The AWF Reads Program, Current Book's

Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is the magnificent story of four generations in the life of an American family.  A wheelchair-bound retired historian embarks on a monumental quest:  to come to know his grandparents, now long dead.  The unfolding drama of the story of the American West sets the tone for Stegner's masterpiece.

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A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, The Yellow Birds is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive.
"The war tried to kill us in the spring."  So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city.  Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for.

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At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything.  In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed.  Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life:  to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone.  She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.”  But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.

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Ha Jin’s masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps during the Korean War.  In 1951 Yu Yuan, a scholarly and self-effacing clerical officer in Mao’s “volunteer” army, is taken prisoner south of the 38th Parallel.  Because he speaks English, he soon becomes an intermediary between his compatriots and their American captors.  With Yuan as guide, we are ushered into the secret world behind the barbed wire, a world where kindness alternates with blinding cruelty and one has infinitely more to fear from one’s fellow prisoners than from the guards.

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In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, an “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime.  The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s written a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men.  As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on the fan and compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.  Together they endure the agony of footbinding and reflect upon their arranged marriages, their loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood.  The two find solace in their friendship, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive.  But when a misunderstanding arises, their relationship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

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This intense novel follows Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, as he contends with a past he never thought much about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance:  one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present.  Tony thought he left this all behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own.  But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

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On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary.  Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River.  Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge.  Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior.  Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

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In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton-the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families-feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities.  He at last discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat.  Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island, and in return Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido.  But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. When the Japanese savagely invade Malaya, Philip realizes that his mentor and sensei-to whom he owes absolute loyalty-is a Japanese spy.  Young Philip has been an unwitting traitor, and must now work in secret to save as many lives as possible, even as his own family is brought to its knees.

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Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis.  But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

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Carol Bayley is a member of the Board of Directors for the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, Aspen Community Theatre, and the Kessler Condominium Association.  She is currently the producer for AWF Reads, the chairperson for the Rocky Mountain Book Club, a member/moderator for Sharing Shakespeare and Great Books at the Aspen Institute and the editor for the book club website www.aspenwriters.org.  Since retiring to Aspen in 1991, Carol has taught computer courses at CMC, worked at Explore Booksellers and Pitkin County Library and provided pro bono computer services for a number of non-profits in the Roaring Valley.  Prior to her retirement she was a Vice President with profit and loss responsibility for a large computer company.

Book lovers tune in! Bestsellers, debut novels, book club favorites, and award winners are the discussion du jour on AWF Reads, the Aspen Writers’ Foundation’s community book club on Grassroots TV.  Join our panels of local literary enthusiasts as they read between the lines of new and notable books during the rotating series of half-hour shows.

Click here to go to AWF Reads website.