Barron Park Reading Group

Our meeting this month was canceled due to a family emergency.

Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein Non-Fiction suggested by Terry Got my highest rating; seems to be essential information to understand the world today. The new sexual landscape girls face in the post-princess stage. the ways in which porn and all its sexual myths have seeped into young people’s lives, […]

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman Non-Fiction suggested by Janet Since “A Distant Mirror” is such a long book, we’ll divide it up. Everyone is going to read the first three chapters and the last chapter. Then each person chooses three middle chapters to read and “report on” to the group. […]

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff Fiction suggested by Barbara from Amazon: Fates and Furies is a literary masterpiece that defies expectation. A dazzling examination of a marriage, it is also a portrait of creative partnership written by one of the best writers of her generation. Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two […]

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith Fiction suggested by Janet Amsterdam, 1631: Sara de Vos becomes the first woman to be admitted as a master painter to the city’s Guild of St. Luke. Though women do not paint landscapes (they are generally restricted to indoor subjects), a wintry outdoor scene haunts […]

All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister Non-Fiction suggested by Barbara from Amazon: In 2009, the award-winning journalist Rebecca Traister started All the Single Ladies—a book she thought would be a work of contemporary journalism—about the twenty-first century phenomenon of the American single woman. It was […]

Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman Fiction suggested by Lisa This is a wonderful story that goes back and forth between several time periods and places (Maine 2013; Salzburg 1945-46; Budapest and Israel 2013, and Budapest 1913). The characters are real and the plot is compelling. The story is woven around the true history of […]

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad Non-Fiction suggested by Janice The author, a female Norwegian journalist, who was accepted into a Kabul family for three months, writes a first person narrative about Afghan gender roles, education, politics, religion, and culture. Within the context of his society, bookseller Khan is an enlightened and liberal man; […]

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler Fiction suggested by Barbara From Goodreads: From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author–now in the fiftieth year of her remarkable career–a brilliantly observed, joyful and wrenching, funny and true new novel that reveals, as only she can, the very nature of a family’s life. “It was a beautiful, […]

A Bicycle Built for Two Billion by Jamie Bianchini Non-Fiction suggested by Toni After living too grandly and plunging to rock bottom, the author decided to ride a tandem bike solo around the world and invite people that he met along the way to ride part of the journey with him. Video clip mentions various […]