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There are a few different book groups that meet regularly here at the library. These groups are open to the public. We also have special topic discussion series throughout the year. For complete scheduling and to register (if needed) please click on the event calendar on the left. This page lists the current discussion schedule for the groups. Come to one discussion or come to them all!
Click on Each Group's Name to See the Book Title List and Meeting Dates of Our Monthly Book Groups:
Evening Book Discussion - - Daytime Book Discussion - - Non-Fiction Book Club - - Staff Picks
In addition to our monthly book discussions we also have book discussion series which explore a specific theme, genre, or author.
Summer Featured Discussion Series begins June 9th:
A Terrible Glory
Book Discussions with Julie Stern
All discussions will begin at 7:30 and meet in the Antiques Room on the
third floor of the library
June 9th The March by E.L. Doctorow
June 23rd March by Geraldine Brooks
July 14th White Doves at Morning by James Lee Burke
August 4th Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
Multiple copies of these books are available near the second floor circulation desk.
Evening Book Discussion 2009/10
Meets the third Thursday of the month at 7:30pm
| September 17 |
The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald
A New York Times reporter reveals the script-like convoluted tale, complete with a cast of main characters, of an Archer Daniels Midland executive who acted as an FBI informant to uncover a price- fixing conspiracy at this powerful US corporation in the mid-1990s. |
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| October 15 |
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph; a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuumlehrer of Buchenwald. Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.
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| November 19 |
World of Wonders by Robertson Davies
This story of Magnus Eisengrim, master illusionist, the most illustrious magician of his age, has been called "a spectacular, soaring work, an astounding tour de force unequaled in recent literature." World of Wonders is the final volume in Robertson Davies's celebrated Deptford Trilogy, which began with Fifth Business and The Manticore. |
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| No Meeting in December |
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| January 17 |
China Road
by Rob Gifford
Route 312 is the Chinese Route 66. It flows 3,000 miles, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the Old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down. In this surprising book, radio journalist Rob Gifford, a fluent Mandarin speaker, takes Route 312 from its start in the boomtown of Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. Gifford reveals the rich mosaic of modern Chinese life in all its contradictions, as he poses the crucial questions that all of us are asking about China: Will it really be the next global superpower? Is it as solid and as powerful as it looks from the outside? And who are the ordinary Chinese people, to whom the 21st century is supposed to belong? |
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| February 18 |
Middlesex
by Jeffrey Eugenides
In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides finds herself drawn to a classmate at her girls' school in Grosse Point, Michigan. That passion -- along with her failure to develop -- leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. The explanation for this is a rare genetic mutation -- and a guilty secret -- that have followed Callie's grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to Prohibition-era Detroit and beyond, outlasting the glory days of the Motor City, the race riots of 1967, and the family's second migration, into the foreign country known as suburbia. Thanks to the gene, Callie is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have ended, her own odyssey has only begun. |
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| March 18 |
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
It's just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . . Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist--books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul. |
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| April 15 |
Infidel
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author ofThe Caged Virgin,Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist's murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movieSubmission.Infidelis the eagerly awaited story of the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. |
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| May 20 |
Cities of the Plain
by Cormac McCarthy
This story of friendship and passion is enfolded in a narrative replete with character and place and event--a blind musician, a marauding pack of dogs, curio shops and ancient petroglyphs, a precocious shoe-shine boy, trail drives from the century before, midnight on the highway--and with landforms and wildlife and horses and men, most of all men and the women they love and mourn, men and their persistence and memories and dreams. |
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| June 17 |
A Frozen Woman
by Annie Ernaux
French author Ernaux has outdone herself in this sharply painful story of a woman's aspirations slowly picked apart by reality. The narrator is a young woman who isn't so much frozen as caught‘between the demands of her body and her mind, between what she can see for herself and what she is told, between being a wife/mother and being an individual. Ernaux's followers will recognize the narrator from Cleaned Out, A Man's Place and A Woman's Story, the daughter of a lower-middle class couple who run a combination grocery and cafe. Her unconventional mother encourages reading and studying at the expense of clean baseboards. |
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Daytime Book Discussion March 2010 - December 2010
The group meets the second Monday of the month at 1 pm
| March 8 |
