The KEYS Weekend Magazine Book Club - Last Saturday of the Month

SUGGEST A BOOK
BOOK CLUB ARCHIVE

Every month on KWM we discuss a book.
It's easy to get involved: Pick up the next book, read it and tune in. We welcome your call with your thoughts on the book, the author or our discussions. We are a club...and you are a member.
Thank you for listening.

OUR NEXT BOOK
MARCH 1, 2008

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
by
Ernest Gaines

AND THEN...
March 29, 2008

The Secret Life of Bees
by
Sue Monk Kidd

AND THEN...
April 26, 2008

High Fidelity
by
Nick Hornby

Meet the KWM BOOK CLUB:
The monthly KWM Book Club players are Joe Hilliard, Chuck Etheridge, Allison Hilliard and, of course, you. When book-appropriate, guests join the group on air.

Joe Hillard	Joe Hilliard is the host of KWM and an avid reader. When he's not hosting the show, working at his 'real job', playing with his kids, mowing the yard, cleaning out the garage, or sneaking away to a movie he can be found sitting on the couch with a good book. The couch is often empty. His dream books for The Book Club would be 'anything Hemingway', Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces and Hornby's High Fidelity (if we can sneak in something less 'literary').
Chuck Etheridge	Chuck Etheridge is an Assistant Professor of English at TAMU-CC and has more books in his office than are on loan at the campus's library. He told us he'd fill out this bio when he 'was done grading papers...so don't hold your breath.' He is the author of the novel Border Canto.
Allison Hillard	Allison Hilliard said she'd fill out this bio section whenever she gets her nose out of whatever book she's reading currently. We have it on good authority, though, that her dream book for The Book Club would be Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
You	We'd write something pithy and insightful about you...if we knew more about you. Please let us know who's reading along with us in this grand adventure. Please drop us an email and tell us about yourself, how we're doing on-air, your thoughts on the books we're discussing or what book you'd like to see on the list in the future.

KWM BOOK CLUB ARCHIVE
Revisit the books we've already discussed

Date	Book	Summary
January 26, 2007		Coming Soon Joe's Thoughts Joe's thoughts on The Big Sleep are on the way. Chuck's Thoughts Chuck's thoughts on The Big Sleep are on the way. Allison's Thoughts Allison's thoughts on The Sun Also Rises are on the way.
January 5, 2007		Coming Soon Joe's Thoughts Joe's thoughts on The Color Purple are on the way. Chuck's Thoughts Chuck's thoughts on The Color Purple are on the way. Guest Melanie Eddoll's Thoughts Melanie's thoughts on The Color Purple are on the way.
December 1, 2007		Coming Soon Joe's Thoughts Joe's thoughts on The Sun Also Rises are on the way. Guest David Mead's Thoughts David's thoughts on The Sun Also Rises are on the way. Allison's Thoughts Allison's thoughts on The Sun Also Rises are on the way.
October 27, 2007		Coming Soon Joe's Thoughts Joe's thoughts on Harry Potter are on the way. Chuck's Thoughts Chuck's thoughts on Harry Potter are on the way. Guest Heidi Hovda's Thoughts Guest Heidi Hovda's thoughts on Harry Potter are on the way.
September 29, 2007		This will be filled in after the on-air book club discusses the book on September 29, 2007. Joe's Thoughts Joe's thoughts on Bless Me, Ultima are on the way. Chuck's Thoughts Chuck's thoughts on Bless Me, Ultima are on the way.
August 25, 2007		Joe's Thoughts Joe's thoughts on The Bean Trees are on the way. Chuck's Thoughts The Bean Trees is one of my favorite novels. Its narrator, Taylor makes me laugh on nearly every page with her folk wisdom and homespun metaphors—he was “moving at the speed of a government check” is one—and yet her humble life is full of challenges as trials as she struggles to be good at a role she never wanted to play, that of a parent. Through Taylor, her daughter Turtle, and the family they create in Tucson, author Barbara Kingsolver is able to explore a variety of serious issues precisely because the novel is so funny—the humor opens us to explore things we might not want to look at otherwise. You will feel like a richer person for having read The Bean Trees. Allison's Thoughts I thought The Bean Trees was a refreshing novel about the transforming power of community and acceptance. I hung onto every insightful word of Taylor Greer, the book's protagonist, and admire her for all her strength and courage to leave the comfort of home in Kentucky to venture out into strange new places and relationships. What this book portrays in Taylor's journey to the west, while sometimes painful but quite humorous, is the transforming liberation of the human spirit. In giving herself a new name and place, Taylor is able to free herself to a measure of love and acceptance that heals unimaginable wounds and gives all who know her hope. I loved this book!
July 24, 2007		This will be filled in after the on-air book club discusses the book on July 28, 2007. Joe's Thoughts *The Road* was a perfect first pick for the Book Club given what I believe to be its universal appeal and themes. Sure, it explores some very dark territory (cannibals, anyone?), but the themes of parenthood, compassion overcoming evil, and McCarthy's engrossing narrative style overcome the potentially upsetting content. Speaking as a father (and talking to other father's who have read it) one feels that McCarthy was writing for a 'dad's only fraternity,' but Allison, during our discussion, had the same reaction enforcing my notion that the themes are universal. I enjoyed the exciting 'monotony,' for lack of a better word, of their lives: find places where food may be and look for it. McCarthy created each new situation with many layers of life and death. A must read. Chuck's Thoughts The Road is a novel that grew on me. It’s unlike of McCarthy’s other novels, and because I like McCarthy’s other novels, at first, I didn’t like this one because it’s different. This novel is simple and the language is straightforward, and most of McCarthy’s other books are complex and have very rich language. The Road only has two characters that have any depth; most of McCarthy’s other books have a broad network of characters whose fates are intertwined. And yet the novel won me over; it’s a surprisingly powerful story of survival and of a father’s love for his son. It’s McCarthy’s version of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, another novel written by a noted novelist late in his career that deals with the lessons the young can take from the old and the dignity of facing certain defeat. Allison's Thoughts Allison thoughts on The Road are on the way.