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OCTOBER    All the Bright Places  by Jennifer Niven   Moderator, Nija Branca
                       Also from last June   My Favorite Thing is Monsters  by Emil Ferris
                                                         Moderator, Zach Johnson

NOVEMBER   Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood   Moderator, Susan Woodhams

DECEMBER    The Sherlockian by Graham Moore   Moderator, Brad Craddock

JANUARY         My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallant   Moderator, Shelley Davis

Please be sure to post a response on the blog if you do not attend a meeting if you would like credit for the meeting's 2 hours.


Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 29, 2017 at 9:53 AM

    The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

    I really enjoyed this historical fiction book with two mysteries from different time periods. I learned so much about the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle. First of all I didn't know he was close friends with Bram, who wrote Dracula and on a friendly basis with Oscar Wilde. I enjoyed reading about the bathtub brides murder, which was fictional, and how Arthur and Bram solved the murders. The fact that the murders were based on women, who were suffragettes, added a combination that I found enlightening. I enjoyed reading about women, within the movement, who disagreed on equal rights vs. just voting rights. Working from gaslight to electric light add another layer in the story of how things keep changing and how people adjust to those new changes. In regards to the Harold and Sarah story, I found it interesting how they became the newest version of Sherlock Holmes and Watson to solve the murder of a fellow Sherlockian, Cale. They followed Cale's footsteps from the hotel back to his home and office in London. Along the way they picked up new clues as to where the hidden diary of Arthur's maybe. At the end when Sarah left so abruptly, because Harold said the diary was burned, why did she continue to follow him? I thought that part was odd. Also, why did they destroy the diary? Arthur wanted people to know 100 years later what he and Bram had done. Did they destroy it because it hurt Arthur's reputation? What was the point in finding it? That really becomes the next mystery. Would they ever tell or would they take it to their graves?
    I would recommend this book to a HS student, who loves mysteries. Historical fiction is always fun to read because there is so much to learn. If used as a cross curricular book with health class, you could spend time discussing reputations, lies, deceit and how people react when they feel they've been deceived. How do friends build trust. What was the trust level with Arthur and Bram? vs. Harold and Sarah? Could Harold ever really trust Sarah? Did Bram ever regain the trust of Arthur after stealing the diary?

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