The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

Summary from Amazon:

It's a story about Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories can, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.

Reviews:

From the NYTimes: "Writing in a Global Language": 

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/books/30coel.html?pagewanted=all

Interview with the author:

From the Islamic Monthly: http://theislamicmonthly.com/interview-with-paulo-coelho-best-selling-author-of-the-alchemist/

Oprah's interview: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2014/09/08/oprah-winfrey-interview/

Author's Blog: 

http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

Discussion Questions from Litlovers:

1. At the start of his journey, when Santiago asks a gypsy woman to interpret his dream about a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids, she asks for one tenth of the treasure in return. When Santiago asks the old man to show him the path to the treasure, the old man requests one tenth of his flock as "payment." Both payments represent a different price we have to pay to fulfill a dream; however, only one will yield a true result. Which payment represents false hope? Can you think of examples from your own life when you had to give up something to meet a goal and found the price too high?

2. Paulo Coelho once said that alchemy is all about pursuing our spiritual quest in the physical world as it was given to us. It is the art of transmuting the reality into something sacred, of mixing the sacred and the profane. With this in mind, can you define your Personal Legend? At what time in your life were you first able to act on it? What was your "beginner's luck"? Did anything prevent you from following it to conclusion? Having read The Alchemist, do you know what inner resources you need to continue the journey?

3. One of the first major diversions from Santiago's journey was the theft of his money in Tangiers, which forced him into taking a menial job with the crystal merchant. There, Santiago learned many lessons on everything from the art of business to the art of patience. Of all these, which lessons were the most crucial to the pursuit of his Personal Legend?

4. When he talked about the pilgrimage to Mecca, the crystal merchant argued that having a dream is more important than fulfilling it, which is what Santiago was trying to do. Do you agree with Santiago's rationale or crystal merchant's?

5. The Englishman, whom Santiago meets when he joins the caravan to the Egyptian pyramids, is searching for "a universal language, understood by everybody." What is that language? According to the Englishman, what are the parallels between reading and alchemy? How does the Englishman's search for the alchemist compares to Santiago's search for a treasure? How did the Englishman and Santiago feel about each other?

6. The alchemist tells Santiago "you don't have to understand the desert: all you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation." With this in mind, why do you think the alchemist chose to befriend Santiago, though he knew that the Englishman was the one looking for him? What is the meaning of two dead hawks and the falcon in the oasis? At one point the alchemist explains to Santiago the secret of successfully turning metal into gold. How does this process compare to finding a Personal Legend?

7. Why did Santiago have to go through the dangers of tribal wars on the outskirts of the oasis in order to reach the pyramids? At the very end of the journey, why did the alchemist leave Santiago alone to complete it?

8.Earlier in the story, the alchemist told Santiago "when you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed." At the end of the story, how did this simple lesson save Santiago's life? How did it lead him back to the treasure he was looking for?

(Questions issued by publisher.)

Caribbean by James Michener

Book Description from Good Reads:
In this acclaimed classic novel, James A. Michener sweeps readers off to the Caribbean, bringing to life the eternal allure and tumultuous history of this glittering string of islands. From the 1310 conquest of the Arawaks by cannibals to the decline of the Mayan empire, from Columbus’s arrival to buccaneer Henry Morgan’s notorious reign, from the bloody slave revolt on Haiti to the rise of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Caribbean packs seven hundred dramatic years into a tale teeming with revolution and romance, authentic characters and thunderous destinies. Through absorbing, magnificent prose, Michener captures the essence of the islands in all of their awe-inspiring scope and wonder.

NY Times Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/02/books/books-of-the-times-the-caribbean-as-lead-character-in-a-michener-novel.html

Interview with Michener:
http://articles.philly.com/1989-01-02/news/26122358_1_big-books-mari-michener-opera-book

Michener at Work Video while working on the book:
http://vimeo.com/68499106

Interview about his life:
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mic0int-1

Discussion Questions:
To Follow

The Slip by Katie Smith Matison

Summary from Amazon:

In 1920, the Byzantium sank off the coast of St. Thomas with its precious cargo of emeralds. Underwriters of Lloyd’s of London took ownership of the sunken hull and whatever emeralds might someday be salvaged. Nearly a century later, treasure recovery becomes big business. Salvage companies and bounty hunters comb the ocean floor for lost gems. As widow Brandy Blake soon finds out, treasure recovery isn’t just lucrative, it’s also dangerous.

