Last night I had a wonderful time with our Girls and Books (GAB) book discussion group. We meet the third Thursday of each month at our NICC/Peosta branch. It was Jenny Parker's last meeting with us as she moves on to Clarke University next week.
I love spending time with well read, intelligent, and thoughtful women. We center our discussion on the book but we can get into wildly divergent topics. Last night we laughed a lot! The book up for discussion was "The Persian Pickle Club" by Sandra Dallas. Dallas is no literary writer, but she sure can tell a great story. "Pickle Club" is set in a small, Kansas farming community in 1936 and centers on a group of a dozen women who gather each week to quilt. But they don't just quilt, this is an incredible circle of friends who see each other through life's ups and downs. And boy are there ups and downs! The group really loved the book and I recommend it.
Next month on Feb. 21st, GAB will be discussing "The Year We Left Home" by Jean Thompson. This novel is set primarily in Iowa and traces the generational difficulties of one family. "The Year We Left Home" is the 2013 All Iowa Reads selection. All Iowa Reads is a program sponsored by the Iowa Center for the Book and began in 2003. Its purpose is to encourage readers all across the state to read the same title and discuss it. Several states have similiar programs. The books are chosen by a committee of librarians and library users. Last year's selection was "Strength in What Remains" by Tracy Kidder.
The books we discuss are loaned to us from other libraries in Iowa. If you would like to join GAB, stop by your local library and you can borrow a copy of the book along with discussion questions to guide your reading and our discussion. "The Year We Left Home" will be available in a couple of weeks. Our March selection is "The Winter Garden" by Kristin Hannah.
I want to remind everyone that the Friends first open house is Saturday, February 2nd at our NICC/Peosta branch from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Stop by for refreshments and a tour of this beautiful facility. We encourage you to talk with friends members and learn what Friends do to support our library.
The next open house is February 9th at our Drexler/Farley location.
Next week is the second in our Page to Screen series which is funded by a grant from Humanities Iowa. This is a joint program of NICC and Dubuque County Library. We will be watching "The Great Gatsby" starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow on Wednesday evening and then discussing Fitzgerald's book on which the movie was based on Thursday evening. The discussion is led by an NICC professor. All programs are free and are held at our NICC/Peosta branch. You can borrow a copy of the book for the discussion at your local branch.
It's supposed to turn really cold next week, so enjoy the weekend.
Dawn
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