Men’s Book Group, The Ardens, Delaware

(a.k.a. The Fur Trappers Gild)

We meet on the 2nd Monday of most months to discuss books, fast women, faster cars, hunting with bare teeth, the meaning of life, and the value of authenticity. Selections are often fierce white-knuckle fiction, chosen by those who have actually read the books they pick. Food and drink are often inspired by the books selected. To learn more, contact Danny Schweers.

Books we have read or will read:

2023

August: summer hiatus
July: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (Carl)
June: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Pat)
May: Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (Allan)
April: The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy (Jerry)
March: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Danny)
February: Horse by Geraldine Brooks (Alton)
January: The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer (Scott)

2022

December: Holiday hiatus
November: Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen (Hugh)
October: City of Thieves by David Benioff (Neil)
September: Deacon King Kong by James McBride (Jimmie B.)
August: Blue Latitudes by Tony Horowitz (Jim S.)
July: summer hiatus
June: The Overstory by Richard Powers (Carl)
May: Plugged by Eoin Colfer (Allan)
April: The Cask by Freeman Wills Crofts (Pat)
March: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Jerry)
February: Act One: An Autobiography by Moss Hart (Danny)
January: Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith (Alton)

2021

December: holiday hiatus
November: Typee by Herman Melville (Hugh)
October: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Neil)
September: The Man in the High Tower by Philip K. Dick (Jimmy)
August: summer hiatus
July: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (Allan)
June: The Deep Blue Goodbye by John D. McDonald and Sanibel Flats by Randy Wayne White (Jim S.)
May: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Carl)
April: Snow in August by Pete Hamil (Pat T.)
March: Murder on Brittany Shores by Jean-Luc Bannalec (Danny)
February: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See (Alton)
January: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (Hugh)

2020

December: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Pat T.)
November: A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay (Jimmy B.)
October: Dalva by Jim Harrison (Allan)
September: Presumed Innocent by Scott Thurow (Jim S.)
August: Mickey Mantle’s Last Home Run by Steven Falco (Carl)
July: Children of the Sky by Gordon Hesse (Gordon)
June: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (Gordon)
May: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (Danny)
April: discussion of how to meet during a pandemic
March: Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (Pat T.)
February: Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowery (Jimmy B.)
January: Neutron Star by Larry Niven (Hugh)

2019

December: holiday hiatus
November: Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang 368 pages (Jim S.)
October: The Rieur Chronicles by Allan Kleban (a short Novella, maybe 40,000 words, a trifle of pages, about 150 double spaced)
and/or The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel 368 pages (Allan) — In the latter, in Lisbon in 1904, a young man named Tomás discovers an old journal. It hints at the existence of an extraordinary artifact that—if he can find it—would redefine history. Traveling in one of Europe’s earliest automobiles, he sets out in search of this strange treasure.
September: Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck 336 pages (Jerry) — The final novel of one of America’s most beloved writers—a tale of degeneration, corruption, and spiritual crisis. In awarding John Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee stated that with The Winter of Our Discontent, he had “resumed his position as an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American.”
August: summer hiatus
July: The Painter of Signs by R.K. Naranyan, 153 pages (Hugh) — For Raman the sign painter, life is a familiar and satisfying routine. A man of simple, rational ways, he lives with his pious aunt and prides himself on his creative work. But all that changes when he meets Daisy, a thrillingly independent young woman who wishes to bring birth control to the area. Hired to create signs for her clinics, Raman finds himself smitten by a love he cannot understand, much less avoid-and soon realizes that life isn’t so routine anymore. Set in R. K. Narayan’s fictional city of Malgudi, The Painter of Signs is a wry, bittersweet treasure.
June: Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong (Alton) — 544 pages!!! An epic Chinese tale that depicts the dying culture of the Mongols–the ancestors of the Mongol hordes who at one time terrorized the world–and the parallel extinction of the animal they believe to be sacred: the fierce and otherworldly Mongolian wolf.
May: There Was A Time by Frank White (Danny) — The last seven months of 1940 in a village near the east coast of England as experienced by several characters. England is at war; here is how the war affects a village, and how the villagers affect the war.
April: The Meadow by James Galvin (Carl). The lives of various people who have lived on this high Wyoming meadow. Because they stay, the land changes them.
March: The Last Man in Europe by Dennis Glover (Pat T.)
February: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Jim)
January: Moonglow by Michael Chabon (Allan)

