2012 Winter Book Forum - "The Glass Castle"

Looking for a good book to read over the holidays? 
One Book, One BU is reading  "The Glass Castle" right now, in preparation for our February 26 book forum discussion.

 The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing -- a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar, but loyal, family. Jeannette Walls has a story to tell, and tells it brilliantly, without an ounce of self-pity.

 

Five dollars (cash) will not only buy you a copy of the book, but also provides snacks on the day of the book forum.  Contact Lorraine Patrick in the Library at Lorraine.Patrick@bellevue.edu or 402-557-7316.  This community event is a great chance to kick back and have fun with other staff and faculty members… we hope to see you there!

                         
And remember to visit the Blog by going to http://onebookoneuniversity.blogspot.com

Fall Book Forum - "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

One Book One University hosts the Fall Book Forum on October 4th from 3:00-4:30 PM in the Library Classroom (Room 460).

We will be discussing A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.  This classic work of literature touches on timeless topics like family ties, loss, and poverty.  Ms. Smith paints a picture of life in turn-of-the century Brooklyn for a poor family.  She introduces us to Francie Nolan, and her family, her mother and father Katie and Johnny, and her brother Neelie as they struggle through what being poor means to them.  They are always thinking about where the money to purchase their next load of coal will come from, or how will they pay the rent, will they have money for food or medicine, basically the necessities needed to raise a family.  Yet this family is not hopeless and although they live in poverty they still have hope and dreams.  Francine and Neelie always put half of the money they earn from their scavenging into the family's tin can where they are saving to purchase land.  

Ms. Smith also takes us back to the very beginning of Johnny and Katie's relationship and we see the progression of their lives as newlyweds to the births of their children and the stress that financial hardship brings upon the family.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a story of growing up and innocence, life and love, caring and the way things go.  Although you may not have a lot of money, you can do one thing that is free, and that is to love.  We learn about sacrifice and the complexity of the human heart.  This book is not only personal and emotional, it is also a reflection on a part of society that shows the life stories and hardships people were forced to endure and how they could change their lives.   

To participate, please give $5 (no checks please) to Lorraine Patrick, in the Library, on or before September 28th.  The cost includes your own personal copy of the book and tasty refreshments.
 

Winter Book Forum

The One Book One University Committee is excited to present The Help by Kathryn Stockett to the faculty and staff of Bellevue University for the February book forum.

lCome join One Book One University on Tuesday, February 23, 2012 to read and discuss The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This is a noval about the relationship between maids and their wealthy employers in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s.

Joshily Jackson, Best selling author of Gods in Alabama, states, "Set in the rural South of the 1960s, The Help is a startling, resonant portrait of the intertwined lives of women on opposite sides of the racial divide. Stockett's many gifts - a keen eye for character, a wicked sense of humor, the perfect timing of a natural born storyteller -- shine as she evokes a time and place when black women were expected to help raise white babies, and yet could not sue the same bathroom as their employers. Her characters, both white and black, are so fully fleshed they practically breathe - no stock willains or pious heroines here. I'm becoming an evagelist for The Help. Don't miss this wise and astonishing debut."

To participate, give $5.00 (no checks please) to Lorraine Partick, in the Library, on or before February 10, 2012.

Book discussion is on Thursday, February 23, 2012 from 3:00 - 4:30 PM in the Library (Classroom 460).