DATE December selection

"I'm trying to write the stories that haven't been written. I feel like a cartographer; I'm determined to fill a literary void." --Sandra Cisneros in an interview.


The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a collection of stories or prose poems with a single narrator.  Eleven-year-old Esperanza recounts the lives of her family and neighbors.

In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza speaks the yearning of Cisneros’s own childhood as well as of those—hispanic, black, poor, female, immigrant—who are least likely to have a voice in world.

Cisneros began writing the unwritten stories in response to a seminar during her time at University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop. Cisneros spoke about that time in a Publisher's Weekly interview:

"Everyone seemed to have some communal knowledge which I did not have--and then I realized that the metaphor of house was totally wrong for me. Suddenly I was homeless. There were no attics and cellars and crannies. I had no such house in my memories. As a child I had read of such things in books, and my family had promised such a house, but the best they could do was offer the miserable bungalow I was embarrassed with all my life. This caused me to question myself, to become defensive. What did I, Sandra Cisneros, know? What could I know? My classmates were from the best schools in the country. They had been bred as fine hothouse flowers. I was a yellow weed among the city's cracks."

"It was not until this moment when I separated myself, when I considered myself truly distinct, that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn't think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, whereas it had everything to do with it! My race, my gender, my class! That's when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn't write about."

This experience, instead of discouraging Cisneros’ creative ambitions, emboldened her writing and illuminated a place for her to enter the literary fray. In 1984, The House on Mango Street was published by Arte Publico Press of Houston and won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award in 1985. 

For Cisneros, a story is only a story if people want to hear it.  The House on  Mango Street's stories were based on oral storytelling. She constructed The House on Mango Street to be read in short bursts, in a form that did not require great tracts of time to absorb it. Her aim was to make it accessible to working people—to the people like the characters in the House on Mango Street. 

The novel uses its loose structure to explore the themes of individual identity and communal loyalty, estrangement and loss, escape and return, the lure of romance and the dead end of sexual inequality and oppression.


Cisneros is the author of four books of poetry: Loose Woman, My Wicked Wicked Ways, The Rodrigo Poems, and Bad Boys.  She has also written Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories and a bilingual children’s book, Hairs=Pelitos. She is a contributor to Emergency Tacos: Seven Poets con Picante, Days and Nights of Love and War, and Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia.  Her latest novel is Caramelo. An audio interview of Cisneros discussing Caramelo can be found here.


The House on Mango Street and other Cisneros’ other works are studied in schools and universities across the nation.

As Esperanza says at the end of The House on Mango Street:

“One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away.

They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.”

In keeping with her passion to provide a voice for the voiceless, Cisneros has founded the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation. The foundations offer writing workshops, residencies, and monetary awards to help further struggling writers’ efforts.

Both foundations offer writing workshops, residencies, and monetary awards to help further struggling writers’ efforts. The foundations’ collective mission and commitment is build community-building, to facilitate non-violent social change and serve underserved communities through writing.

BSI December selection

In All things, All at Once by Lee K. Abbott tries to live up to its title and doesn’t always hit the mark. Many of the stories are filled with main characters the reader never quite likes or tolerates: males cheating on wives and girlfriends; males whiskeyed up or wounded emotionally and spiritually from life, war or birth.

While the reaction to Abbott’s male characters may cause readers to feel the short story collection is uneven, the writing is good and solid. He creates a definite sense of place— mainly the Southwest, New Mexico—and time, whether the story takes place in the Sixties or now.

Likeable or not, most of Abbott’s characters feel real with their tendency to ramble, wheedle, talk and talk and talk. They talk about their fears of going crazy as in "The Way Sin is Said in Wonderland" ; about visits from extraterrestrials as in "The Talk Talked Between Worms"; about visitations from angels as in "The Human Use of Inhuman Beings"; and of course about women as in "Ninety Nights on Mercury".

Some of the short stories are connected, sharing characters, place or events freely as does real life with real people. These interconnected stories are the gems of All Things such as "The Human Use of Inhuman Beings" and "The Way Sin is Said in Wonderland". The stand-alone stories, "Dreams of Distant Lives" and "Gravity", also gleam with the characters' hard won strength and the excellence of Abbott’s creation.

Lee K. Abbott currently teaches creative writing at Ohio State University  in Columbus, Ohio. He has written six other books of short stories: The Heart Never Fits Its Wanting: Stories (1980), Love is the Crooked Thing (1986), Strangers in Paradise (1986), Dreams of Distant Lives (1990), Living After Midnight (1991), and Wet Places at Noon (1997).

Reviews of Abbott ‘s work and interviews with him appear here, here and here.

His work has often appeared in The Best American Short Stories and in publications such as Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, The Southern Review and The North American Review.

Ultimately Abbott’s stories are, as Williams Giraldi describes, “an orgy of style, one that performs the magic trick of being at once inebriated and exact—his narrators akin to world-class drinkers who can down a fifth of Jim Beam and still stand straight".