When Brandy returns to her native New Orleans to rebuild her life after her husband dies while searching for Byzantium’s lost emerald’s, she realizes that he recovered more jewels than he every let on.  But Brandy isn’t the only one who knows about her husband’s stash. Recov, an unscrupulous salvage company, wants the emeralds, and the award money that comes with it.

Brandy’s daughter, Rene, become blackmail collateral, but Rene has an ally in Raleigh, an unusual squirrel. The unlikely twosome flee alligators, poisonous snakes and a sociopath in the Louisiana swamps while Brandy battles for her daughter’s safety and her husband’s hard won legacy.

Matison’s legal thriller, The Slip, takes the reader on a wild ride into the intriguing realm of modern day treasure hunting.

Kirkus Review:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/katie-smith-matison/slip-matison/

About the Author:

Katie Smith Matison is a Maritime attorney practicing in Seattle. She received her JD and an LLM in Admiralty from Tulane University in New Orleans. She has published numerous articles regarding maritime law in Lloyd’s of London Press, the Tulane Maritime Law Journal and the Journal of Transportation, Logistics and Policy. After working as a district attorney, she now focuses on maritime law, handling cases for the London insurance market and various insurers.

http://www.lanepowell.com/2407/katie-matison/

Discussion Questions from the author and book club leaders:

1. Discuss the backdrop of the book and settings – Virgin Islands, New Orleans, swamps, etc.

2.  Discuss the characters of the book:

a. Discuss the women and their relationships.

b. Her husband’s business partner was obviously a bad guy. What do you surmise about her husband? Discuss the different men, including Thad and Ewan.

c. Discuss the animal characters and their role in the story. (Raleigh, Kiki, Chloe)

d. Who was your favorite character and why?

3. Were you surprised that Brandy and Claude didn’t get together and what do you think happened?

4. What do you think Brandy should have done when she found the emeralds?

5. Do you think Brandy should have tried to settle the lawsuits earlier? Could that have avoided her daughter’s kidnapping?

6. What do you think about the swamp scenes with Raleigh and Rene?

7. What did you like most about the book? Least?

8. When did you make the connection between Raleigh and Gerald Morris?  See p 489. Did you feel that Raleigh finally achieved what Gerald could not do in life? 

9. What are your thoughts about reincarnation?

Inferno by Dan Brown

Summary: 

In his international blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown masterfully fused history, art, codes, and symbols. In this riveting new thriller, Brown returns to his element and has crafted his highest-stakes novel to date.

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces…Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust…before the world is irrevocably altered. (From the publisher.)

Illustrations that aid in understanding the book: 

http://www.templarinfernobookreview.com/dan_brown_inferno_illustrations.htm

Guide to Florence for the Inferno :

http://www.florenceinferno.com/category/inferno/

(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/14/article-2324338-19C5F819000005DC-883_634x430.jpg)

WHO Website:

http://www.who.int/en/

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Portrait_de_Dante.jpg)

Quote from the book:

“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who 

maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. 

- Bertrand Zobrist” 

Review by the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/books/inferno-by-dan-brown.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Review by The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/19/inferno-dan-brown-digested-read

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Michelino_DanteAndHisPoem.jpg)

Dan Brown's Website for the book: http://www.danbrown.com/inferno/

Dan Brown's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/DanBrown

Interview with Dan Brown with the Wall Street Journal:
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/05/14/dan-brown-reveals-the-secrets-of-inferno/

Interesting article: Dan Brown's "Inferno": Good Plot, Bad Science:
http://blogs.plos.org/dnascience/2014/01/09/dan-browns-inferno-good-plot-bad-science/

Copy of Dante's Divine Comedy from Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8800/8800-h/8800-h.htm

From Canto III

"All hope abandon ye who enter here."

