Spring Recap

Lunch and Literature is still going strong.

The theme this year was Across the Pond. Our readings take us to far off lands and meet multifaceted characters. To start our journey we tackle our Texting in Community- Dream From My Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama. President Obama takes us through his childhood in Hawaii, to his schooling in Jakarta Indonesia to his heritage in Kenya. Three students attended at the urging of their faculty. A big thank you goes out to Gloria Pitts for leading that discussion.

In January we travel through Spain to the Pyramids of Egypt with Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. During February and March we were in the mist of Afghanistan in 1974 with A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. A tale of two women in régime torn Afghanistan over 25 year. It is evenly skewed with despair and grave hope. You may recognize Hosseini name, he is also the author of the national bestseller The Kite Runner which movie debut in 2007. Since A Thousand Splendid Suns had so many discussion points we met twice to give it a thorough probe. The Middle Eastern cuisine mentioned throughout the book sparked Dr. Johnson, from the Sociology Department to provide us with colorful and delicious food from Zaytoon Mediterranean Café. Grape leaves wrapped around savory rice, sweet and spicy baby red peppers filled with goat cheese and herbs, stuffed olives and other assorted goodies. Thank You Dr. J.

Our next title Three Cups of Tea, One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Motenson and David Relin will launch us into a dangerous and difficult quest to build schools in the wildest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan in post- 9/11 world.

Join us…

Thursday, May 13, 2010 12:30pm-1:30pm
In a new venue ---Suite 100, Conference room in Bluford Library
(Glass doors to the left of the main entrance)

Three Cups of Tea.....

One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Motenson and David Relin is our next title for discussion.
Save the date...

Thursday, May 13, 2010 Bluford Library's
suite 100 conference room
12:30-1:30pm

I have a few extra books to lend. Please let me know if you need  a copy.
Bring your lunch, bring a student, bring a friend

National Library Week / National Poetry Month

I love April because there is always so much going on.

April 11 - 17 is National Library Week.
This year's theme is Communities Thrive @your Library

Also April is National Poetry Month 

So.... in honor of both events, I am asking you to bring a poem to our next Lunch and Literature gathering.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010  12:30-1:30 pm
Bluford Library Seminar room. 256-258

Your poems should be about the many communities we live in, work in or play in. Communities of thought, the environment, cooperation, unity, and kinship. Poems that touch a chord or strike home.

Bluford library has many resources for your poetry selection. Here are a few to get you started...

In print
The Norton Anthology of Poetry A&T Ref    PR1174 .N6 1997
The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry  A&T Stacks   PS613 .N67 2003
The New Anthology of American Poetry A&T Stacks PS586 .N49 2003

Electronic
Chadwyck-Healey Literature Collections  contains the following poetry collections or search individually
20th Century African-American Poetry
20th Century American Poetry
20th Century English Poetry
African American Poetry (1750-1900)
American Poetry 1600-1900
Faber Poetry Library

Spring 2010

We still have two books in our Across the Pond series.....

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper
and
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortensen

I am checking into the availablity of copies for either of these titles for our next gathering.
Save the date
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 during
National Library Week April 11-17.

Stay tuned ... and leave your thoughts, comments about the books and this program.
I would love to hear from you.

Pushing Spring...

Lunch and Literature is still going strong. The theme this year was Across the Pond. Our readings take us to far off lands and meet multifaceted characters. To start our journey we tackle our Texting in Community- Dream From My Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama. President Obama takes us through his childhood in Hawaii, to his schooling in Jakarta Indonesia to his heritage in Kenya. Three students attended at the urging of their faculty. And a big thank you goes out to Gloria Pitts for leading that discussion.


In January we travel through Spain to the Pyramids of Egypt with Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. We have just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. A tale of two women in régime torn Afghanistan over 25 years. It is evenly skewed with despair and grave hope. You may recognize Hosseini name, he is also the author of the national bestseller The Kite Runner which was originally on our list for this year's theme however, I thought you would enjoy A Thousand Splendid Suns more.

A Cold Winter

Who ordered all that snow?

Now that we are thawing out and it looks like spring might be around the corner....
Let's get together to discuss our  next title.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini .

Thursday, March 4 ---parts 1 & 2
Thursday, March 25, 2010-----parts 3 &4  
F.D. Bluford Library Seminar room 256-258 
Time:  12:30pm-1:30pm

This title is available at Bluford Library, A&T Stack PS3608.O832 K58 2007

Happy New Year

The Lunch and Literature gathering for January 12, 2010 has been rescheduled to

Thursday, January 14, 12:30-1:30pm
Bluford Library seminar room 256-258
You have two extra days......

