Walking Book Club

A Visit from the Goon Squad

2011-09-28T14:11:00.003-05:00

By Jennifer Egan

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad, is a startling and exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

The Help

2011-07-19T09:43:00.003-05:00

By Kathryn Stockett

In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.

This is Where I Leave You

2011-06-21T13:08:00.003-05:00

This is Where I Leave You
By: Jonathan Tropper

Judd Foxman is in his late thirties when he finds himself living in a damp, moldy basement apartment, without a job and separated from his wife, who is having an affair with his now ex-boss. To make matters worse, Judd finds out his wife is pregnant with his child and that his father has just died, leaving a dying wish to have all four of his children sit shivah for seven days. What transpires over the course of that week is a Foxman family reunion like no other; filled with fistfights, arguments and a parade of characters offering their sympathies and copious amounts of food. Tropper is spot-on with his observations of family relationships as each member deals with new grief, old resentments, and life's funny twists of fate.

2011-06-08T12:47:00.000-05:00

Hello Walkers,
Due to the heat and pending storms I thougth it best to walk and talk at the Centre tonight, June 8, 2011. Hope to see you there! Stay cool.

Weather or Not

2011-05-25T15:39:00.000-05:00

Due to weather concerns, we will meet at the Centre tonight, 5-25-11, and stay there for discussion. Hope to see you all there. Nancy.

Meeting Information

2011-05-23T15:30:00.002-05:00

We are walking outdoors, weather permitting! Our waking route has us meeting in the back parking lot by the river and walking north along the walking path. Remember to check the blog if the weather is questionable. I will post an alert if we are changing or canceling our meetings. Our meeting place for stormy weather is The Centre of Elgin. We thank The Centre for the option of indoor walking.

Still Alice

2011-05-23T15:26:00.002-05:00

Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she's a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease changes her life.

As the inevitable descent into dementia strips away her sense of self, fiercely independent Alice struggles to live in the moment. While she once placed her worth and identity in her celebrated and respected academic life, now she must reevaluate her relationship with her husband, a respected scientist; her expectations of her children; and her ideas about herself and her place in the world.

Meeting Information

2011-04-23T16:34:00.003-05:00

We have resumed our Spring walking schedule outdoors! Our waking route has us meeting in the back parking lot by the river and walking north along the walking path. Remember to check the blog if the weather is questionable. We will post an alert if we are changing or canceling our meetings. Our meeting place for stormy weather is The Centre of Elgin. We thank The Centre for all the cold months of warm indoor walking. We would also like to thank The Centre Manager, Mohammed for making our talks very comfortable!

Laura Rider's Masterpiece

2011-04-23T16:21:00.002-05:00

Laura Rider's Masterpiece : a novel by Jane Hamilton.
Hamilton takes readers to the Midwest, lacing her narrative with winning humor. Laura Rider and her husband, Charlie, live in Hartley, Wis., where they own and run A Wind Farm. After 12 years of marriage, Laura decides to stop sleeping with Charlie, and although that is his "one superb talent," she's convinced she's "used up her quota." Laura has a secret fantasy: to be an author. After she meets local public radio host Jenna Faroli, Laura decides to write a romance and encourages a flirtation between Charlie and Jenna, an experiment that she thinks will help her write her book.

Meeting Information

2011-03-24T09:04:00.002-05:00

We are meeting at The Centre of Elgin in the entryway near the elevator. If you are running late (after 7:05 P.M.) we will be on the upstairs walking track (please sign in) or sitting downstairs on the couches. Remember to check the blog or your personal email if the weather is questionable. We will post an alert if we are changing or canceling our meetings. We will resume our Spring walking schedule outdoors very soon, so please keep an eye on the blog for changes. Our spring route has us meeting in the back parking lot by the river and walking north along the walking path. Here comes the sun!

