Just Desserts! Monthly Meetup

If you need to park in the garage, we can stamp your ticket, so come on down!

Here's last month's report:

Reading Roundtable
February 16, 2010

Cathy : Born to Run; Christopher McDougall. A mix of cultural anthropology, evolution, and anatomy & physiology. Looks at running from many aspects including the Tarahumara, natives of Mexico’s Copper Canyons. Cathy says Christopher is a great storyteller and this book has lots of fun stories in it. https://www.usnews.com... (https://www.usnews.com/health/blogs/on-fitness/2009/4/28/born-to-run-christopher-mcdougall-says-humans-evolved-to-run-like-the-tarahumara.html)
A Short History of Nearly Everything; Bill Bryson. Really the history of science and scientists. Puts many things in word pictures to make complex concepts attainable to the non-scientist. https://www.randomhous... (https://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/bb_title/display.pperl?isbn=9780767908184)

Sharon Cartlidge: Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent; Fred Burton. A memoir of a Stratfor counterterrorist. A look back at 30 years of counterterrorism, from a field that was relatively unknown in the 1980’s through 9/11 and the aftermath. What we should learn from terrorism’s history. https://www.stratfor.c... (https://www.stratfor.com/ghost/the_book)

Debra : Everyday Justice; Julie Clawson. Julie is a local Christian blogger who writes in this book about how we can live our lives daily in a way that is just. https://julieclawson.c... (https://julieclawson.com/everyday-justice/)
Teaching a Stone to Talk; Annie Dillard A collection of religious and secular essays. In one, Dillard writes about the power of evoking God in worship.
Mudhouse Sabbath; Lauren Winner. Winner discusses the traditions of the Jewish religion that she misses as a converted Christian. She writes about hospitality, the Sabbath, mourning. https://www.laurenwinn... (https://www.laurenwinner.net/books/index.html)

Janie: House of Mirth; Edith Wharton Janie is enjoying rereading Edith Wharton—she called them chewy books. This is set in New York in the 1890’s and is probably autobiographical. An inside look at NY society and class structure.

Kay : Have a Little Faith; Mitch Albom. Albom is asked by a rabbi to give his eulogy. While Albom is getting to know the rabbi better, he is also involved with an African-American pastor in inner city Detroit who is a former drug addict and convict. Albom moves between these worlds—black and white, Jewish and Christian and explores the striking unity in the differences and the comfort of believing in something bigger than self. Albom was inspired to start www.aholeintheroof.org as the pastor kept tending to his mission and congregation even though the roof was caving in on his church. This organization provides building materials for basic infrastructure for organizations that support homeless populations. https://mitchalbom.com... (https://mitchalbom.com/books/node/5515)
Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family helped me Conquer Life’s Challenges; Byron Pitts Pitts, a correspondent with 60 minutes tells his story in this book. He stuttered and was functionally illiterate until he was in his teens. https://us.macmillan.c... (https://us.macmillan.com/stepoutonnothing)
True Blue; David Baldacci. The story of a female cop who is setup and sent to jail. Her sister, the DC police chief helps to uncover the conspiracy that led to her arrest.

Mary Margaret (Kay’s friend) Half Broke Horses; Jeanette Walls. Walls calls this “true life fiction” it is an account of her grandmother, an Arizona farmer in the early 1900s. Mary Margaret said this book is not as good as Glass Castle, also by Walls, and felt the book read as a series of incidents rather than a novel
Spooner; Pete Dexter. Dexter’s somewhat autobiographical odyssey of Spooner, an weird child who grows up to be a weird adult. https://www.nytimes.co... (https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/books/review/Schillinger-t.html)
Company of Liars; Karen Maitland. Set in 1300’s England, a band of travelers are trying to avoid the plague. Told from the perspective of each of the nine travelers, who each also have a secret they are keeping from their companions. https://www.karenmaitl... (https://www.karenmaitland.com/books/liars.html)

Leslie Chopin Manuscript: A Serial Mystery Jeffery Deaver, et.al. A book written by lots of different suspense writers. Deaver sets the tone of the book in the first chapter and finishes the story with the last two. In between, other authors write the book, one chapter each. This led to a suspenseful, quick read. This is set in modern times, with a manuscript authenticator leaving Poland with what he feels is a Chopin forgery. He is stopped in the airport by police and told the person he got it from has been murdered. He must figure out why he was murdered—a tale that revolves around his involvement in the Serbo-Croatian war and genocide in the 1990’s.

Judy Pleading Guilty; Scott Turow. About a cop turned lawyer. Judy liked the book but found the end disappointing in terms of ethics and justice.
Rainbow’s End Martha Grimes. Part of the Jury series. Jury is a member of Scotland Yard who is following the trail of three women whose deaths by “natural causes” seem suspicious to him. His work leads him to New Mexico and a 13 year old girl with a pet coyote. https://www.marthagrim... (https://www.marthagrimes.com/books/rainbows-end/)
Lions of Lucerne Brad Thor. The Lions of Lucerne is Thor's first novel, and introduces the character of Scot Harvath, an ex-Navy SEAL and current U.S. Secret Service agent. Harvath survives an attack which leaves 30 of his fellow agents dead, and the president of the United States kidnapped. He begins a search for those responsible, and attempts to rescue the president. Judy liked the plot and dialogue, but thought is was not smoothly written. https://www.bradthor.c... (https://www.bradthor.com/)
Gun Shy; Ben Rehdar Rehdar’s books start with a game warden as the main character and lots of quirky rednecks as side characters. These characters become more and more involved as his books progress. https://www.benrehder.... (https://www.benrehder.com/previous.html)
Face of a Stranger; Anne Perry. Set in London in the 1850’s, a police man has amnesia and has to hide this from coworkers, witnesses and suspects as he tries to figure out who tried to kill him.