Guterson

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award  American Booksellers Association Book of
the Year Award.  San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so
isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies.  But in
1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese
American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder.  In the course of
the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a
man's guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and
the fields of ripe strawberries--memories of a charmed love affair between
a white boy and the Jpanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife;
memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is
haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during
World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its
neighbors watched.  Gripping, tragic, and densely atmospheric, Snow Falling
on Cedars is a masterpiece of suspense-- one that leaves us shaken and
changed.

4)  "The Red Tent: A
Novel<http://www.amazon.com/Red-Tent-Novel-Anita-Diamant/dp/0312427298/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357912710&sr=1-1&keywords=the+red+tent>"
by Anita Diamant

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and
violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis
that tell of her father, Jacob, and his twelve sons.  Told in Dinah's
voice, Anita Diamant imagines the traditions and turmoils of ancient
womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of the
mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They
love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through childhood, a calling
to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out
from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate
connection with the past.  Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich
storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of
biblical women's lives.

We'll discuss the choices at this afternoon's discussion, and we will read
the book that has the most support in the survey.  To vote for a book, go
to our survey <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M3LCVWK>:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M3LCVWK
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