January's Book

January's meeting will be Tuesday, January 31 at 2:00pm in room Y-233. All students, faculty and staff are invited to attend!



Small Kingdoms by Anastasia Hobbet

From the Publisher:
Set in Kuwait during the ominous years between the two Gulf Wars, Small Kingdoms traces the intersecting lives of five people-rich and poor, native and foreigner, Muslim, Christian, and non-believer-when they discover that a teenaged Indian housemaid is being brutally abused by her employer. Tensions are high. Just miles away in Iraq, Saddam Hussein is threatening a second invasion of this tiny desert kingdom, which he destroyed six years before, in 1990. Even without a war on the horizon, rescuing a maid employed in a private home is a sticky matter in this rigid, class-conscious society, where the rich protect their own; and any intervention involves great personal risk. Emmanuella, an impoverished cook from India, risks losing her job and thus her ability to support her family back home. Kit, the young wife of an American businessman in the Gulf, could face grave damage to her marriage. Mufeeda, an upper-class Kuwaiti woman, must buck the powerful status quo of her family and her class, as well as her own history. And there's Hanaan, a rebellious young Arab woman who may have as much to lose as the desperate maid. Having fallen in love with Theo, an American doctor working in the country, she has already faced violent retribution from her family. How much more violence lies ahead she doesn't know. Stubborn, charismatic, and dismissive of her society's strict codes of behavior for unmarried women, she will step forward to help the captive maid. An Upstairs/Downstairs of the Arab world, Small Kingdoms tells the intimate story of ordinary people facing an extraordinary test in the face of another war.

Books for Spring 2012

Here are the books for Spring 2012

January -  Small Kingdoms by Anastasia Hobbet

February  - Middlesex by Jeffrey  Eugenides

March - Paris Wife by Paula McLain

April - Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

November's Book

The next meeting of the Greedy Readers Book Club will be Tuesday, November 29 at 2:00 pm in room Y-233.

November's Greedy Reader Book will be The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, a Jew --- Three Women Search for Understanding. by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner.

From the Publisher: A groundbreaking book about Americans searching for faith and mutual respect, The Faith Club weaves the story of three women, their three religions, and their urgent quest to understand one another.

After September 11, Ranya Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, faced constant questions about Islam, God, and death from her children, the only Muslims in their classrooms. Inspired by a story about Muhammad, Ranya reached out to two other mothers to write an interfaith children's book that would highlight the connections between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. After just a few meetings, however, the women realized that they themselves needed an honest and open environment where they could admit -- and discuss -- their concerns, stereotypes, and misunderstandings. After hours of soul-searching about the issues that divided them, Ranya, Suzanne, and Priscilla grew close enough to discover and explore what united them.

A memoir of spiritual reflections in three voices, The Faith Club has spawned interfaith discussion groups in churches, temples, mosques, and other community settings. It will make you feel as if you are eavesdropping on the authors' private thoughts, provocative discussions, and often-controversial opinions and conclusions.

As the authors reveal their deepest beliefs, you watch the blossoming of a profound interfaith friendship and the birth of a new way of relating to others. And this new edition provides all the materials you need for forming your own Faith Club, including sections in Hebrew and Arabic.

Pioneering, timely, deeply thoughtful, and full of hope, The Faith Club's caring message will resonate with people of all faiths.

October's Book

The October Greedy Reader meeting will be
Tuesday, October 25 @ 2:00 pm

The Greedy Reader Book for October is:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

From Publishers Weekly:

Corduner uses considerable zeal and a talent for accents to navigate Zusak's compelling, challenging novel set in Nazi Germany. Death serves as knowing narrator for the tale, which is framed much like a lengthy flashback. The storytelling aspects of this structure include asides to the listener, and lots of foreshadowing about what eventually happens to the various lead characters-appealing features for listeners. But Corduner seems to most enjoy embracing the heart of things here-the rather small and ordinary saga of 10-year-old Liesel Meminger, who has been given over to a foster family following her mother's branding as a "Kommunist" and the death of her younger brother. Under her foster parents' care, she learns how to read, how to keep terrifying secrets and how to hone her skills as a book thief, a practice that keeps her sane and feeds her newfound love of words. With quick vocal strokes, Corduner paints vivid, provocative portraits of Germans and Jews under unfathomable duress and the ripple effect such circumstances have on their lives. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

September Greedy Readers Meeting

September's Book

The September Meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 27 at 2:00 pm in room Y-233.

The Book for September is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

From the Publisher:
Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer, was buried in an unmarked grave sixty years ago. Yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medical research. Known to science as HeLa, the first "immortal" human cells grown in culture are still alive today, and have been bought and sold by the millions. Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey from the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to East Baltimore today, where Henrietta's family struggles with her legacy.

August Greedy Reader Meeting

The Greedy Readers will meet Tuesday, August 30 at 2:00 in room Y-233

The book for August is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin.

“One of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary literature” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.
Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.

Book Selections for Fall

Here are the book selections for Fall 2011

Sept.  Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Oct.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Nov.  The Faith Club:  A Muslim; A Christian; A Jew – Three Women Search for Understanding by Ramya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner

Dec. – we do not meet