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
| Mansfield Park encompasses not only Jane Austen’s great comedic gifts and her genius as a historian of the human animal, but her personal credo as well—her faith in a social order that combats chaos through civil grace, decency, and wit. At the novel’s center is Fanny Price, the classic “poor cousin,” brought as a child to Mansfield Park by the rich Sir Thomas Bertram and his wife as an act of charity. As Fanny watches her cousins Maria and Julia cast aside their scruples in dangerous flirtations (and worse), and as she herself resolutely resists the advantages of marriage to the fascinating but morally unsteady Henry Crawford, her seeming austerity grows in appeal and makes clear to us why she was Austen’s own favorite among her heroines. |
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| April 12 |
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
| While a cellist plays at the site of a mortar attack to commemorate the deaths of twenty-two friends and neighbors, a woman sniper secretly protects the life of the cellist as her army becomes increasingly threatening. |
| While a cellist plays at the site of a mortar attack to commemorate the deaths of twenty-two friends and neighbors, two other men set out in search of bread and water to keep themselves alive, and a woman sniper secretly protects the life of the cellist as her army becomes increasingly threatening. |
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| May 10 |
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
One of the most famous travel books ever written about Europe and the Holy Land by an American, The Innocent Abroad is Mark Twain's irreverent and incisive commentary on the 'New Barbarians' encounter with the 'Old World.' Twain's hilarious satire is a double-edged weapon, impaling with sharp wit the chauvinist and the cosmopolitan alike. His naive Westerner is a blustering pretender to sophistication, a too-quick convert to culture. |
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| June 14 |
Serpentine by Thomas Thompson
The bestselling, true-life story of predatory charm, international serial murder, and unstemmed evil has been penned by the award-winning author of "Blood and Money." This is the tale of Charles Sobhraj, sweeping back and forth over half the globe. |
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| July 12 |
The Leper by Steve Thayer
After stumbling on a French-German leper village while serving as a marine captain during WWI, John Severson takes a healthy little girl to safety while his near-mutinous men are ordered to return to the front. After an inquiry ends favorably, Severson returns home to St. Paul, Minn., where he becomes a high school math teacher and is secretly engaged to his favorite student. His happiness shatters after a routine medical check identifies him as a leper. In the wake of the Spanish flu epidemic, this means forced quarantine at Louisiana's Witch Tree leprosarium, which Thayer describes in disturbing and sometimes lurid detail. This book deserves a wide readership. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
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| August 9 |
TBA
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| September 13 |
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Amory Blaine has been brought-up by a wealthy, idiosyncratic and alcoholic mother. Snobbish because he knows no better, he is uncomfortable with others and must learn the proper social etiquette and values that others his age already know. As he progresses to Princeton University from the Midwest, he experiences a series of flirtations with some predatory young women and a chance at friendship with some intellectual young men. His love-life culminates in a genuine but ill-fated love with a soul-mate who rejects him to marry a wealthier young man. |
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| October 18 |
Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint
In Saint's heralded first novel, the tired plot of the film The Invisible Man undergoes a sparkling update. A clash between a scientist and an antinuclear demonstrator at a nuclear energy plant catalyzes an explosion that renders Nick Halloway, a securities analyst, invisible. Realizing that he will become a caged, scrutinized guinea pig if he surrenders to federal intelligence agents, Nick makes a run for his freedom. Saint has hit on a wonderful narrative device: insert one fantastic premise into the life of a Yuppie, but keep the rest of his world functional and, therefore, challenging. Nick displays the distinct sensibilities of a fugitive and a Wall Street smart guy as he invisibly fends for himself in the jungles he knows bestthe East Side of Manhattan and the trader's desk. |
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| November 8 |
TBA |
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| December 13 |
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
In Kathryn Stockett's stunning fiction debut, The Help, three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving book filled with poignancy, humour, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't. |
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Non-Fiction Book Club 2010 Schedule
Meets the first Tuesday of the month at 1 pm in the Antiques Room
| January 2010 |
No Meeting |
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| February 2, 2010 |
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (1995)
A story of race and inheritance from our 44th president.
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| March 2, 2010 |
A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton (1953)
The acclaimed last book in Catton's Civil War trilogy titled "The Army of the Potomac".
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| April 6, 2010 |
The Scratch of a Pen by Colin G. Calloway (2007)
The transformation of pre-Revolutionary America during 1763.
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| May 4, 2010 |
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad (2004)
Candid portrayal of the domestic life of Afghan women.