Such characters in colour dim I mark'd
Over a portal's lofty arch inscrib'd:
Whereat I thus: "Master, these words import
Hard meaning."  He as one prepar'd replied:
"Here thou must all distrust behind thee leave;
Here be vile fear extinguish'd. We are come
Where I have told thee we shall see the souls
To misery doom'd, who intellectual good
Have lost."  And when his hand he had stretch'd forth
To mine, with pleasant looks, whence I was cheer'd,
Into that secret place he led me on.

Here sighs with lamentations and loud moans
Resounded through the air pierc'd by no star,
That e'en I wept at entering.  Various tongues,
Horrible languages, outcries of woe,
Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse,
With hands together smote that swell'd the sounds,
Made up a tumult, that for ever whirls
Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd,
Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies.

Discussion Questions from Litlovers:

1. You might begin a book discussion by providing some background on Dante's Divine Comedy—a review of the poem, as well as its historical influence on the development of art and literature.

2. Follow-up to #2: Before reading Dan Brown's thriller, how familiar, if at all, were you with the The Divine Comedy and its "Inferno" Cantica? Have you come away with a better understanding of the work? What are the ways in which the author uses Dante's great classic as a framework for his thriller?

3. Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks race to save the world from a crazed scientist who plans to unleash his solution to the world's overpopulation. To what extent, if any, do you (secretly) agree with the Bertrand Zobrist in his desire, if not his methods, to control overpopulation?

How do you feel about this statement by Brooks:

As a species, humans were like the rabbits that were introduced on certain Pacific islands and allowed to reproduce unchecked to the point that they decimated their ecosystem and finally went extinct.

To what extent is overpopulation a real-life global problem? You might do a bit of research on overpopulation and look at some of the countervailing predictions, suggesting that the global population will actually begin to collapse after 2050.

4. Talk about the real possibility of a worldwide epidemic. How plausible is the threat as portrayed Brown's book?

5. Talk about Transhumanism. What is it, and does it pose a boon—or a threat—to the future of humanity?

6. Follow-up to Question 5: At the end of the book WHO Director Elizabeth Sinskey says, "We’re on the verge of new technologies that we can’t yet even imagine.” Those technologies come with dangers but also with hope.

Sienna Brooks adds this about Transhumanism...

One of its fundamental tenets is that we as humans have a moral obligation to participate in our evolutionary process...to use our technologies to advance the species, to create better humans—healthier, stronger, with higher-functioning brains. Everything will soon be possible.

She then says...

If we don’t embrace [these tools], then we are as undeserving of life as the caveman who freezes to death because he’s afraid to start a fire.

What do you think?

7. Have you traveled to any of the three sites of the novel: Florence, Venice, or Istanbul? If so, how accurate is Brown's depiction of these cities? If you haven't been to Italy or Turkey, does the author bring the cities to life? Are they places you would like to visit?

8. Is this book a page-turner? Did you find yourself unable to put it down? If so, what makes it enthralling? If you didn't find Inferno an engaging read, what put you off the book?

9. Follow-up to Question 8: Brown uses a 4-part pattern for the episodes in his book: 1) Langdon is presented with a clue he must interpret, 2) he has a "eureka" moment, 3) he is pursued by villains who make a sudden appearance, and 4) he escapes after a hair-raising chase. Try going through the book to identify the pattern in various episodes.

10. What about the book's ending? Do you find it predictable ... surprising ... shocking ... frightening ... satisfying?

11. Have you read other Dan Brown thrillers? If so, how does this compare?

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Summary by Amazon:
"Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement."

Review by the NY Times, "Jaunted by their Nightmares", Margaret Atwood:
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/13/books/jaunted-by-their-nightmares.html

Interview with Toni Morrison in 2001: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulQLCc5m-_I

Interview with The Guardian in 2012: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/apr/13/toni-morrison-home-son-love

Inteview segment for Oprah's Life Class: http://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/Does-Your-Face-Light-Up-Video

Facebook Page for Toni Morrison: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialToniMorrisonAuthor

The Toni Morrison Society: http://www.tonimorrisonsociety.org/index.html

About the movie, Beloved, 1998: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120603/

Discussion Questions from LitLovers:

1. Consider the extent to which slavery dehumanizes individuals by stripping them of their identity, destroying their ability to conceive of the self. Consider, especially, Paul and how he can't determine whether screams he hears are his or someone else's. How do the other characters reflect self-alienation?