2018

December — holiday hiatus
November: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Danny)
October: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (Alton)
September: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Jim)
August: summer hiatus
July: Phil Klay’s Redeployment (Danny), a 288-page book of short stories about soldiers fighting in Iraq, returning to the States, and then going back to Iraq — redeploying. The book won the 2014 National Book Award and the New York Times called it “one of the ten best books of the year”.
June: News of the World by Paulette Jiles. Historical fiction set in late 19th century Texas. It has an old guy, like some of us, as the main character and he turns out to be a pretty heroic guy, so good for our egos. And only 240 pages long. It was a National Book Award finalist. (Carl’s pick, at Pat T’s)
May: In the Company of Sherlock Holmes by Leslie S Klinger and Laurie R. King (Editors), 384 pages. A ‘stellar’ anthology of sixteen new short stories that pay homage to the great detective; great summer reading. (Allan)
April: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, 288 pages, a gritty but tender novel about family and poverty in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. (Carl)
March: The Swerve, by Steven Greenblatt, which won a Pulitzer and National Book Award, about how one man preserved our having “On the Nature of Things”, by Lucretius, which is non-fiction, but a wonderful read (Hugh)
February: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Danny)
January: Lee Child’s page turner, The Midnight Line (Jim, meeting with The Women of Arden)

2017

December: holiday hiatus
November: Muriel Barbery’s 325-page novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Jerry)
October: Josephine Tey’s 205-page mystery, The Daughter of Time from 1951 (Danny)
September: We did not read Martin and Luke Medina’s 312-page book from 2016, Amerita. Pat T. chose this book without first reading it, then told everyone not to bother after he did read it, in part because it was so poorly edited and designed.
August: Isaac Asimov’s 256-page sci-fi book (time travel and social engineering) from 1955, End of Eternity (Allan)
July: summer hiatus
June: Ray Bradbury’s 256-page novel (not science fiction, but childhood memories) from 1957, Dandelion Wine (Carl)
May: B.A. Shapiro’s 368-page book from 2012, The Art Forger (Allan)
April: Jorge Ibarguengoitia’s 208-page book from 1982, Two Crimes (Danny)
March: Connie Willis’s 445-page book from 1992, Doomsday Book (Pat T.)
Febraury: Agatha Christie’s 314-page book from 1934, Murder on the Orient Express (Allan)
January: Elie Wiesel’s 128-page book from 1962 The Accident (Allan)

2016

December with spouses: Ian McEwan’s 208-page book from 2016 Nutshell (Pat T.)
November: Tony Hawks’ 264-page book from 1998 Round Ireland with a Fridge (Denis)
October: Fredrik Backman’s 2015 book A Man Called Ove (Danny)
September: Richard Powers’s 1995 book Galatea 2.2 (Jim)
August: summer hiatus
July: Barbara Kingsolver’s 2000 book Prodigal Summer (Carl)
June: E.L. Doctorow’s 2014 book Andrew’s Brain (Jim)
May: Jonathan Carroll’s 2002 book White Apples (Allan)
April: Anthony Trollope’s 1855 book The Warden (Danny)
March: Tom Rob Smith’s 2011 book Child 44 (Allan)
February: Denis Johnson’s 2011 book Train Dreams (Carl)
January: Stephen King’s 2010 novella Blockade Billy (Allan)

2015

December: Colum McCann’s 2012 book TransAtlantic (Carl)
November: Michael Gruber’s 2008 book The Forgery of Venus (Jim)
October: Louis de Bernieres’ 1994 book Corelli’s Mandolin (Carl)
September: No book. Instead, real he-men that we are, we watched the opening game of the Philadelphia Eagles’ disappointing season. They came back from a huge deficit against the Cowboys, only to lose by one point.
August: summer hiatus
July: Claude Brown’s 1965 book Manchild in the Promised Land (Roger)
June: Colum McCann’s 2009 book Let the Great World Spin (Danny)
May: Edward Belamy’s 1888 book Looking Backward (John M.)
April: Rob Bryan’s 2015 book Arden House 1 and 2 (Carl with Rob Bryan as special guest)
March: Zoran Drvenkar’s Sorry published 2011 (Pat T.)
February: Christopher Moore’s The Serpent of Venice published 2014 (Allan)
January: winter doldrums

2014

December: holiday hiatus
November: David Guterson’s East of the Mountains (Jim)
October: Ken McAlpine’s Fog (Greg with author Ken McAlpine on speaker phone)
September: Art Spiegelman’s Maus (Ken)
August: Rafael Sabatini’s Captain Blood (Carl)
July: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (Allan)
June: Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet On The Western Front (Pat P.)
May: Nevil Shute’s A Town Like Alice (Danny)
April: Christopher Moore’s Sacré Bleu (Allan)
March: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night (Ron)
February: Alexandre Dumas’ The Black Tulip (Ken with Alexandre Dumas on NecroSkype)
January: Benjamin Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (Carl)

