Home Guidelines What

Attention all book clubs!

Pocatello’s Marshall Public Library is excited to present

Book Club Kits. Everything a person needs to hold a book club,

just add people excited about reading.

* Guidelines *

Limit one Book Club Kit per card.
Check out period is 6 weeks.
Overdue fine is $1.00 per day.
No Renewals.
No reservations. Kits are on a first come first serve basis.
Kit must be returned containing all pieces. There will be a replacement charge of $15.00 for each missing paperback book and $25.00 for each hardback book. No refunds.
Questions may be directed to Becky or Ann at the Marshall Public Library 232-1263 extension 39 or bhadley@marshallpl.org

* What's in the Kit? *

Everything you need to hold your own book club,

just add people excited about reading!

Discussion questions that go along with each book.
Book Reviews.
Biography about the author.
Tips for holding a book Club.
Sign out sheet to keep track of the books.

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* Listed by title *

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt It is the story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors -- yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness. www.readinggroupguides.com
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver Taylor Greer, a native of Kentucky, finds herself in Oklahoma, near Cherokee territory. A woman leaves a Cherokee infant with Taylor, whom she later names Turtle, and the remainder of the novel traces their experiences together into Turtle's early childhood, along with a colorful cast of characters, including a Guatemalan couple. The novel deals with the issue of Native American parental rights. www.wikipedia.org
Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani It's 1978 and 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan is the self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As the local pharmacist, she's been keeping the townfolks' secrets for years, but she's about to discover a skeleton in her own family's tidy closet that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life. Soon she finds herself juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a no-holds-barred family feud, directing the prestigious Outdoor Drama and keeping the town's dysfunctional Rescue Squad on its toes. The crazy-quilt of characters includes Jack MacChesney ("Jack Mac" to his friends), the stoic miner with coal dust on his hands but love in his heart; Iva Lou Wade, the sexpot Bookmobile librarian; Theodore Tipton, band leader extraordinaire; Preacher Elmo Gaspar, the snake-handling Freewill Baptist; and Pearl Grimes, a coal-miner's daughter on the verge of a miraculous transformation, thanks to Ave's intervention. www.adrianatrigiani.com
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl The Dante Club starts out with the murder of fictional State Supreme Court Justice Healey, hit in the head and then left out in his back garden to be eaten alive by maggots. A series of murders later occur- a priest who embezzled money is buried upside-down and his feet are burned off, the head of the school where many of the poets lectured is sliced open exactly down the middle- all in extreme and undeniable resemblance to the punishments of people in Dante's Inferno. Members of the Dante Club (A group of poets translating Dante into English), including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, J.T. Fields and James Russell Lowell, notice this, and set out to solve the murder. www.wikipedia.org
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay Meet Dexter, a polite wolf in sheep's clothing...a monster who cringes at the site of blood...a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likable: he only kills bad people. www.metacritic.com
East of Eden by John Steinbeck Often described as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, East of Eden brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories. The novel was originally addressed to Steinbeck's young sons, Thom and John (then 6½ and 4½ respectively). Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley for them in detail: the sights, sounds, smells, and colors. According to his last wife Elaine, he considered this to be a requiem for himself - his greatest novel ever. Steinbeck states about East of Eden: "It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years." He further claimed: "I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this." www.wikipedia.org
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card It's 2070, forty years since a devastating alien invasion was barely turned back, and the world is desperately searching for soldiers to lead them to victory when the "Buggers" come again. That's why they're drafting young children who pass a rigorous screening, and sending the best of them to the orbiting Battle School, where they are trained from childhood to be ready for war in the vertiginous reaches of space. Into the unending pressure of military training comes six-year-old Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, who struggles to keep his humanity even as the adult teachers, rivals among his fellow students, and the strange unseen influence of the alien invaders all threaten either to destroy him or to make him into someone he can't bear to be. www.angelfire.com