2. Discuss the different roles of the community in betraying and protecting the house at 124. What larger issue might Morrison be suggesting here about community.

3. What does Beloved's appearance represent? What about her behavior? Why does she finally disappear—what drives her departure? And why is the book's title named for her? 

4. Talk about the choice Sethe made regarding her children when schoolteacher arrives to take them all back to Sweet Home. Can her actions be justified—are her actions rational or irrational?

5. What does the narrator mean by the warning at the end: this is not a story to pass on." Is he right...or not.

Reading guide:
http://www.westga.edu/~mmcfar/Beloved%20Reader%20Guide.htm

Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage by Robert Michael Pyle

Summary from Amazon:
Although no one had ever followed North American monarch butterflies on their annual southward journey to Mexico and California, in the 1990s there were well-accepted assumptions about the nature and form of the migration. But to Robert Michael Pyle, a naturalist with long experience in monarch conservation, the received wisdom about the butterflies’ long journey just didn’t make sense. In the autumn of 1996 he set out to uncover the facts, to pursue the tide of “cinnamon sailors” on their long, mysterious flight.
Chasing Monarchs chronicles Pyle’s 9,000-mile journey to discover firsthand the secrets of the monarchs’ annual migration. Part road trip, part outdoor adventure, and part natural history study, Pyle’s book overturns old theories and provides insights both large and small regarding monarch butterflies, their biology, and their spectacular migratory travels. Since the book’s first publication, its controversial conclusions have been fully confirmed, and monarchs are better understood than ever before. The Afterword for this volume includes not only updated information on the myriad threats to monarch butterflies, but also various efforts under way to ensure the future of the world’s most amazing butterfly migration.

Review from Yale University Press: 
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/reviews.asp?isbn=9780300203875

Documentary: Tracking the Monarch Migration from Nova: 
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/monarch-migration.html

(http://wingedbeautydotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/zablowbutt_first60-13_lrge.jpg)

Robert Michael Pyle's Facebook Page: 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robert-Michael-Pyle/293832101900

Other Books by the author: 
http://www.villagebooks.com/event/robert-michael-pyle-5/10/14

Recent Reading at Penn State, September 4, 2014: 
http://psbehrend.psu.edu/news-events/events/september-4-robert-michael-pyle-reading

ID tools for Identifying Butterflies and Moths:
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/identification_tools

In the Washington State Magazine: Life Histories of the Butterflies of Cascadia:
http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php?id=980

Some mentioned Butterflies of the West Coast of US:
Woodland Skipper:

(http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/lepidopt/hesper/DSC_0557b.jpg)

Clouded Sulphur:

(http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/gallery_for_colorbox/species_images/Colias_philodice2.jpg)

Compton tortoiseshell: 

(http://www.thehibbitts.net/troy/photo/lepidoptera/compton.tortoiseshell.mn.cook.10.1a.jpg)

Becker's White: 

(http://bugguide.net/images/raw/6ZKL1Z8L1Z4L2Z5HZR5L9ZILAZ2HBH8H2ZZLNZEH9Z5LRR4HGZQL1ZEHFHXLGZ7LNZILLR8L9ZMLFH.jpg)

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   * 

Interview with Robert Michael Pyle: 
http://podcastcafe.org/radiofreefundi/files/Bob-Pyle-Butterfly-Big-Year.html

Discussion Questions to Follow:
1. What predators do monarchs encounter along their journey? See pp 35, 41, 48
2. What plants are similar to milkweed? See page 26.
3. When did migration actually start? Discuss the "Columbus Hypothesis", page 50.
4. Discuss other things that challenge monarchs along the route, including weather, difficult water crossings, etc. 
5. Discuss tagging of monarchs.
6. How have the changes in the landscape including damming effected migration patterns?
7. How did the author's theories about monarch migration influence research and lead to its confirmation?