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| July |
No meeting |
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| August |
No meeting |
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| September 7, 2010 |
Too Big to Fail by Andrew Sorkin
Step-by-step, reveals how Wall Street and Washington fought to save the financial system.
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| October 5, 2010 |
Lazy B by Sandra Day O'Connor
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice writes about her youth growing up on a cattle ranch in the American Southwest.
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| November 2, 2010 |
The Lost City of Z by David Grann (2009)
A tale of deadly obsession in the Amazon.
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| December 7, 2010 |
Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder (2009)
Burundi Civil War survivor is educated in America and returns to his native land to help both countries.
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Say You're One of Them by Uwen Akpan
| A collection of tales about modern African children in crisis includes "An Ex-Mas Feast," in which an eight-year-old child shares in his family's sacrifices to obtain enough food and enable his education. |
| This singular collection of five stories takes the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa. Recommended by Andrea |
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Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls
Walls's "The Glass Castle" was nothing short of spectacular ("Entertainment Weekly"). Now Walls presents this magnificent, true-life novel based on her no-nonsense, resourceful, hardworking, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. Recommended by Andrea
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The Little Book by Selden Edwards
Thirty years in the writing, Selden Edwards's dazzling first novel is an irresistible triumph of the imagination. Wheeler Burden-banking heir, philosopher, student of history, legend's son, rock idol, writer, lover, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero-one day finds himself wandering not in his hometown of San Francisco in 1988 but in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: Vienna, 1897. Before long, Wheeler acquires a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young woman, and encounters everyone from an eight-year-old Adolf Hitler to Mark Twain as well as the young members of his own family. Recommended by Andrea
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The Book of Genesis illustrated by R. Crumb
Envisioning the first book of the bible like no one before him, R. Crumb, the legendary illustrator, reveals here the story of Genesis in a profoundly honest and deeply moving way. Originally thinking that we would do a take off of Adam and Eve, Crumb became so fascinated by the Biblersquo;s language, ldquo;a text so great and so strange that it lends itself readily to graphic depictions,rdquo; that he decided instead to do a literal interpretation using the text word for word in a version primarily assembled from the translations of Robert Alter and the King James bible. Now, readers of every persuasion-Crumb fans, comic book lovers, and believers-can gain astonishing new insights from these harrowing, tragic, and even juicy stories. Recommended by Andrea
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The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
| From Dagger Award-winning author Bradley comes this utterly beguiling mystery starring one of fiction's most remarkable sleuths: Flavia de Luce, a dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders. Recommended by Andrea |
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Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
| This illustrated edition has been restyled and reset to give it a format worthy of its contents. For over eighty years, this book has been an American classic. The literary past and present collide to enliven the ideal atmosphere for life and love: a bookstore. Recommended by Andrea |
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When Everything Changed : The Amazing Journey of American Women by Gail Collins
Gail Collins, New York Times columnist and bestselling author, recounts the astounding revolution in women's lives over the past 50 years, with her usual "sly wit and unfussy style" ( People ). When Everything Changed begins in 1960, when most American women had to get their husbands' permission to apply for a credit card. It ends in 2008 with Hillary Clinton's historic presidential campaign. This was a time of cataclysmic change, when, after four hundred years, expectations about the lives of American women were smashed in just a generation. A comprehensive mix of oral history and Gail Collins's keen research--covering politics, fashion, popular culture, economics, sex, families, and work--When Everything Changedis the definitive book on five crucial decades of progress.
Recommended by Andy |
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The Help by Kathryn Stockett
In Kathryn Stockett's stunning fiction debut, The Help, three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving book filled with poignancy, humour, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't. Recommended by Margaret and Darlene
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
The disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, gnaws at her octogenarian uncle, Henrik Vanger. He is determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. He hires crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently at the wrong end of a libel case, to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance. Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age--and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness--assists Blomkvist with the investigation.