The Glass Castle:

2011-03-24T08:57:00.004-05:00

a memoir by Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a penetrating look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant 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 hated anything to do with domesticity. 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. (Bestseller)

Meeting Information

2011-03-04T10:05:00.003-06:00

We are meeting at The Centre of Elgin in the entryway near the elevator. If you are running late (after 7:05 P.M.) we will be on the upstairs walking track (please sign in) or sitting downstairs on the couches. Remember to check the blog or your personal email if the weather is questionable. We will post an alert if we are changing or canceling our meetings. We look forward to our Spring walking schedule outdoors but we are very happy that The Centre is so welcoming (Thank You Randy & Mohammed)! We will see you Wednesdays at 7:00.

A Reliable Wife

2011-03-04T09:45:00.003-06:00

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt---a passionate man with his own dark secrets---has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways. With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.

Sarah's Key

2011-02-11T09:19:00.003-06:00

Sarah's key
by Tatiana de Rosnay
On the sixtieth anniversary of the 1942 roundup of Jews by the French police in the Vel d'Hiv section of Paris, American journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article on this dark episode during World War II and embarks on an investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of Sarah, a young girl caught up in the raid.

Meeting Information

2011-01-12T11:28:00.002-06:00

Welcome back winter walkers! Many of you have returned to "Walk & Talk" with us. We are now meeting at The Centre of Elgin in the entryway. If you are running late (after 7:05 P.M.) we will be on the upstairs walking track (please sign in) or sitting at the downstairs tables behind the elevator. Remember to check the blog or your personal email if the weather is questionable. We will post an alert if we are changing or canceling our meetings.We will see you Wednesdays at 7:00.

The Things They Carried

2011-01-12T10:47:00.004-06:00

The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien

Heroic young men carry the emotional weight of their lives to war in Vietnam in a patchwork account of a modern journey into the heart of darkness.

Favorite Books Discussion

2010-11-12T09:29:00.002-06:00

We can use this blog post to discuss our favorite books! I will be updating this site regularly. In our last discussion before the break we reflected upon all the books we've read in and out of Walking Book Club. We agreed that some of our WBC favorites were: The Thirteenth Tale, Mennonite in a little Black Dress, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Mudbound and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

See the comments link to see everyone's favorite book that they shared at the meeting. I have put a number of these books on my hloiday break reading list!

Enjoy!

Holiday Break

2010-11-12T08:42:00.003-06:00

We will have our annual 'Holiday Outing' on Wednesday, December 1st at one of our favorite local reastaurants,. We are meeting at 7:00 in the library entrance to begin our traditional "Walk and Carole". Please RSVP by blog, email or phone.

We are taking a break until Wednesday, January 5th. We will resume our walk & talk at The Centre of Elgin, meeting in the lobby at 7:00. If you do not have a track pass you can obtain one at The Centre Customer Service Desk.

Keep reading, keep walking!

Walking Schedule

2010-10-11T15:49:00.002-05:00

We will meet at the main entrance of the library and continue to walk outdoors as long as we can. Remember that we will need to walk south through City Hall along Douglas St. and return north along the river walking path where it is well lit. We will meet at The Centre of Elgin if there is any rain, you will need a walking pass to use the indoor track. Please use this blog for any questions concerning meeting times and locations. We'll be hitting the pavement through town to walk & talk about The Uses of Enchantment!

The Uses of Enchantment

2010-10-11T15:38:00.005-05:00

A novel by Heidi Julavits.

