Some time ago, I participated in a Book Group Speed Dating Program at my library. We had five minutes to introduce four books to leaders of book discussion groups. After five minutes, we'd move to another table and repeat. It was a lot of fun. These were my choices for the event.
![The Lathe of Heaven by [Ursula K. Le Guin]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kNxRM9O-L.jpg)
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin is a Sci Fi classic. The central character is George Orr...a man blessed or cursed with effective dreaming. His dreams change the past and present reality. Since Orr is the only one who remembers the previous reality he self medicates with drugs. Under threat of being institutionalized, he is forced to undergo voluntary psychiatric care.
The psychiatrist, Dr. Haber, decides to use Orr’s effective dreaming
to make himself rich and powerful. The drawback is Orr’s dreams never quite deliver the desired results. For example, Haber has George dream of a
world without racism. When he awakes everyone is a uniform grey color.
Your group will be able to find many things to discuss in this slender volume. Global warming, overpopulation, racism, war, behavioral sciences and the
quest for personal power are a few of the topics/themes. When my group read
The Lathe of Heaven, it was split which made for a very interesting discussion.
Some members didn’t detect the themes; some embraced them.
Our next book is narrated by dog named Enzo. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein spent 156 weeks on the NY bestsellers list...and no...that wasn’t dog time...that’s people time. It deals with some of the basic questions we humans struggle with and are sometimes even afraid to ask ourselves. Why are we here?What's our greater purpose in the grand scheme of things?
Where do we go after death? What are the keys to true happiness?
What makes them palatable is they are being pondered and experienced by the dog philosopher of the book, Enzo. His human, Denny, is a race car driver. Enzo uses the metaphor of racing in the rain to describe some of our basic struggles in life. Topics and themes that are covered are control, money, death, humanity, love, family and food. Dogs think about food all the time. Enzo, not only thinks about food, he also thinks about how others relate to food and what we can learn from that relationship.
My group found great wisdom in The Art of Racing in the Rain. It is book that will not only touch your emotions. It will give your group plenty of topics to discuss.
The next book I’d like to recommend is Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. It tells the story of Molly Ayer, a 17 year old on her twelfth foster home and Vivian Daly, a 91 year old survivor of the orphan train movement. Molly is serving fifty hours of community service helping Vivian clean out her attic. What follows is a learning experience for both of them...and an unexpected friendship.
Orphan Train offers many discussion points. The obvious choice is to contrast today’s foster care system to the orphan train movement of the 1920s-30s. As Molly and Vivian struggle with their past and present realities, your groups will discover a treasure trove of topics and themes to discuss that include: the need to belong or feel connected to others, self identity, safety, survival, trauma, loss, secrets, reality, illusion, and hope and skepticism. Ann Hood sums it up quite well in her blurb on the back of the book: “In Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline seamlessly knits together the past and present. Kline reminds us that we never really lose anyone or perhaps most importantly ourselves.”
And now for something completely different, my last book is The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. When I distributed the book to my group, there were a lot of “deer in the headlight looks” because of its size. It is 533 pages long.
They were somewhat relieved when I assured them an average reader could knock it out in a few hours.
It’s not quite a graphic novel...not really a picture book rather Selznick
created a new genre: a novel told in words and pictures. It follows the adventures of an orphan boy who lives in a Parisian train station where he maintains its clocks like his late uncle taught him. Through a series of events,
Hugo is pulled into the world of George Melies. It is a world of secrets, magic, film and mechanical men.
Your group will find many topics and themes to discuss. They range from awe and amazement to isolation to family and friendship. Another important theme paid homage to memories, the past, and the origins of the movie industry. The illustrations (including early movie stills) will give you another avenue of discussion. We sometimes are quick to dismiss a children’s book...but sometimes they can be the best discussions.
2 comments:
I read The Art of Racing.... It was very emotional and interesting. I think I will add Orphan Train to my reading list. I like to read things that also educate me.
The Art of Racing in the Rain was a great read. I think you'd enjoy Orphan Train too. I don't usually like the split narratives or ones that bounce back forth in time(unless I'm reading sci fi). Orphan Train held my interest. My group picked these two as favorites of the year we read them.
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