~ ALEX
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
“I read this book as a member of the It’s the End of the World As We Know It Book Club. We’re combining with the Required Reading Revisited Book Club this month to discuss Lord of the Flies. So, I approached it attempting to tease out the themes of the cataclysmic crash that stranded the characters there, their attempts at survival, the individuals and their personal vs. political persona’s, and how those characters represent the different parts and view points of the society they’re trying to rebuild. There’s also this great symbolic or supernatural aspect of it with the ‘Lord of the Flies’ in the book. There’s a lot to this small book. The thesis of the ITEOTWASKI Book Club is to compare books to Stephen King’s The Stand and see how it holds up. This book holds up really well.”
It’s the End of the World As We Know It Book Club and the Required Reading Book Club are meeting on Sunday, November 17 at 2pm to discuss William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. If you would like to join them, follow the links for more information!
~ MEREDITH
QUIET by Susan Cain
“It’s about introverts and how they have have to deal with an extremely extrovert-centric society. The book explains there are benefits to being quiet instead of just talking all the time. Cain backs up a lot of what she has to say with some serious research conducted over the last 30-40 years specifically focusing on personalities. The conclusion is, of course, that both have their advantages, however the book makes the more important point that one personality type shouldn’t have to outshine the others. I’m an introvert, and the book helped me really understand how to work with my environment. It gives a great example about how a lot of businesses are going to the mostly open-office environment and even schools are beginning to adopt that policy. As the book points out, the research shows that having that extroverted office environment doesn’t necessarily increase productivity. Those environments are usually dominated by those who are okay with throwing around ideas out loud. So, it can be very stifling. I experienced that in college. But, there are examples like Google: a company attempting to integrate both alone areas to collect your thoughts and recharge as well as open areas for collaborative thinking.”
~ ELLEN
COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN by Holly Black
“I like the world that this book takes place in. It’s not your normal, ‘I fell in love with a vampire,’ teen vampire tale. And I promise there are no sparkly vampires in it. But there is a bad-guy vampire who might not be good for the main character. It’s dark and dangerous, and there’s some definite meat to this book. Not a sunshine and rainbow vampire tale. It’s a more literary take on the vampire teen tale. I will say, how they become vampires in this is a really unique twist on the old myth. It has really well developed characters, better than I’ve seen in most of these types of books.”
~ TOMMY
CAMELOT’S COURT by Robert Dallek
“This is a Kennedy book that’s not about the assassination, thank god. This covers all the stuff that went on inside the three years of Kennedy’s presidency (1960-1963). It’s about about how and where he worked. You get a behind-the-scenes perspective during the Bay of Pigs and see how grueling that was and how and why he dealt with it the way he did. He did an incredible job dealing with the physical stress. He didn’t grey or wrinkle or show the physical signs of stress nearly as much as some of his predecessors or future presidents. It’s just a nice, introspective look at Kennedy instead of the expose or assassination tales. It’s also refreshing that this book didn’t lionize him as most people do. He wasn’t the best President ever. You get to see him as a real human being.”
BookPeople 