BOOK LIST: Money, Money, Money!

This BOOK LIST, for the Women & Finance Book Club (see previous post), contains an abundance of titles that are appropriate for our purposes. We will select 11 books to read throughout the year. All book clubs teach us about something. The goal is that this book club will teach us something about respect for money.

Women & Finance Book Club

All new! There is enough expressed interest that we're going ahead with our Women and Finance book club. We'll read Women & Money: owning the power to control your destiny by Suze Orman, and a variety of other current titles on finance. "After years of conversations with women, Suze Orman came face-to-face with this difficult truth: Despite the remarkable social advancements women have made over the past four decades, very little has changed in the way women deal with money. When it comes to matters of personal finance, women hand over control and refuse to take responsibility as they do in no other areas of their lives." The book jacket goes on to say what goes into a book with the title Women and Finance is "penetrating insight into how we arrived at this condition and a careful assessment of the far reaching consequences of this reckless behavior -- for ourselves and for our daughters."

This book club, like all book clubs, is about learning, camaraderie, and fun. Our first meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20 at Omaha Public Library's Florence Branch, 2920 Bondesson. Our phone number is 402-444-5299. Bring your ideas and join me on this adventure.

Book Groupies for Your Book Club

Omaha Public Library’s BOOK GROUPIES is a service that loans books (in a nifty canvas bag with a discussion guide) to book clubs, both in and outside of the library. Think of the convenience of not having to run all over town looking a copy of whatever book your club has assigned. Below is a list of the titles currently available, but if you’re interested in checking out a bag of books and they’re already reserved ask for other titles, we have dozens and dozens of great reads. Here is a list of our 2009 titles. Visit Omaha Public Library's BOOK GROUPIES page for more information.

Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly by Robert Dalby

The Cleanup by Sean Doolittle

Red Queen by Margaret Drabble

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Prairyerth by William Least Heat Moon

Clue for the Puzzle Lady by Parnell Hill (mystery)

Stranger House by Reginald Hill

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

Killing Mister Watson by Peter Matthiessen

The Lost Boy by David Pelzer

The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard (mystery)

Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier

The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Turk and My Mother by Mary Helen Stefaniak

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Book Tease - "Lottery" by Patricia Wood

"Patricia Wood asks readers to experience life in an unexpected, sometimes uncomfortable, often humorous way. The consistent voice and emotional logic of the first-person narration anchors readers securely in Perry's world, gently prodding them to reexamine intelligence, capability, and at what point money affects society's perceptions. Lottery simply reads like a real story about real people in the best possible way, leaving readers with a memorable character whose voice and world linger in one's imagination." -- The Miami Herald

Visit Reading Group Guides for more information on this wonderful book. I hope you'll read it and join our discussion on October 28 at Omaha Public Library's Florence Branch (444-5299).

Join Our Florence Branch Book Club

Florence branch is proud to be sponsoring a very active book club which was established years ago. Facilitated by Lillian Wunch, former manager of the Florence Branch Library, the club features a new read every month. The October read is Lottery by Patricia Wood. Anyone is welcome to join the discussion at any time. The club meets every fourth Wednesday of the month (except in November and December, so ask for the dates.) Just stop by the Florence Branch to get a copy of the book. Of course, you'll need to check it out with an Omaha Public Library card. If you don't have a card simply fill out an application and get one, they're free. We look forward to seeing you!

Proposing a New Kind of Book Club

WOMEN & FINANCE BOOK CLUB Financial literacy is the ability to understand finance. I am proposing to start a new and different kind of book club, in addition to Lillian's club (see previous post), that will feature money-themed books. I know, I know, who ever heard of a book club that reads only books about money and personal finance? Let's give it a try. Our first meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on October 20 and if there's enough interest we'll meet every third Tuesday. Let's read, learn more about money matters, and make friends too. I hope you'll join us.