Week 2

Lunatics

 by Dave Barry and Alen Zweibel

Lunatics is a funny, fast paced, satirical look at what happens when two “soccer dads” with completely different outlooks on the world collide.  The story is told in their alternating voices: Horkman, a down to earth idealist and Peckerman, convinced the world is populated with only “as#*%”, except of course himself.  What begins as one unfortunate, although not uncommon, incident at a children’s soccer game, blossoms into a madcap race around the world – together – working to stay ahead of disaster.  They wind up in the midst of major events in many of the world’s political hot spots and are the centerpiece of all sorts of unwanted attention.        

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

By Maya Angelou

Although All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes is the fifth volume of Angelou’s autobiographical series, it can be thoroughly enjoyed as a standalone.  It begins when she is 33 years old and chronicles her time spent in recently independent Ghana.  The narrative eloquently discusses the complexities of being a black American in Africa in the early 1960s as well as a mother of a college age son, also in Ghana.  She deftly describes her emotions and surroundings which allow the reader to understand and appreciate her perspective and get a feeling for the places she spends time.  

Nineteen Minutes

By Jodi Picoult

The story takes place in small town U.S.A.; the title referring to the nineteen minutes it took for a high school shooting to change lives forever.  It begins with the shooting, then, as the aftermath unfolds, takes an in depth look back at the characters’ lives leading up to the fateful day.  This allows the reader to glimpse life from a variety of perspectives that leaves them thinking.  The language is clear and the story moves at a good pace.