Chicago Chapter Book Club
About the Club
The Chicago Chapter of the IUAA has started a monthly book club. This is your chance to discuss a different fiction book each month and meet fellow IU alumni.
The club will meet at the end of each month to discuss each book selection. It will gather at the Bucktown/Wicker Park Branch Library, 1701 N. Milwaukee Ave., which is near the Damen Blue Line stop.
If you can’t meet for this month’s book club, you are welcome to join next time. Stay tuned for information about future books, but please contact Olivia Silver if you are interested so that we can get an idea of how big the club will be.
January 2010
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
A story about a girl who falls in love with a vampire and the good and the bad sides of this love. The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 25.
November 2009
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen
It’s an otherwise ordinary Monday when Meghan Fitzmaurice’s perfect life hits a wall. A household name as the host of Rise and Shine, the country’s highest-rated morning talk show, Meghan cuts to a commercial break — but not before she mutters two forbidden words into her open mike. In an instant, it’s the end of an era, not only for Meghan, who is unaccustomed to dealing with adversity, but also for her younger sister, Bridget, a social worker in the Bronx who has always lived in Meghan’s long shadow.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 24.
October 2009
Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
Set in modern-day Rwanda, the book introduces one of the most singular and engaging characters in recent fiction: Angel Tungaraza — mother, cake baker, keeper of secrets — a woman living on the edge of chaos and finding ways to transform lives, weave magic, and create hope amid the madness swirling all around her.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 27.
September 2009
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 29.
August 2009
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, is at times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, and at other times in sad denial. She deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 25.
July 2009
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
It begins in January 1946, when popular author Juliet Ashton, much like her fellow British citizens, is emerging from the dark days of World War II. As Juliet exchanges a series of letters with her publisher and her best friend, readers immediately warm to this author in search of a new subject in the aftermath of war.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. July 21 (one week earlier than usual).
June 2009
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Spanning across eight decades — and one unusually awkward adolescence — this long-awaited second novel by Eugenides is a grand and utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. June 30.
May 2009
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Set in postwar Germany, The Reader is a provocative, morally challenging, and deeply moving novel about a young boy’s erotic awakening in a clandestine love affair with a mysterious older woman.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. May 26.
April 2009
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, the author gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Mamah Cheney’s profound influence on Frank Lloyd Wright.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28.
March 2009
March by Geraldine Brooks
From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic, Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March. Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 31.
February 2009
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
This novel chronicles not just the "brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao," an overweight Dominican boy growing up in New Jersey and obsessed with science fiction, fantasy, and women, but also the curse of the "fukú" that has plagued Oscar’s family for generations and the Caribbean since colonization and slavery.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 24.
January 2009
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
It’s a snapshot of modern consumer culture and hipster esoterica. Set in London, Tokyo, and Moscow, it takes the reader on a tour of a global village inhabited by power-hungry marketers, industrial saboteurs, high-end hackers, Russian mob bosses, Internet fan-boys, and so forth.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 27.
November 2008
Triangle by Katharine Weber
By the time she dies at age 106, Esther Gottesfeld, the last survivor of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire, has told the story of that day many times. But her role remains mysterious.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 25.
October 2008
I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
According to Barnes and Noble, in the book, “Denis Cooverman didn’t want to give a typical graduation speech. So, instead, he stood up in front of his 512 classmates and their 3,000 relatives and said something really important: ’I love you, Beth Cooper.’”
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 28.
September 2008
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
This book will be turned into a major motion picture to come out this year.
According to Barnes & Noble, “It’s the story of Frank and April Wheeler who mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves, in the quest for something great.”
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 30.
June 2008
The Gathering by Anne Enright
According to Barnes & Noble, “As Enright traces the line of betrayal and redemption through three generations, her distinctive intelligence
twists the world a fraction and gives it back to us in a new and unforgettable light.”
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 24.
May 2008
Then We Came To An End by Joshua Ferris
According to Barnes & Noble, every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is
family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent
coffee breaks.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 27.
April 2008
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
According to Barnes & Noble, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, an adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 29.
March 2008
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
According to Barnes & Noble, this book is about a how a bond that grows among an unlikely trio is one of love and trust, and, ultimately, is their only hope for survival.
The club will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 25.
February 2008
Bump by Diana Wagman
According to Barnes & Noble, this is a story of a trio of motorists and one policeman linked together by a tangled, life-altering web of
coincidence in the immediate aftermath of a three-car pile-up in Los Angeles.
January 2008
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Described by Barnes & Noble as "An impressive debut novel from a new voice in fiction, The Secret History tells of a small circle of
friends at an esteemed college in New England, whose studies in Classical Greek lead them to odd rituals, shocking behavior–and murder."