In late afternoon on November 7, 1985, sixteen-year-old Mary Veal was abducted after field hockey practice at her all-girls New England prep school. Or was she? A few weeks later an unharmed Mary reappears as suddenly and mysteriously as she disappeared, claiming to have little memory of what happened to her. Her socially ambitious mother, a compelling if frosty woman descended from a Salem witch, is concerned that Mary has somehow been sullied by the experience and sends her to therapy with a psychologist named Dr. Hammer. Mary turns out to be a cagey and difficult patient. Dr. Hammer begins to suspect that Mary concocted her tale of abduction when he discovers its parallels with a seventeenth-century narrative of a girl who was abducted by Indians and who caused her rescuer to be hanged as a witch. Hammer, eager to further his professional reputation, decides to write a book about Mary's faked abduction, a project her mother sanctions, because she'd rather her daughter be a liar than a rape victim. Fifteen years later, Mary has returned to Boston for her mother's funeral. Her abduction 'real or imagined' has tainted many lives, including her own. When Mary finds a suggestive letter sent to her mother, she suspects her mother planned a reconciliation before her death. Thus begins a quest that requires Mary to revisit the people and places in her past. The Uses of Enchantment weaves a spell in which the reader sees how the extraordinary power of a young woman's sexuality, and the desire to wield it, have a devastating effect on all involved.

Walking Schedule

2010-09-14T17:40:00.003-05:00

Darker nights are upon us! We will continue to walk outdoors as long as we can. Remember that we will need to walk south through City Hall along Douglas St. and return north along the river walking path where it is well lit. We will meet at The Centre of Elgin if there is any rain, you will need a walking pass to use the indoor track. Please use this blog for any questions concerning meeting times and locations. We'll be hitting the pavement through town to walk & talk about Mudbound!

Mudbound

2010-09-14T17:18:00.005-05:00

Winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction, "Mudbound" is storytelling at the height of it's powers: the ache of wrongs not yet made right, the fierce attendance of history made real (Barbara Kingsolver), as men and women from two families become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale.

Olive Kitteridge

2010-08-24T10:35:00.003-05:00

At the edge of the continent, in the small town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large but doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

2010-08-16T10:42:00.002-05:00

by Garth SteinNearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.

Summer Walking Schedule & Events

2010-07-16T11:18:00.004-05:00

We are in the middle of the heat-wave months and we will need to keep track of outdoor walking conditions. Please remember to check the blog, ask at the Customer Service Desk or Adult Information Desk if you have any questions about where we are walking. I will continue to post updates in advance as we change route or routine. To contact us directly see below information.
Nancy
nhaggard@gailborden.info
847-289-5840
Danielle
dhenson@gailborden.info
847-429-6792

We also will be planning a Walking Book Club outing to visually experience one of our favorite discussion books that has been made into a film. The release date is Aug. 13th and we were hoping to gather Friday (eve.), Aug.20th to eat some pasta & see the movie Eat, Pray, Love.

See movie trailer on Elizabeth's official website below:
http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/

See local release information below:
http://www.amcentertainment.com/Movies/Eat_Pray_Love/
Let's use this blog post to talk about the August date and details of our next fun event.
We can't always be walking, we have to eat and sit once in a while!!!!!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

2010-07-16T11:12:00.003-05:00

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb. As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends--and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society--born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island--boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society's members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Bowl of Cherries

2010-06-24T14:12:00.002-05:00

Bowl of Cherries by Millard Kaufman

Falling in with a distracted Egyptologist after being kicked out of Yale, fourteen-year-old Judd Breslau is coerced by a reckless young woman whose misadventures eventually lead to his death sentence and incarceration in a southern Iraqi jail.

The Ten Year Nap

2010-06-24T14:06:00.003-05:00

The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer
From the bestselling author of The Wifeand The Position, a feverishly smart novel about female ambition, money, class, motherhood, and marriage-and what happens in one community when a group of educated women chooses not to work. For a group of four New York friends, the past decade has been largely defined by marriage and motherhood. Educated and reared to believe that they would conquer the world, they then left jobs as corporate lawyers, investment bankers, and film scouts to stay home with their babies. What was meant to be a temporary leave of absence has lasted a decade. Now, at age forty, with the halcyon days of young motherhood behind them and without professions to define them, Amy, Jill, Roberta, and Karen face a life that is not what they were brought up to expect but seems to be the one they have chosen. But when Amy gets to know a charismatic and successful working mother of three who appears to have fulfilled the classic women's dream of having it all-work, love, family-without having to give anything up, a lifetime's worth of concerns, both practical and existential, opens up.

