The Monday Night Book Club has made its selections for the 2015 reading list from the recommendations provided by the members. Again this year the selections include fiction and nonfiction, historical and non-historical novels. In January the group discussed Buffalo for the Broken Heart by Dan O’Brien who thrilled the readers with his descriptions of the highs and lows, the ups and downs of transforming his ranch into a buffalo haven. This is an excellent read even if you could not join the group for the discussion.
February’s selection takes the readers half way around the world from that buffalo ranch to explore The Hungry Tide by Amitay Ghosh. This historical novel is set in Calcutta and the multitude of islands in the Bay of Bengal as well as the vast mangrove forest known as the Sundarbans stretching from Bangladesh to India. In the Sundarbans, the hungry tides flow over 100 miles inland entirely covering huge mangrove forests which reappear hours later during ebb tide. In addition to providing the reader with a fascinating insight into this land of Bengal tigers, sharks, crocodiles and snakes, Amitay Ghosh describes the interaction of three people from different cultures – a young marine biologist, an illiterate fisherman and a businessman from Delhi. The reader is presented with a variety of issues including war, freedom, non-verbal communications, refugees, women trafficking and many more as the author explores the reasoning of people who live in a land constantly changing and forever at the mercy of the weather and the tides. The discussion of this novel is sure to be stimulating and provocative so join the group on Monday, February 2 at 7:00 p.m. in the Gold Room.