The elaborate carved wood, stained glass and numerous fireplaces inside the Samuel Cupples House on the campus of Saint Louis University create an ideal meeting place for a book club. As docent and marketing coordinator of the gallery space (as well as the university’s Museum of Art), Mary Marshall has a certain fondness for the historic mansion. That, coupled with a love of reading, led her and SLU publications writer Elizabeth Holzer to form Binders Keepers in 2012. “There wasn’t anything like this on campus yet,” Marshall says. “So we put together an initial list of reads, came up with a name, and sure enough, we had about 15 people at our first meeting.” No SLU affiliation is necessary to join. “Many of the faculty and staff invite friends, and we always welcome more,” she says.
Members are encouraged to ‘bookmark’ the fourth Tuesday of every month. “The ambience is perfect,” Marshall says. “There’s room to put our chairs in a big circle, and we set out a table of wine, cheese and crackers.” Holzer is in charge of book selection and serves as moderator. “We always have lively and spirited discussions,” Marshall notes. “The club has really expanded my boundaries. I enjoy the wide range of authors, and it’s interesting to hear different interpretations of a novel.”
[about the book]
In All the Light We Cannot See, highly acclaimed author Anthony Doerr tells the story of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl who lives with her father and often accompanies him to work at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and Werner, a German boy who discovers a talent for fixing radios. Their stories collide when they both flee to Saint-Malo, France, as they try to survive the Nazi occupation during World War II.
[opinions]
» The reader comes away from possibly the most iconic siege in modern history with new perspective and the most profound sense of loss and hope that is the human condition.
— Elizabeth Holzer
» With each chapter, Doerr expertly draws from a sensory survival kit, which he expertly employs to take the reader, as well as the blind heroine, Marie Laure, through the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II. Imagination, instinct and intuition become our guides, as the reader is brought in as a silent companion to both Marie Laure and Werner Pfennig, a German orphan. Excellent read!
— Mary c. Marshall
[favorite]
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
[up next]
The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty
Pictured, seated: Theresa Leisure, Maria Mancuso, Mary Marshall, Elizabeth Holzer, Rosemary Jermann, Sophia Toumbalakis. Standing: Kaye Toennies, Jennifer Lowe, Judi Buncher, Pat Hoffa rth, Debbie Boren, Carolyn Sur, Gwen McManemy. Not pictured: Danielle Lacey, Susan Heaney
Photo: Bill Barrett
