Adrianna Trigiani

I fell in love with Adrianna Trigiani when I saw the cover of "Big Stone Gap!" The trilogy did not disappoint! I just received "Very Valentine" and "Brava Valentine" in the mail. I can't wait to dig in! I'll keep you posted!

Time Travelers Wife

I can't wait for book club in a few weeks! (My grandma would say, "quit wishing your life away!") I have loved this book for years and can't wait to share it with you Chapter Chatters. Of course I have a deep love for all things "time travel" and when I figure it out I will come back to book club from some future date to tell you all how it works!

I will throw one question out now....If you could time travel (and safely return) A. Would you do it? and B. if it could be to only one place/time...where and when?

So Audrey Niffenegger. Endlessly fascinating! Her bio can be found at this link http://audreyniffenegger.com/about She has an interesting Q& A session and I am going to include just one of her answers re: e-books Why can’t I find e-book versions of your books? I am not opposed to the existence of e-books; I know lots of people are wildly enthusiastic about them. But I have spent my life working with books as an art form and I am devoted to physical books. E-books in their current incarnations are still imperfect and they threaten the arts of book design and typography. As a book conservator I am also nervous about the digitization of books: will they be readable one hundred years from now? Or will thousands of books simply vanish as platforms and programs change? E-books have certain advantages (they are searchable) and disadvantages (they are not beautiful objects in themselves and don’t display images very well). I’m sure they will improve over time, though. I don’t know when or if my books will become e-books. Writing me hostile e-mail about this will not hasten my desire.

Ms. Niffenegger lives in Chicago; has another book coming out; "Her Fearful Symmetry" A ghost story set in and around Highgate Cemetary in London. (Clip included below) She also has a serialized graphic novel, titled "The Night Bookmobile" which ran in the London Guardian, but will be coming out in book form in 2010.
You may remember I have been wanting to read a graphic novel but they are all either so foreign to me that I'm not comfortable, or so violent I have no interest. Mostly I am turned off by how literally and literarily dark they are. (My foray into comic books never went past Archie and Jughead) But this looks fascinating. It has a Jasper Fforde air about it. Can't wait to discuss, and I have a surprise for April 8th for all of you!

Anne Provoost

Anne Provoost was born in Belgium in 1964 and studied literature at the University of Leuven (Louvain). Her first novel, My Aunt is a Pilot Whale, she wrote while living in Minneapolis, USA. The book was published in Dutch in 1991 and translated into English three years later. My Aunt is a Pilot Whale was awarded with the Book Lion 1991 and the Interprovincial Prize, 1991, two main Belgian Awards. The novel was translated in German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Portuguese and Polish. Back in 1991, it was the first book on sexual child abuse for a young audience produced in the Low Countries.
Her second novel, Falling (1994), in which the pitfalls and allurements of extreme right-wing rhetoric are dealt with extensively, was published in Dutch in 1994. The book received five major awards in Belgium and the Netherlands. It was translated into English by John Nieuwenhuizen in 1997, and was made into an English spoken feature film that came out in the fall of 2001, starring Jill Clayburgh and Alice Krige (YouTube trailer). The book Falling has been translated in English, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Polish and Slovenian, and was selected for the honor list of IBBY.

MORE... http://www.anneprovoost.be/en/index.php/Auteur/Auteur

In the Shadow of the Ark ...several different covers!

The Last 5 years! Favorite Reads- VI

Best of List: New Favorites from 2009
31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

*The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Oxygen by Carol Cassella

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Perfection by Julie Metz

The Photographer by Didier Lefèvre and Emmanuel Guibert

Rainwater by Sandra Brown

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty

Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Testimony by Anita Shreve

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

The Last 5 years! Favorite Reads- V

2008
Best of List: New Favorites
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

*The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

*Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

*Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

*Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

World Without End by Ken Follett

The Last 5 years! Favorite Reads- IV

2007
Best of List: New Favorites
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

*Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eye Contact by Cammie McGovern

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

*The Glass Castle by Jeannette WallsLoving Frank by Nancy Horan

March by Geraldine Brooks

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Peony in Love by Lisa See

The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

*Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway

World Without End by Ken Follett

Bread Alone Plus More

Below are run downs on more of Judith Ryan Hendricks' works, a link to her Web site and some fun facts about the state of Washington. Enjoy!See you next week at Book Club

http://www.judihendricks.com/

THE BAKER"S APPRENTICE
The sequel to Judith Ryan Hendricks' absorbing debut novel, Bread Alone
Having found her calling, Wynter Morrison is blissful about her new career in Seattle as a baker -- cherishing the long days spent making bread and the comforting rhythms of the Queen Street Bakery. Still, she struggles with the legacy of her failed marriage and with her new boyfriend Mac's reluctance to share his mysterious past. When Mac abruptly leaves Seattle, Wyn again feels abandoned and betrayed, at least until intimate letters arrive in which Mac at last reveals his deepest secrets. But the more she learns about her absent lover, the more Wyn discovers about herself -- and when tragedy threatens, she will have to decide if there is a place for Mac in this new life she has made.

