The mission of the GVPC Book Club is "to read books with a Christian mindset, to discuss our insights, then apply spiritual lessons gleaned from the experience". The books may be a [secular] bestseller, an old favorite from literature past, a children's novel, fiction or non-fiction. Some titles may be overtly connected to growing our faith; some may be evangelism tools to reach out to others; some are fun-loving, some serious, but all worth reading and discussing. At this point our membership is all women. Men are welcome additions!
"We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate." (Henry Miller)
2010 Dates:
Tuesdays at 7:30-9:30
- January 19
- February 16
- March 16
- April 20
- May 18th MOVIE night
 "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
— C.S. Lewis
December Christmas Tea
(NO BOOK TO READ--all welcome!)
Tuesday, December 8th at 7:30
at the home of Kathy Anderson
Address: 1219 Waterford Road, West Chester, PA
Participants should bring ideas about "books as gifts" for any age reader--children through adult. You may bring the book to show or simply a list of titles to recommend. Also bring half dozen of a favorite Christmas treat to share. Call (610) 429-9276 or Kathy Stewart (610)738-4441 for further information
Books for 2010
January
MY LIFE IN FRANCE
By Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
In 1948, a gangly Californian with a preposterously fluty voice stomped into Paris on size 12 feet. Newly married and utterly clueless, she knew only a few words of French. She could not cook. But in a miraculous transformation, Julia Child would, over the next 15 years, become an authority on French cuisine, the principal author of the classic "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and, on returning to the United States, the much loved star of the long-running cooking show "The French Chef."
"My Life in France," written with Alex Prud'homme, is Child's exuberant, affectionate and boundlessly charming account of that transformation. It chronicles, in mouth-watering detail, the meals and the food markets that sparked her interest in French cooking, and her growing appreciation of all things French. It also tells the story of the inspired partnership between Child, who died in 2004, and her husband, Paul, a sensualist and cosmopolitan who cheered his wife on every step of the way, tasted all her experiments in the kitchen and imparted his considerable knowledge of French wine and culture. As Child puts it, with considerable understatement, "We were a good team."
Child had a lot to learn. She was methodical and rigorous, qualities that had stood her in good stead when she worked for the Office of Strategic Services during the war, and that would define her method in codifying French cuisine. "I could be overly emotional, but was lucky to have the kind of orderly mind that is good at categorizing things," she writes. Fun to read after seeing the recent movie Julie & Julia
February
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate—and not-so-articulate—neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident—including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation—and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life—as will readers. Apparently this title is about books and a book club.
March
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man who would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder “The central character of this marvelous book, Dr. Paul Farmer, is one of the most provocative, brilliant, funny, unsettling, endlessly energetic, irksome, and charming characters ever to spring to life on the page. He has embarked on an epic struggle that will take you from the halls of Harvard Medical School to a sun-scorched plateau in Haiti, from the slums of Peru to the cold gray prisons of Moscow. He wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it."
April TBD (check back here for updates)
May = Movie Night
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