DATE November selection

Suspend your ideas about what makes a novel.

Heredity of Taste by Natsume Soseki is mythology and the personal musings of its narrator, which easily feels like the author's unadorned voice.

Soseki’s first and only anti-war novel opens with the mythological grandeur of a Wagnerian opera, then immediately recounts the human cost and aftermath of soldier Kosan’s death in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, narrated by Kosan’s unnamed friend.

Heredity of Taste is split into two parts. After a prologue of gods meddling into earthly affairs, Soseki presents an elegiac rumination on Kosan’s death and the victorious homecoming of his fellow soldiers at the central train station in Tokyo juxtaposed against the might-have-beens of Kosan’s life and an unknown young beauty encountered grieving at his grave.

The second section offers a somewhat hard-to-follow but fascinating dip into historical Japanese social hierarchy, western psychology, karma, ancestors and a dash of a detective-mystery story as the narrator tries to uncover the young woman’s identity.

One key to understanding Heredity is to substitute “attraction” for ‘taste” in its title. Another aid to understanding Heredity is the excellent introduction in the Tuttle Classics edition written by Stephen W. Kohl, Associate Professor at the University of Oregon. Kohl provides both historical and author context for Heredity’s setting and themes.

A fuller analytical discussion of Heredity of Taste can be found here.

Natsume Soseki is the pen name of Natsume Kinnosuke. Soseki, Japan’s Charles Dickens, is considered the foremost novelist of the Meiji period, which lasted from 1868 to 1912. He was pictured on the Japanese ¥1000 note from1984 to 2004.

Soseki’s most famous works Kokoro and Botchan are available online full-text and in English. Many of his works dealt with individual or personal desires versus group responsibilities and ties.

Although written in 1906, Heredity of Taste has a modern experimental feel. It proffers a microcosm of Japanese national character and gives a glimpse of a country on the cusp of melding the past with the future.

BSI November selection

October Light by John Gardner is not a light, easy read.

On the surface the novel centers on feuding geriatric siblings, James Paige and Sally Abbott. Younger brother James allows his down-on-her-luck widowed sister Sally to live with him, but after butting heads over politics and the morality of television, locks her in a room with a book.

Gardner uses October Light (and the novel-within-the-novel), set during the bicentennial, to comment about liberal and conservative American politics, racial bias and gender inequity as well as America’s past and future.

The novel is by turns ridiculous, laugh-aloud funny, intriguing, boring, genius and obscure--which is exactly how many critics and readers described its author, John Gardner (not to be confused with the British thriller writer, John Gardner). [Discussion questions can be found here.]

Once known as a sarcastic bad boy of literary criticism, Gardner is best known for his books On Moral Fiction and Grendel, a retelling of Beowulf from the monster’s perspective.

October Light won the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award. Currently the National Book Critics Circle, a non-profit organization, consists of more than 900 active book reviewers who are interested in honoring quality writing and communicating with one another about common concerns.

Gardner spoke of his critique on the literary establishment (and their response) in On Moral Fiction in an interview with Don Swain and Gil Gross for Wired for Books little more than a year before his accidental death.

While it is difficult to truly recommend October Light, there are gems of excellent writing and great wit to be found in its pages. Gardner’s use of James and Sally’s intestinal complaints to symbolically illustrate the differences between liberal and conservative political thought as well as the laugh-out-loud first meeting of Father Hernandez and Sally through the bedroom door is worth the price of October Light’s numerous rambling passages.

B.S.I. October selection

Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam is a dream -- and a nightmare -- of a novel. Set in the fictional northern England town of Dasht-e-Tanhaii (Desert of Loneliness), it centers around the disappearance, and its aftermath, of two Pakistani lovers, Jugnu and Chanda. The two lovers do not make an appearance in the novel, except in the hearsay and remembrances of family members and neighbors.

Aslam immerses the reader in the vivacity of life; food, clothing, and sensuality all follow the cycles and rhythms of the seasons. Maps covers a broad spectrum of topics: racism, lepidoptery, honor killings, poetry, Pakistani culture, the travails of legal and illegal immigration and the religious tensions between Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Christian. Yet, somehow in Maps, Aslam never lets the reader forget the beauty of the natural world and the redemption of love:

“Islam said that in order not to be unworthy of being, only one thing was required: love. And, said the True Faith, it did not even begin with humans and animals: even the trees were in love.”

However, Aslam does not gloss over the evil of life. He makes his characters human, yet reveals the brutality that such humanity is capable of. He deals with subjects like religious fundamentalism and honor killings head-on to give the reader a small glimpse of how these things affect not only that specific community but the global community. He shows how honor killings  and the threat of such a thing are not just something that happens in foreign countries.

