Fri May 12: what we talked about

  • Posted May 12, 2023
Fri May 12: what we talked about

Club news:

  • Congratulations to our club member Silvia Sabau for being named a Cougar Class Act by club advisors Mrs. Caldicott, Mrs. Herbrand, ad Mrs. Stevens
    • Silvia was honored at a Fri May 12 ceremony
    • We told everyone how she stands up to give a book recommendation. And how we clap sometimes!
  • LAST Book Club meeting 8:15 a.m. Fri May 19 in the cafeteria courtyard
    • B&N gift card given to club memerb who attended most meetings this year
  • Check out books for summer break!
    • LMC open Mon May 15 and Tues May 16; also open during finals week
    • Check out up to 10 books

What we are reading:

  • The Poppy War Trilogy by R. F. Kuang
    • Genre: fantasy
    • Summary: An epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic.
    • Ryleigh quote: "It was everything I wanted in a book. It was so depressing."
  • Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
    • Genre: mystery
    • Summary: Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. "A place," he said, "where learning is a game." Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym "Truly, Devious." It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history. True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.
  • Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson
    • Genre: mystery
    • Summary: Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn't going well. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general. Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an ax. The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can't explain. This was no break-in. Someone's lying about what happened in the woodshed. Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.
  • Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
    • Genre: realistic
    • Summary: Dante can swim. Ari can't. Dante is articulate and self-assured. Ari has a hard time with words and suffers from self-doubt. Dante gets lost in poetry and art. Ari gets lost in thoughts of his older brother who is in prison. Dante is fair skinned. Ari's features are much darker. It seems that a boy like Dante, with his open and unique perspective on life, would be the last person to break down the walls that Ari has built around himself. But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other―and the power of their friendship―can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.
  • Coraline by Neil Gaiman
    • Genre: supernatural, also graphic version
    • Summary: Coraline, who lives with her parents and some other people in a strange old house, explores the garden, grounds and eventually the inside of the mansion, where a door leads her to another universe that darkly mirrors the one she arrived from.
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
    • Genre: classic
    • Summary: In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.
    • Gabby was not a fan.
  • A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs
    • Genre: supernatural
    • Summary: Having defeated the monstrous threat that nearly destroyed the peculiar world, Jacob Portman is back where his story began, in Florida. Except now Miss Peregrine, Emma, and their peculiar friends are with him, and doing their best to blend in. But carefree days of beach visits and normalling lessons are soon interrupted by a discovery—a subterranean bunker that belonged to Jacob’s grandfather, Abe.
      3rd book in Miss Peregrine series
  • Lightlark by Alex Aster
    • Genre: fantasy
    • Summary: Every 100 years, the island of Lightlark appears to host the Centennial, a deadly game that only the rulers of six realms are invited to play. The invitation is a summons—a call to embrace victory and ruin, baubles and blood. The Centennial offers the six rulers one final chance to break the curses that have plagued their realms for centuries. Each ruler has something to hide. Each realm’s curse is uniquely wicked. To destroy the curses, one ruler must die. Isla Crown is the young ruler of Wildling—a realm of temptresses cursed to kill anyone they fall in love with. They are feared and despised, and are counting on Isla to end their suffering by succeeding at the Centennial. To survive, Isla must lie, cheat, and betray…even as love complicates everything.
  • And we're reading lots of manga and light novels: