We had an interesting discussion tonight and welcomed a new visitor, Renee, who recently moved here from Madison. We hope you come back to enjoy future discussions as an Oasis Reader, Renee!
We have other exciting news. Mary Jo Balistreri's newly released book of poems, Gathering the Harvest, will
be featured on the radio! To hear Mary Jo's interview with Stephanie
Lecci on "Lake Effect," tune into WUWM, 89.7 FM, on Thursday, December
20, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. Congratulations Mary Jo! We can't wait to hear
you on the radio!
Our next book is The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal. We will meet on Wednesday, January 9, 2013, 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at Martha Merrell's/Cuddles. Would anyone like to lead the discussion?
Here is a book description:
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance (2010); Nonfiction; 354 pages; 4.3/5 stars on Amazon.com; one
copy at WPL; seven copies in Café system; available in paperback for 15% off at Martha Merrell's/Cuddles.
Book Description: An
Economist Book of the Year. Costa Book Award Winner for Biography. Galaxy
National Book Award Winner (New Writer of the Year Award) Edmund de Waal is a
world-famous ceramicist. Having spent thirty years making beautiful pots—which
are then sold, collected, and handed on—he has a particular sense of the secret
lives of objects. When he inherited a collection of 264 tiny Japanese wood and
ivory carvings, called netsuke, he wanted to know who had touched and held
them, and how the collection had managed to survive. And so begins this
extraordinarily moving memoir and detective story as de Waal discovers both the
story of the netsuke and of his family, the Ephrussis, over five generations. A
nineteenth-century banking dynasty in Paris and Vienna, the Ephrussis were as
rich and respected as the Rothchilds. Yet by the end of the World War II, when
the netsuke were hidden from the Nazis in Vienna, this collection of very small
carvings was all that remained of their vast empire. http://www.amazon.com/Hare-
There is a reading group guide with discussion questions, a one-minute author interview and another 3.5 minute video where de Waal shows and talks about the netsuke carvings. They are fascinating!
Edmund de Waal's official website is at: http://www.edmunddewaal.
It is comprehensive and it has another author interview and and discussion questions.
Here is an intriguing four-minute film by Dapper Films, where potter Edmund de Waal creates pots for his new exhibition, "A Thousand Hours." http://www.telegraph.
Looking forward to discussing this intriguing book!