Near the end of Maps, Aslam states the novel’s worldview:

“Nothing is an accident: it’s always someone’s fault; perhaps—but no one teaches us how to live with our mistakes. Everyone is isolated, alone with his or her anguish and guilt, and too penetrating a question can mean people are not able to face one another the next day.” Although tragedy abounds in this novel, the characters, and we the readers, are not left comfortless.

Maps serves a literary Book of Fates--“the book into which, once a year, the angels write down the destiny of every human being for the next twelve months: who’ll live, who’ll die, who’ll lose happiness, who’ll find love”--for his characters.

Aslam has written two other books: Season of the Rainbirds (1993) and The Wasted Vigil (2008).  Maps for Lost Lovers has won the Encore Award 2005 and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize 2005.

For a critical view of Aslam’s work, read Dr. James Procter’s analysis of his work and career at the British Council Contemporary Authors website. A reading guide for Maps for Lost Lovers can be found here.

Other related reads:

Kamila Shamsie's Salt and Saffron and Kartography cover similar territory--Pakistani culture and the religious/cultural antagonism between India and Pakistan.

D.A.T.E. October selection

What do Nietzsche, coffee table books, the Brethren of Misericordia, and obsessions have in common?

They all figure significantly in Michael Collins' Death of a Writer. Collins’ novel does not color within the lines. It is all over the place—stuffed with mystery, psychological study, character studies, art and philosophical meditations.

But caveat lector—reader beware—some parts of the novel are quite gritty. However, no more that what is called for considering the nature of the murders involved and their subsequent investigations.

Collins uncovers a fragile and sometimes sordid humanity in his characters and, by extension, us his readers.

Besides Death of a Writer, Collins has written eight books, which include a collection of short stories, a satirical meditation on Ireland’s national character and the screenplay for the movie Julia. His writing has garnered high literary attention and prestigious awards such as the 1993 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, the 2002 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the shortlist for the 2000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Collins is also an ultra-runner and marathoner.

There are no book discussion questions specifically available for Death of a Writer. However, general book discussion questions can be found here and here.

How do I get a copy of a book club title?

All book group selections are available, while supplies last, for $2 at the following locations:

Books Sandwiched In
Lakeland Public Library, Main Library   100 Lake Morton Drive  863-834-4280
Discussions at the E
eLibrary South Lakeland     4740 South Florida Avenue   863-838-4507

Check our online catalog for book group titles located at the public libraries in the Polk County Library Cooperative. Selections may be available in hardcover, paperback, large print, audio CD, downloadable e-audiobook and Playaway.

Classic titles may be available at Project Gutenberg  in ebook  and audiobook  formats. Project Gutenberg's nearly 100,000 volume collection is produced by thousands of volunteers.

Books for both book clubs are underwritten by the Lakeland Public Library Friends of the Library.

Discussions at the E September Selection

Discussions at the E’s September selection, Gatsby’s Girl by Caroline Preston, gives the reader an unique view of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is generally studied through his own writings, through his contemporaries or even his tormented but talented wife, Zelda. However Gatsby’s Girl is told through the voice of Ginevra Perry, who is based on Fitzgerald’s first love, Ginevra King.

F. Scott Fitzgerald based several characters on King:  Daisy Buchanan from the Great Gatsby,  Isabelle Borge in This Side of Paradise, Marjorie Harvey in "Bernice Bobs Her Hair",  Judy Jones in "Winter Dreams" and a series of stories, in the early 1930s, about a spoiled Lake Forest (Illinois) girl named Josephine Perry.

Gatsby's Girl follows the 16-year-old character Ginevra Perry from her first meeting with F. Scott Fitzgerald, through their doomed brief courtship and the end of their lives. Author Caroline Preston excels at presenting a sympathetic view of a less than sympathetic main character.

Discussion questions and an interview with Caroline Preston is found at the Houghton Mifflin website.

Books Sandwiched In September selection

Welcome to Lakeland Public Library’s Book Groups Blog and our inaugural entry. 

Books Sandwiched In discussion group

The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro is the September selection for Books Sandwiched In. Castle Rock is a hybrid; it is both nonfiction and fiction, yet neither. Munro calls it “a book of stories”, which is based on her ancestors’ lives in Scotland and later in Canada. She brings the stories to a close with vignettes of her own life story. 
 
Canadian Alice Munro is considered a master of the short story genre. She received the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for Castle Rock and her catalog of work. Her latest work, Too Much Happiness, was published this year. 

Read Jane Smiley’s explanation of why Munro was chosen to receive the Man Booker International Prize here. 

Read Alice Munro’s acceptance speech here. 

 The View from Castle Rock has a slow beginning but picks up speed and life as Munro moves closer in time to the present. Castle Rock initially appeals to genealogists, history buffs and lovers of Munro’s work. However with a little perseverance past the first 50 pages, the mastery Munro is hailed for comes to light.

 Book discussion questions and a book excerpt can be found at the Random House website.