CAM Book Club
The Book Club meets monthly to discuss books related to the current exhibition.
Admission is free for CAM Museum Members and a $3 suggested donation for non-members 
Thursday, June 20
When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe 6 pm About the Book: Once in a great while comes a storyteller who can illuminate worlds large and small, magical and true to life. When the Elephants Dance introduces us to the incandescent voice of Tess Uriza Holthe, who sets her remarkable first novel in the waning days of World War II, as the Japanese and the Americans engage in a fierce battle for possession of the Philippine Islands. The Karangalan family and their neighbors huddle for survival in the cellar of a house a few miles from Manila. Outside the safety of their little refuge the war rages on---fiery bombs torch the beautiful Filipino countryside, Japanese soldiers round up and interrogate innocent people, and from the hills guerillas wage a desperate campaign against the enemy. Inside the cellar, these men, women, and children put their hopes and dreams on hold as they wait out the war, only emerging to look for food, water, and medicine. Through the eyes of three narrators, thirteen-year-old Alejandro Karangalan, his spirited older sister Isabelle, and Domingo, a passionate guerilla commander, we see how ordinary people must learn to live in the midst of extraordinary uncertainty, how they must find hope for survival where none seems to exist. They find this hope in the dramatic history of the Philippine Islands and the passion and bravery of its people. Crowded together in the cellar, the Karangalans and their friends and neighbors tell magical stories to one another based on Filipino myth and legend to fuel their courage, pass the time, and teach important lessons. The group is held spellbound by these stories, which feature a dazzling array of ghosts, witches, supernatural creatures, and courageous Filipinos who changed the course of history with their actions. These profoundly moving stories transport the listeners from the chaos of the war around them and give them new resolve to fight on. With When the Elephants Dance Holthe has not only written a gripping narrative of how Alejandro, Isabelle, Domingo and their community fight for survival, but a loving tribute to the magical realism that infuses Filipino culture. The stories shared by her characters are based on the same tales handed down to Holthe from her Filipino father and lola, her grandmother. This stunning debut novel is the first to celebrate in such richness and depth the spirit of the Filipino people and their fascinating story and marks the introduction of a talented new author who will join the ranks of writers such as Arundhati Roy, Manil Suri, and Amy Tan. Upcoming
Thursday, July 18 - Bright and Distant Shores by Dominic Smith Thursday, August 15- The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson |
A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others." Abraham Lincoln PAST SELECTIONS
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru Luminarium by Alex Shakar The Collective by Don Lee A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katerine Boo A Good American by Loren George The End of the Line by Charles Clover Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald The Glass Room by Simon Mawer The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell Creeker by Linda Scott DeRosie Little Princes by Conor Grennan Little Bee by Chris Cleave Bel Canto by Anne Pachett The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb When the Killing's Done by T.C. Boyle The Shanghai Girls by Lisa See The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin Unveiling A Novel by Suzanne Wolfe The White Tiger by Aravid Adiga The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen Gilead by Marilynne Robinson The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson The Book of Salt by Monique Truong The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger The Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman A Room of One's Own by Virgina Woolf The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver Blue Ride by Ken Wilkerson Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins The Lost City of Z by David Grann The Lake the River and the Other Lake by Steve Amick Journey to Bom Goody Karen Heuler Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins Chasing Hepburn by Gus Lee Peeping Tom Tom Girl by Marisela Norte The House of Mondavi by Julie Flynn Steir Loving Frank by Nancy Horan Caught Inside by Daniel Duane The Sea by John Banville The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd Once Upon a Day by Lisa Tucker Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen That's the Way I See it by David Hockney In Search of Our Mother's Garden by Alice Walker The Art Thief by Noah Charney Pattern Recognition by William Gibson Seek my Face by John Updike The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams Freedom in Exhile Autobiography of The Dalai Lama Return to Tibet by Heinrich Harrer Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer Red Water by Judith Freeman Self Made Man by Nora Vincent The Years With Laura Diaz by Carlos Fuentes Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo |
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