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Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier Griet, a 16-year-old Dutch girl becomes a maid in the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Her calm and perceptive manner not only helps her in her household duties, but also attracts the painter's attention. Though different in upbringing, education and social standing, they have a similar way of looking at things. Vermeer slowly draws her into the world of his paintings - the still, luminous images of solitary women in domestic settings. www.tchevalier.com
Jane Austen, Obstinate Heart by Vallerie Grosvenor Myer Using letters, family memories, and of course the novels themselves, Myer provides a detailed and revealing look at Jane Austen--her relationship with he beloved sister Cassandra, and her devotion and pride in her brothers and their children (who remembered "Aunt Jane" with warm affection), and her independence of mind and spirit. Austen's fondest dream was to establish herself not as another "silly female novelist," but as a serious and self-supporting writer. www.arcadepub.com
John Adams by David McCullough A complete biography of the life and times of John Adams, from his days at Harvard and his courtship of Abigail, through the American Revolution and birth of a nation, his days as Vice President and President, and ending with his reflections in retirement. Through extensive use of letters and journal entries, McCullough captures both the character of Adams and the spirit of the times in the founding days of the United States of America. www.allreaders.com
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present. The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption and it is also about the power of fathers over sons-their love, their sacrifices, their lies. www.readinggroupguides.com
The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich Waldvogel returns to Germany from the horrors of World War I and marries his late friend's pregnant fiancee. He immigrates to America with her and his stepson and settles in Argus, N.D. He becomes a small-town butcher and a well-liked member of the community. Delphine Watzka and her acrobat husband have returned to Argus to care for her alcoholic father. Delphine is envious of Eva, Fidelis's wife, for the warm homespun family she has. Meanwhile, her father is so drunk that he's unaware of the corpses in his basement. This all sets the stage for a marvelous novel where love and life clash among different cultures in Middle America. www.reviewsofbooks.com
Murder on the Middle Fork by Don Ian Smith and Naida West In primitive isolation Frieda lives by the laws of the wilderness with her outlaw husband — until she finds something more important than raw survival. Based on one of Idaho’s strangest murders. Set in 1917 on the Salmon River. www.bridgehousebooks.com
The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas It is the 1930s, and hard times have hit Harveyville, Kansas, where the crops are burning up and there’s not a job to be found. For Queenie Bean, a young farm wife, a highlight of each week is the gathering of the Persian Pickle Club, a group of local ladies dedicated to improving their minds, exchanging gossip, and putting their quilting skills to good use. When a new member of the club stirs up a dark secret, the women must band together to support and protect one another. In her magical, memorable novel, Sandra Dallas explores the ties that unite women through good times and bad. www.sandradallas.com
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered a reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace, and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust, and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison. As Yelena tries to escape her dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and she develops magical powers she can't control. Her life’s at stake again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren’t so clear! www.mariavsnyder.com
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant First-person narrative which tells the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph, a talented midwife and proto-feminist. The book's title refers to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, according to the ancient law, take refuge while menstruating or giving birth, and in which they find mutual support and encouragement from their mothers, sisters and aunts. www.wikipedia.org
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand Seabiscuit was an unlikely champion. For two years he floundered at the lowest level of racing, before his dormant talent was discovered by three men. One was Tom Smith, an arthritic old mustang breaker. The second was Red Pollard, a half-blind jockey. The third was Charles Howard, a former bicycle repairman who made a fortune by introducing the automobile to the American West. Bought for a bargain-basement price by Howard and rehabilitated by Smith and Pollard, Seabiscuit overcame a phenomenal run of bad fortune to become one of the most spectacular, charismatic performers in the history of sports. www.readinggroupguides.com
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon The novel, set in post- Spanish Civil War Barcelona, concerns a young boy, Daniel. One day just after the war, Daniel's father takes him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a huge library of old, forgotten titles lovingly preserved by a select few initiates. According to tradition, everyone initiated to this secret place is allowed to take one book from it, and must protect it for life. Daniel selects a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. That night he takes the book home and reads it, completely engrossed. Daniel then attempts to look for other books by this unknown author, but can find none. All he comes across are stories of a strange man who is buying them all and burning them. www.wikipedia.org
Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child Medicine Creek, Kansas. In a town where nothing changes, where Main Street is a two-block stretch of old and dusty businesses, a peculiar and ghastly murder has taken place, the body mutilated and placed carefully in an elaborate tableau in the middle of the endless cornfields. Now cool-eyed and smooth FBI Agent Pendergast arrives to discover a community he must turn inside out to find the killer who can only be one of them... www.prestonchild.com
Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: Periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing. www.readinggroupguides.com
Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner It is the mid-1950s in Lewiston, a sleepy town near Niagara Falls, famous only for the invention of the cocktail. Divorce is unheard of, mothers wear high heels to the beauty salon, and television has only just arrived. But with no siblings to provide role models; a workaholic father chosen by most of her class as Lewiston's present-day saint; a mother who looks the part of the perfect, fifties housewife but refuses to play it and a gambling-obsessed best friend, Roy, who is 30 years older, perhaps it's hardly surprising that Cathy grows up a little eccentric. Especially considering that the family doctor's prescription for her hyperactivity is a full-time job in her father's pharmacy – at the age of four. www.harpercollins.com
Woman of Egypt by Jehan Sadat Jehan Sadat recounts her notable life as the First Lady of Egypt and her life and marriage to global peace maker, Anwar Sadat. (He was assassinated on October 6, 1981). Jehan Sadat has righteously carried forth his and her messages of peace and world understanding. www.wic.org

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Questions may be directed to Becky or Ann at the Marshall Public Library 232-1263 x 39 or bhadley@marshallpl.org