Garnavillo library book club members share favorite reads

The Garnavillo Public Library has a book club that was developed in 2015. Presently the club has nine members that meet on the third Wednesday of every month. The members of this group would like to share some of their favorite reads.

Jeanne Meisner: “11/22/63” is a work of fiction written by Stephen King.  It centers around a young man who finds a time portal that will take him back to 1958. He enters that portal with the goal of preventing the assassination of John Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald. Part of the story is his adjustment to living in another year.  He also finds that the past does not want to be changed which presents many problems. This is a long book but held my interest to the end.

Rebecca Adams: “And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer” by Fredrick Backman.  This story is about memories and about letting go of someone you love. Grandpa struggles with Alzheimer’s, making his memories become smaller every day. He and his grandson, Noah, share common interests and personality. I enjoyed reading about their relationship, that is so innocent and precious. Noah tried to bring the connection closer between his dad, Ted, who is less like his dad, then Grandpa, than to Noah.  I liked how it brought the three generations to be closer and appreciate each other.

Georgi Kaiser: I enjoyed most of the books we read this year. One reason is that without being in the Book Club, I would not have been exposed to the variety of topics and authors that we read. I probably liked “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus and “The Book of Lost Friends” by Lisa Wingate, the best. I will explain my reasons for liking “The Book of Lost Friends.” This book has two time lines, a time in America’s past, and the present, which can be confusing. The main reason I liked it that I like historical fiction. This book brings to light the difficulty of former slaves finding their families or friends after the Civil War. They had been separated and/or sold during slavery and tried to locate them by placing ads in a newspaper after the war. I had never thought about this and thought it was very interesting.

Joyce Schoulte: I had a hard time choosing my favorite one. “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus showed how women were discriminated against in the workplace and expected to stay at home and take care of the family and house. When the main character lost her job as a researcher because of such discrimination, she became a TV cooking show host. But instead of using common terms for ingredients, she used the scientific names. She also encouraged women to expand their visions and begin to do what they really wanted to do. “Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club” by J. Ryan Stradal, brought back memories of the Kountry Manor and the Whites Springs and others like them. It also showed how family-run restaurants were not viewed favorably by the whole family. And then the chains started to come in and disrupt the status quo. There were lots of back stories about a small town and all the things that go on behind the scenes that many people now about, but don’t talk about. It was a mostly fun read that didn’t require a lot of concentration. A good summer read!

Denise Saunders: “Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowan Farm” by Mildred Kalish touched my heart in many ways.  It parallels my Dad’s life. He grew up in poverty in Southern Wisconsin.  His mom was a single parent of five and lived by subsistence farming. She took in washing and mowed cemeteries with a push mower. Life was hard just as it was in rural Iowa, and “Little Heathens” reminded me of stories Dad told.

Sue Kuenzel: My favorite book of those read by our Book Club in 2024 was “And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer” by Fredrik Backman. It is a novella about Noah and his grandfather, who has Alzheimer’s.  He is trying to help his grandson understand what is happening to him.  This book says so much about life, love, and family relationships, as well as creating and cherishing memories. It is funny, sad, and heartwarming and is the book that has stayed with me.  I think it could be read again and again

Joan Wilker: One of my favorite books that we read this year was “Britt-Marie Was Here” by Fredrik Backman. Britt-Marie takes a job as a librarian in a small town called Borg after leaving her husband. She has an obsession with cleaning to keep herself busy after caring for her own mother as a child. Although she deals with anxiety and shyness, she is also strong and assertive.  Britt-Marie becomes a welcomed citizen of Borg and becomes a co-coach of the town’s soccer team. Her husband comes back to her and helps get the soccer team qualified to compete. She decides not to go back with her husband and instead leaves for Paris. I liked this book because of her courage to enter an unfamiliar community and become welcomed in spite of her social inexperience.

NaDyne Meyer: My favorite Book Club book of 2024 was “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry” by Fredrik Backman. Seven-year old Elsa’s best and only friend is her grandmother who tells her “fairy” tales to help her cope with being “different.” These tales take place in the Land-of-Almost-Awake where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.  Granny tells Elsa, “There’s nothing wrong with being different. Only different people change the world.” When Granny dies, she leaves letters of apology for Elsa to deliver. By delivering these letters, Elsa discovers Granny’s past and how she affected the lives of other people. The book shows the power of stories and of imagination. It gives a lesson that all people have flaws and make mistakes. Accepting who people are and where they come from and their experiences can lead to understanding them instead of judging them. It’s a story about the right to be different. And how our lives can affect and impact the lives of others.

Dorothy Wendel: I enjoyed “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus.  It was set in the 1950s and 1960s when I was growing up, unaware of how women were really treated if they stepped outside their expected role and into a man’s domain.  Elizabeth Zott, a chemist, meets the obstacles of sexism as she stands as a strong role model for her young daughter, who meets her own challenges in school. The book totally brought to light how much sexism was alive in the 1960s, and it also reminded me how prevalent it still is in the 21st century. I enjoyed how the author took a very serious issue and was able to present it in a witty and humorous way. It evoked a plethora of valid emotions in me.