Closing Time

2010-05-19T09:40:00.003-05:00

A memoir by Joe Queenan.
Queenan's deeply funny and affecting memoir about his great escape from a childhood of poverty in a Philadelphia housing project in the early 1960s.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

2010-05-19T09:28:00.003-05:00

by Garth Stein
Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.

Water for Elephants

2010-04-27T11:27:00.002-05:00

Jacob remembers his life some 70 years ago as part of a traveling circus, having fallen in love with the horse act star, Marlena; and both of them mutually smitten with Rosie the elephant.

The Magnificent Ambersons

2010-04-27T11:22:00.002-05:00

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1918, The Magnificent Ambersons chronicles the changing fortunes of three generations of an American dynasty. The family serves as a metaphor for the old society that crumbled after the Industrial Revolution while a middle-western town spread and darkened into a city. George Amberson Minafer is the spoiled and arrogant grandson of the founder of the family's magnificence. Eclipsed by a new breed of industrial tycoons and land developers whose power comes not through family connections but through financial dealings and modern manufacturing, George descends from the Midwestern aristocracy to the working class. As the wheels of industry transform the social landscape, the definitions of ambition, success, and loyalty also change.

Spring Walking Schedule

2010-03-22T13:00:00.000-05:00

We are all ready to "Walk & Talk" outdoors!!!!
We will meet one last time at The Centre next Wednesday, March 17th-
returning to The Centre only when it rains.
Please continue to check this portion of the blog for updates and changes.
We will meet March 31st at the outdoor stage by the river and
begin our Spring/Summer walking route(North of the Library)starting our
discussion of "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" by Rhoda Janzen

Happy Spring!!!

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

2010-03-22T12:42:00.004-05:00

A hilarious and moving memoir--in the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron--about a woman who returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis

Not long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. It was bad enough that her brilliant husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com, but that same week a car accident left her with serious injuries. What was a gal to do? Rhoda packed her bags and went home. This wasn't just any home, though. This was a Mennonite home. While Rhoda had long ventured out on her own spiritual path, the conservative community welcomed her back with open arms and offbeat advice. (Rhoda's good-natured mother suggested she date her first cousin--he owned a tractor, see.) It is in this safe place that Rhoda can come to terms with her failed marriage; her desire, as a young woman, to leave her sheltered world behind; and the choices that both freed and entrapped her.

Written with wry humor and huge personality--and tackling faith, love, family, and aging--"Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" is an immensely moving memoir of healing, certain to touch anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.

Spring Walking Schedule

2010-03-12T09:31:00.003-06:00

We are all ready to "Walk & Talk" outdoors!!!!
We will meet one last time at The Centre next Wednesday, March 17th-
returning to The Centre only when it rains.
Please continue to check this portion of the blog for updates and changes.
We will meet March 31st at the outdoor stage by the river and
begin our Spring/Summer walking route(North of the Library)starting our
discussion of "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" by Rhoda Janzen

Happy Spring!!!

The Year of Magical Thinking

2010-03-12T09:15:00.002-06:00

By Joan Didion
""Life changes fast. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." These were among the first words Joan Didion wrote in January 2004. Her daughter was lying unconscious in an intensive care unit, a victim of pneumonia and septic shock. Her husband, John Gregory Dunne, was dead. The night before New Year's Eve, while they were sitting down to dinner, he suffered a massive and fatal coronary. The two had lived and worked side by side for nearly 40 years. The weeks and months that followed "cut loose any fixed idea I had about death, about illness, about probability and luck-- about marriage and children and memory-- about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself." In The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion explores with electric honesty and passion a private yet universal experience. Her portrait of a marriage-- and a life, in good times and bad-- will speak directly to anyone who has ever loved a husband, a wife, or a child" -- from publisher's web site.

no snow or earthquake can stop us!!