Recommended by Pat
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The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson
On the eve of publisher Mikael Blomkvist's story about sex trafficking between Eastern Europe and Sweden, two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Mikael Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander--the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid years before. Recommended by Pat
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Blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell
How do we think without thinking, seem to make choices in an instant--in the blink of an eye--that actually aren't as simple as they seem? Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, the author reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables. Recommended by Pat
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The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey
THE YELLOW HOUSE delves into the passion and politics of Northern Ireland at the beginning of the 20th Century. Eileen O'Neill's family is torn apart by religious intolerance and secrets from the past. Determined to recla her ancestral home and reunite her family, Eileen begins working at the local mill, saving her money and holding fast to her dream. As war is declared on a local and global scale, Eileen cannot separate the politics from the very personal impact the conflict has had on her own life. She is soon torn between two men, each drawing her to one extreme. Recommended by Mimi
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The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived. Recommended by Mimi
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The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
In the tradition of "City of Light" and "Fortune's Rocks" comes a stunning debut novel of one family's struggle, set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls. Recommended by Mimi
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Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath
| Offers insight into the difficult nature of lasting change, presenting metaphorical illustrations of the conflict between the instinctual and the intellectual areas of the brain while sharing case stories of successful individuals and organizations. Recommended by Elise |
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The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rabin
Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project. In this lively and compelling account of that year, Rubin carves out her place alongside the authors of bestselling memoirs such as Julie and Julia, The Year of Living Biblically, and Eat, Pray, Love. With humor and insight, she chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Recommended by Elise
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Mrs. Jack: a biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner by L.H. Tharp
A biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner of Boston in the 19th century. An American charmer and art collector, Isabella Stewart Gardner and her husband Jack kept company with the leading men of the day including Henry James, Henry Adams, John Singer Sargent and Whistler. The Stewart Gardners' Boston home, which was modelled after a Venetian palace. Recommended by Connie
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Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Traces the author's decision to quit her job and travel the world for a year after suffering a midlife crisis and divorce, a journey that took her to three places in her quest to explore her own nature and learn the art of spiritual balance. Recommended by Meg
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Soul Provider: Spiritual Steps to Limitless Love by Edward Beck
This contemporary look at the seventh-century classicThe Ladder of Divine Ascentbrilliantly illuminates the enduring relevance of centuries-old spiritual concepts. InThe Ladder of Divine Ascent, Saint John Climacus described the thirty steps all seekers must take on the path to spiritual fulfillment. InSoul Provider,Edward L. Beck brings a fresh, modern sensibility to this classic work of Christian literature and its ideas, explaining how they relate to our lives today. Using real-life stories and experiences and incorporating all of the major religious traditions, Beck shows how the thirty steps lead to a deeper understanding of the ideas that guide our journeys, provide for our souls, and draw us closer to God. Recommended by Meg
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Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
From Kate Atkinson: a breathtaking story of families divided, love lost and found, and the mysteries of fate. Case One: Olivia Land, youngest and most beloved of the Land girls, goes missing in the night and is never seen again. Thirty years later, two of her surviving sisters unearth a shocking clue to Olivias disappearance among the clutter of their childhood home. . . Case Two: Theo delights in his daughter Lauras wit, effortless beauty, and selfless love. But her first day as an associate in his law firm is also the day when Theos world turns upside down. . . Case Three: Michelle looks around one day and finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making. A very needy baby and a very demanding husband make her every waking moment a reminder that somewhere, somehow, shed made a grave mistake and would spend the rest of her life paying for it--until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape. As Private Detective Jackson Brodie investigates all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge. Inextricably caught up in his clients grief, joy, and desire, Jackson finds their unshakable need for resolution very much like his own. Kate Atkinsons celebrated talent makes for a novel that positively sparkles with surprise, comedy, tragedy, and constant, page-turning delight.
Recommended by Kim
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The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman's wry, vibrant debut follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters, editors, and executives of an international English language newspaper as they struggle to keep it - and themselves-afloat. Fifty years and many changes have ensued since the paper was founded by an enigmatic millionaire, and now, amid the stained carpeting and dingy office furniture, the staff's personal dramas seem far more important than the daily headlines. As the era of print news gives way to the Internet age and this imperfect crew stumbles toward an uncertain future, the paper's rich history is revealed, including the surprising truth about its founder's intentions. Spirited, moving, and highly original, The Imperfectionists will establish Tom Rachman as one of our most perceptive, assured literary talents. Recommended by Kim |
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The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Abandoned on a 1913 voyage to Australia, Nell is raised by a dock master and his wife who do not tell her until she is an adult that she is not their child, leading Nell to return to England and eventually hand down her quest for answers to her granddaughter. Recommended by Kim
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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
When artifacts from Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War II are uncovered during renovations at a Seattle hotel, Henry Lee embarks on a quest that leads to memories of growing up Chinese in a city rife with anti-Japanese sentiment.
Recommended by Judy |
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