2013

December: holiday shopping spree
November: Michael Gruber’s The Return (Jim with Michael Gruber Skyped in)
October: Anthony Horowitz’s House of Silk (Allan)
September: P.D. James Death Comes to Pemberley (Roger)
August: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Danny)
July: perfecting our sunburns
June: J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey (Pat P.)
May: David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (Ron)
April: Salman Rushdie’s East West Short Stories (Carl)
March: Yann Martel’s Life of Pi (Jim)
February: Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution (Allan)
January: Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (Pat T.)

2012

December: Jack Schaefer’s Shane (Jim)
November: Two Neil Gaiman stories and one by Nabakov (Allan)
October: Meeting to organize future readings
September: David Fuller’s Sweetsmoke (Pat T.)
August: Michael Frayn’s Skios (Roger)
July: Jim Harrison’s The Woman Lit By Fireflies (Jim)
June: C.S. Forester’s Midshipman Hornblower (Danny)
May: Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts (joint meeting with “The Renegades” women’s book group)
April: Clyde Eggerton’s Killer Diller (Roger)
March: Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire (Allan)
February: Robert Forward’s Dragon’s Egg (Pat T.)
January: Bill Bryson’s The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (Gordon)

2011

December: Josephine Tey’s The Franchise Affair (Roger)
November: Jamie Ford’s The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Danny)
October: Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery (Allan)
September: Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael (Greg)
August: Alan Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams (Pat T.)
July: summer hiatus
June: Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop (Danny)
May: Craig Lesley’s Winterkill (Danny)
April: Mary Doria Russell’s, The Sparrow (Pat T.)
March: Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle (Allan)
February: Dorothy Sayers’s Nine Tailors (Roger)
January: P.D. James’s The Children of Men (Ken)

2010

December: Calvin Trillin’s, Tepper Isn’t Going Out (Danny)
November: No book but we did meet to review recent books we’d read outside the group.
October: Michael Gruber’s The Good Son (Jim with Michael Gruber present)
September: summertime blues
July: Michael Chabon’s Adventures of Kavilier and Clay (Allan)
June: Matthew Glass’s Ultimatum (Roger)
May: Richard Russo’s Nobody’s Fool (Kit)
April: Anne Tyler’s, Breathing Lessons (Ken)
March: Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana (Danny)
February: Charles Stross’s Jennifer Morgue (Jim)
January: Clyde Edgerton’s In Memory of Junior (Roger)

2009

December: Carolyn Parkhurst’s The Dogs of Babel (Allan)
November: Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain (Pat P)
October: Jasper Fforde’s, The Fourth Bear (Danny)
September: Garrison Keilor’s Liberty (Greg)
August: Christopher Moore’s Fool (Allan)
July: Michael Gruber’s, Book of Air & Shadows (Jim with Michael Gruber skyped in)
June: Mary Meigs Atwater’s Crime in Corn Weather (Steven)
May: Lisa See’s Peony in Love (Kit)
April: Jonathan Harr’s The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio (Danny)
March: Michael Kernan’s The Lost Diaries of Frans Hals (Pat T.)
February: Richard Hughes’s A High Wind in Jamaica (Roger)
January: Scott Liell’s 46 Pages (Gordon)

2008

December: Josephine Tey’s Brat Farrar (Roger)
November: Michael Shaara’s Killer Angels (Carl)
October: Pratchett’s Night Watch (Allan)
September: Frank Conroy’s Body & Soul (Danny)
August: Annie Proulx’s Bad Dirt (Greg)
July: Ian McEwan’s Saturday (Pat T.)
June: Keri Hulme’s The Bone People (Pat P.)
May: spring fever
April: Tracy Kidder’s Old Friends (Ken)
March: John Kennedy Toole’s Confederacy of Dunces (Denis)
February: Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend (John diG.)

Favorite Fiction Books and Memoirs of Danny Schweers (because somebody asked)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
North Towards Home by Willie Morris
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Act One: An Autobiography by Moss Hart
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Hornblower series by C.S. Forester
The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens
Disturbing the Universe by Freeman Dyson
Mysteries written by Josephine Tey, Georges Simenon, and Dorothy L. Sayers
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Arden Men’s Book Group