2010-02-10T15:27:00.000-06:00

Looking forward to tonite's walk n talk

Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

2010-02-09T11:57:00.003-06:00

Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

Cassie Barrett and Alex Rivers had a fairy-tale wedding,
but once they returned to Hollywood, a troubling pattern
began to emerge. Should Cassie stay or leave?

Meeting Information

2010-01-07T09:28:00.002-06:00

Welcome back walkers! We have some new members and many of you have returned to "Walk & Talk" with us. We are now meeting at The Centre of Elgin in the entryway. If you are running late (after 7:05 P.M.) we will be on the upstairs walking track (please sign in) or sitting at the downstairs tables outside the racquetball courts. Remember to check the blog or your personal email if the weather is questionable. We will post an alert if we are changing or canceling our meetings.

We have a large group with many more inquiries. We may be splitting into 2 groups
(One walking while the other is discussing) we will adjust as we move forward. I will be reviewing walking track rules and making an updated list for The Centre records, if your information has changed please be prepared to share your current phone number and email information.

We are starting off with The Shack and we have mixed media we are using. Some people are using our new Playaways that Nancy has acquired for us, some have C.D.'s, and some have hard copy. We were hoping to launch the winter session with the whole group reading 1 book. Those that are using the Playaways are tracking their miles walked using the donated pedometers from the YMCA. Please use this section of the blog for any questions about schedules, times and track information.

The Shack

2010-01-07T09:12:00.003-06:00

The Shack by William Paul Young

This compelling novel invites to a journey to the grace of God and reconciliation with Him. With a hardened broken heart, Mac, a mid-aged father who is suffering from the loss of his daughter during a family vacation, receives a note and decides to go to the shack where his daughter was murdered.

Walking Book Club Schedule

2009-11-10T13:50:00.002-06:00

Holidays and snow days will be upon us very soon! We will continue to walk outdoors as long as we can through The Ha-Ha. We will take a break until January 6th and resume our walk & talk at The Centre of Elgin until the storms pass. Please use this blog for any questions concerning meeting times and locations. Our next books will be decided at the first meeting after our break.

Have a Wonderful Holiday if we don't see you!

The Ha-Ha

2009-11-10T13:47:00.002-06:00

The Ha-Ha By King, Dave

A BookPage Notable TitleThe Ha-Ha marks the beginning of what is sure to be a stellar career for Pushcart Prize nominee Dave King--a debut novel of extraordinary emotional power. When a mute war veteran opens his home to a young boy, he gets a glimpse of life outside his shell--with all its exuberant joys and crushing sorrows.
The sound of silence

We Need to Talk About Kevin

2009-10-15T10:30:00.000-05:00

We Need to Talk About Kevin
By Lionel Shriver

The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry
Eva never really wanted to be a mother and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklyn. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

Loving Frank

2009-10-15T10:28:00.000-05:00

Loving Frank
By Nancy Horan

"This graceful, assured first novel tells the remarkable story of the long-lived affair between Frank Lloyd Wright, a passionate and impossible figure, and Mamah Cheney, a married woman whom Wright beguiled and led beyond the restraint of convention"--Scott Turow.

Read More about the Life of Frank Lloyd Wright:

Mrs. Wright To Tell of 'Hegiras'
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963); Dec 25, 1911;

Wright to give 'Report For All' :Says It Will Include Statements by "Mamah," Mrs. Wright, and Mr.Cheney. READY AT NEW YEAR'S. Architect Puts Divorce Issue Up to Wife;Sheriff Doesn't Disturb "Hegira.".
(1911, December 29). Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963)

Frank Lloyd Wright
Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2004

The History of Love

2009-09-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

The History of Love
By Nicole Krauss

Leo Gursky is barely surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: 60 years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love.

Eat, Pray, Love

2009-09-09T15:43:00.000-05:00

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
By Elizabeth Gilbert

A celebrated writer pens an irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life.

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity
Check out author Elizabeth Gilbert talk at TED about creativity and her book Eat Pray Love.