The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy

I've got a good read for you and your book club. 

Sarah McCoy has written a wonderful new book called The Baker's Daughter, set in two different time periods: the first in Nazi Germany in 1944 and the other in El Paso, Texas in 2007. The title refers to the book's heroine, Elsie Schmidt, a young baker's daughter from a small town in Germany. 

The Baker's Daughter has received blurbs from Tatiana de Rosnay (author of Sarah's Key) and Jenna Blum (Those Who Save Us) -- both of which have been hugely popular with area book clubs.

The title character from The Baker's Daughter is only 17 years old, and she's caught in the middle of the tensions in wartime Germany. Although Elsie has accepted an engagement ring from a Nazi lieutenant, she's not sure how she feels about him. She witnesses a tragic event with a small Jewish boy on Christmas Eve, and makes a brave choice that threatens the safety of her entire family.

Sixty years later, a young female journalist named Reba Adams is assigned to interview Elise, who by then is the elderly owner of Elsie's German Bakery in El Paso, Texas. Reba is faced with a complicated past of her own, along with difficult choices for her future, and finds she just can't stay away from Elsie's inviting bakery. The baking is just so good.

The Baker's Daughter includes a fascinating side story about the Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany, in which "racially pure" German women were encouraged to sleep with SS officers in order to create what the Nazis thought would be a perfect Aryan race. The children born to the Lebensborn mothers were then raised in a special nursery sponsored by the Nazi regime. Elsie's sister has been invited to participate in this program, and at first the family views it as something of an honor. Only later do they come to understand the true horror of the plan.

Sarah McCoy writes with a gentle hand as she imagines the tragedy of life in a small German town during the Nazi's reign of terror. Sarah McCoy finds a way to honor the lives and choices of the everyday Germans who did their best with what they had, sometimes risking everything to do the right thing. At the same time, the storyline set in modern-day Texas makes us realize that the issues of racism and exclusion are still a factor in current immigration debates. I think this book has all the makings for a very thoughtful book club discussion.

And not to be missed? The mouth-watering recipes at the back of the book from "Elsie's German Bakery" -- a sure-fire hit with the book club.

Highly recommended! Available now in hardcover or as an e-book from The Bookstore's website. Our e-books are compatible with every e-reading device except the Kindle, a proprietary device made by Amazon.

Book Club Night at The Bookstore

We had a great turnout of dedicated book club reps at our 11th Annual Book Club Night on Tuesday, March 1st. If you couldn't make it, below is a list of each bookseller's recommendations as well as the books that were chosen as the "Best Discussion Book of 2010" by local book clubs.

Here is a photo of Jenny discussing one of her faves, Paul Auster's Sunset Park. This was after the crowd gave her a big round of applause for being the Chicago Tribune's Indie Bookseller Cover Girl on February 26th!

Jane's Picks:

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

The Passage by Justin Cronin

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse

Global Soccer Mom by Shayne Moore*

*Jane was totally inspired by Shayne's book launch last week, and wants us all to join Shayne's mission to go out and get things done!

Jenny's Picks:

Sunset Park by Paul Aster

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard*

Caribou Island by David Vann

Father of the Rain by Lily King

Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett

A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein

The Surrendered by Chang Rae Lee

*Jenny freely admits she totally stole this one from Margie, but Jenny gave it such a great blurb ("this could be set in Glen Ellyn") all Margie had to do was give her the thumb's up from the back of the room.

Sue's Picks:

Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier*

All Is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost by Lan Samantha Chang

Let's Take The Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Memory Wall: Stories by Anthony Doerr

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Elegies for the Brokenhearted by Christie Hodgen

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

*Sue's already announcing this might be her favorite book of 2011. And it's only March!

Margie's Picks:

Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran

A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka*

*We are very excited to announce that Brigid Pasulka will be appearing at the Second Annual Downtown Glen Ellyn Bookfest on June 18, 2011. We're encouraging our book clubs to read this terrific book in advance and come to our Featured Author Luncheon ready to chat.

Book Clubs' Own Best Discussion Books of 2010:

Still Alice by Lisa Genova (3 book clubs agreed)

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Cutting for Stone by Adam Verghese

Look Me In The Eye by John Robison

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Shafer & Burrows

Beneath the Marble Sky by John Shorts

Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

What Our Bookshelves Reveal About Us: Thoughts About "Important Artifacts . . ." by Leanne Shapton

I just finished a terrific new book. It's strange and wonderfully creative, a Regarding the Fountain for grown-ups. You'll have to see it to know what I mean. It's a story told through "the stuff" of a couple in New York who met at a Halloween party (dressed as Harry Houdini and Lizzy Borden), and then fell in and out of love. It's called Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry. You have to piece together their love story from items in an auction catalog, including books, knick-knacks, photos, postcards, CD mixes and love notes. It's seductively voyeuristic.

I could see reading this for a really personal book club meeting, where everybody brings a small bag of "stuff" to tell a story in their life. Actually, I think one of my kids had to do this for school at St. Pet's, a teacher's get-to-know-you-show-and-tell activity. I have a vague recollection of golf balls, Pokeman cards, a sea otter beanie baby and an all-star baseball hat. (Hopefully, your bag would be a little more revealing. But then again, I'd be impressed if you really did have an all-star baseball hat!)

Of course, being a bookseller, I was drawn to the books in the fictional auction Important Artifacts catalog. I found myself snooping through their titles, noticing who bought it, what the notation was, and what the books implied about the couple's story. (Virginia Woolf, Alice Munro, self-help, erotica, cooking, poetry, . . .) Sometimes there were personal notes left inside, so personal that you felt guilty reading them. You forget it's fiction. There was a collection of duplicate paperbacks, and I couldn't help but wonder, whose were they? His and hers? How romantic! (Sadly, two copies of "The End of the Affair," one bought in 2004.) You see what I mean? It sucks you in.

It made me wonder, what would someone else think my books say about me? There's always something wonderfully revealing, sometimes misleading, about a person's bookshelves. But the problem is, I've had to cull my bookshelves many times over the years (very reluctantly, sometimes under duress) and I no longer have every single book that was significant in my life. So I came up with a kind of autobiography in books, at least some of which is pictured below. What books would tell your life story?

Paperback Writer (the Beatles)

The Beatles Wanted You To Know We Have Some Great Paperback Writers at The Bookstore!

(A special shout out to the book club gals who love Paul - was he great at the Grammys or what?)

The folks at The Bookstore have been marvelling lately how many of our favorite books of 2008 have recently come out in paperback. Great titles at a recession-beating price, including: A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, Matrimony by Joshua Henkin, and Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. Every single one of these would make a great book club choice!

To find out more about any of these great paperbacks, or any other book club choices, stop in The Bookstore for a fun chat, call us at (630) 469-2891, or send us an e-mail at justbook475@yahoo.com.

Electronic ordering is also available on our website at http://www.justthebookstore.com/. Just search by title, author or key word, link to the review, and press the order button. If it's a book club order, make sure you mention your 10% discount! You can use a credit card on the secure website, or pay at pick-up. Shipping is available too.

Let us know in the comments below if your book club has read any of these recommendations yet, and if so, what you thought.

Don't forget to send a representative to our 9th Annual Book Group wine and Cheese Party on Thursday, February 19th from 7:30-9pm.