Save the Date in 2010

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.


Read it over your Holiday break.
We will meet Tuesday, January 12, 2010  for lunch and discussion 
F.D. Bluford Library's seminar room  256-258 
12:30-1:30pm  
Bring your lunch, Bring a friend , Bring a student

Winter 2010

Our next adventure in our Across the Pond series  is..

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 

In 1988 Paulo offered The Alchemist to a small Brazilian publishing house. It only sold 900 copies and the publishers drop it. The Alchemist is nowadays one of the most read books in the world.


Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992--not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable--in other words, a bag of wind. The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: ``to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation.'' So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, ``Listen to your heart.'' A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver (``concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man''). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits--a far cry from Saint- Exup‚ry's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility. Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.  -- Kirkus Reviews Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP.

Fall Conversations...

Thank you for the lively and informative conversations about Presidents Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father.   It is always a pleasure and encouraging to see students join in on the discussion and walk away with several new perspectives.

From the Inside Flap

Dreams From My Father

"In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided [cultural] inheritance." School Library Journal

FALL is here

Save the date.....
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm
Seminar Room 256-258
Our first title of the year, up for discussion is NC A & T's  Text in Community

             Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama

You can find this title in Bluford Library at the Access Service Desk
Call number ... Reserve  E185.97.O23 A3 2004

I will know soon if I have extra copies to borrow.
    so keep in touch
Bring your lunch... bring a friend... bring a student...

ACROSS THE POND

This year's theme is .....Across the Pond

Our readings will take us across the Altanlic to adventures from our friends to the East.

We will start with our Text in Community and then venture through Liberia , Morrocco, Spain , Afganistan and Pakistan .

Titles for this upcoming year 2009-2010

Dreams From My Father - A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortensen

Dates and book availability information coming soon.

Shelfari

Check out our new Bookshelf App.
Shelfari.
Creat your own bookshelf and network with people who love books.

The Shack... discussion continues

Next gathering we will continue our lively discussion of The Shack by William P. Young.

Wednesday, June 10, 12:30pm F.D. Bluford Library, seminar room 256-258.

Thought provoking questions for "The Shack"

What elements of The Shack did you like (accept)?
What elements of The Shack did you find objectionable or not well presented?
What three words would you use to describe as a reason to read The Shack?
Who is Mack (Pre-Shack)?
Who is Mack (Post-Shack)?

Notes for "The Shack"

Here is a list of the main talking points and page numbers for each chapter ...provided by John Teleha

1. Ice Storm 14-23
2. Camping Trip 24-32
3. Tipping Point 33-42
4. The Great Sadness 43-66
5. Mack accepts the Invitation / Mack Meets God 67-87 (80-87)
6. Mack Talks with Papa in the Kitchen 88-103
7. Supper / Mack & Jesus on the dock 104-114
8. Breakfast of Champions 117-127
9. Mack & Sarayu in the Garden 128-138
10. Jesus & Mack Cross the Lake 139-150
11. Da Judge –Mack & Sophia in the Cave 151-169
12. Mack & Jesus return across the Lake 170-182
13. Mack & Papa talking on the Porch 183-193
14. Mack & Sarayu on the Lake / Dinner with Papa, Sarayu & Jesus 194-208
15. Sarayu & Mack / Gift under the Stars 207-217
16. Papa & Mack take a Hike 220-230
17. Mack Makes a Choice 231-238
18. Outbound Ripples 239-248

The Shack Part II

WOW!!!
If you missed the lively and insightful discussion of The Shack by William P. Young at our May 13 gathering, mark your calendar.
We have decide to meet again to continue our conversations and debates.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
Bluford Library seminar room 256-258.

Many thanks to our two discussion leaders:

Martina Chavis, Senior Development Officer, Division of Development and University Relations
and
John Teleha, Head of Reference, F. D. Bluford Library
Who brought activites, thought provoking questions and insight to the table.
We discovered a bountiful number of discussion points and responses to
The Shack with their help and encouragement.

Title Suggestions

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Anytime I hear about a interesting book or someone suggest a good read... I will post it.

Late Spring Read

We have selected our next read
The Shack by William P. Young

Mark your calendar...
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 12:30pm -1:30pm

I am in the process of getting a club set to loan.
So.....stay tuned for my update