The book for this month is called A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
I chose this book because a good friend gave it to me in college with high recommendation. I have heard so many people say it's a wonderful classic and they really enjoy it.
Since this month is such a busy time, I'd be willing to say we could stretch this book out over Dec and Jan if you girls want to!
Here are 2 little reviews that I found online if you're interested:
Betty Smith's first novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, became immediately popular when it was published in 1943. The book sold 300,000 copies in the first six weeks after it was published. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is now considered an essential part of American literature. As an indispensable classic, Smith's book appears on reading lists across the country. It has profoundly influenced readers from all walks of life--young and old alike. The New York Public Library even chose the book as one of the "Books of the Century."
The book follows Francie, her two siblings, her mother Katie and her sisters, and her drunken singing waiter father Johnny Nolan from before their birth till 1918 and the First World War. The book opens with Francie at eleven years old, and we get a sumptuous introduction to her world- the neighborhood she lives in, the children she knows, the dying man who is a neighbor, her wacky extended family, and the shops and shopkeeps that inhabit it. Francie is what would now be called a gifted child and her desire for wordplay evidences itself early on. Later in the book she will show insights into things beyond her years- a preference for factory work over office work to not stifle her creativity, her recognition of a grade school teacher’s, Miss Garnder’s utter lack of understanding of what constitutes good writing - in a prescient precursory glance at what later became known as Political Correctness.
kaufman