ISABEL"S DAUGHTER
The first time I saw my mother was the night she died. The second time was at a party in Santa Fe.
After a childhood spent in an institution and a series of foster homes, Avery James has trained herself not to wonder about the mother who gave her up. But her safe, predictable life changes one night when she stumbles upon the portrait of a woman who is the mirror image of herself.
Slowly but inevitably, Avery is compelled to discover all she can about her mother, Isabel. Avery is drawn into complex relationships with the people who knew her mother. As she weaves together the threads of her mother's artistic heritage and her grandmother's skills as a healer, Avery learns that while discovering Isabel provides a certain resolution in her life, it's discovering herself that brings lasting happiness.

1. The state of Washington is the only state to be named after a United States president.
2. Seattle is home to the first revolving restaurant, 1961.
3. Washington state produces more apples than any other state in the union.
4. Washington state has more glaciers than the other 47 contiguous states combined.
5. Washington state's capitol building was the last state capitol building to be built with a rotunda.
6. Everett is the site of the world's largest building, Boeing's final assembly plant
7. Medina is the home of the United States wealthiest man, Microsoft's Bill Gates.
8. The Northwestern most point in the contiguous U.S. is Cape Flattery on Washington's Olympic Peninsula.
9. King county the largest county in Washington was originally named after William R. King, Vice President under Franklin Pierce; it was renamed in 1986, after civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
10. Microsoft Corporation is located in Redmond.
11. Before it became a state, the territory was called Columbia (named after the Columbia River). When it was granted statehood, the name was changed to Washington, supposedly so people wouldn't confuse it with The District of Columbia.
12. The highest point in Washington is Mount Rainier. It was named after Peter Rainier, a British soldier who fought against the Americans in the Revolutionary War.
13. The Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge at Evergreen Point is the longest floating bridge in the world. The bridge connects Seattle and Medina across Lake Washington.
14. Washington is the birthplace of both Jimi Hendrix (Seattle) and Bing Crosby (Tacoma).
15. The oldest operating gas station in the United States is in Zillah.
16. Washington's state insect is the Green Darner Dragonfly.
17. The world's first soft-serve ice cream machine was located in an Olympia Dairy Queen.
18. Starbucks, the biggest coffee chain in the world was founded in Seattle.
19. Spokane was the smallest city in size to host a World's Fair. - 1974
20. The state capital is Olympia, and the largest city is Seattle.
21. Puget Sound's many islands are served by the largest ferry fleet in the United States.
22. The forests of the Olympic Peninsula are among the rainiest places in the world and the only rainforests (such as the Hoh Rain Forest) in the continental United States
23. By the turn of the 20th century, Aberdeen had the distinction of being "the roughest town west of the Mississippi" because of excessive gambling, violence, extreme drug use and prostitution (the city remained off-limits to military personnel into the early 1980s).
24. The region around eastern Puget Sound developed heavy industry during World War I and World War II, and the Boeing company became an established icon in the area.
During the Great Depression, a series of hydroelectric dams were constructed along the Columbia river as part of a project to increase the production of electricity. This culminated in 1941 with the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest dam in the United States.
During World War II, Seattle was the point of departure for many soldiers in the Pacific, a number of which were quartered at Golden Gardens Park.
25. As of 2004, Washington's population included 631,500 foreign-born (10.3% of the state population), and an estimated 100,000 illegal aliens (1.6% of state population).
26. The six largest reported ancestries in Washington are: German (18.7%), English (12%), Irish (11.4%), Norwegian (6.2%), Mexican (5.6%) and Filipino (3.7%).
27. The percentage of non-religious people in Washington is the highest of any state, and church membership is among the lowest of all states.
28. The state of Washington is one of only seven states that does not levy a personal income tax.
29. Washington is home to four of the five longest floating bridges in the world: the Evergreen
30. Popular games Pictionary, Pickle-ball, and Cranium were all invented in Washington.