Book Clubs

OCTOBER 2016 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

September 30, 2016

Check out what our book clubs are reading for October!!

BOOK CLUBBERS

oregon-trailThe Oregon Trail : a new American journey

By: Rinker Buck

Date: Thursday, October 6th, 2016 @ Harnish

Start Time: 7:00PM

Buck's epic account of traveling the length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way--in a covered wagon with a team of mules, an audacious journey that hasn't been attempted in a century--tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country.

SPINECRACKERS

physickbookThe physick book of Deliverance Dane: a novel

By: Katherine Howe

Date: Friday, October 7th, 2016 @ Harnish

Start Time: 10:00AM

While readying her grandmother's abandoned home for sale, Connie Goodwin discovers an ancient key in a seventeenth-century Bible with a scrap of parchment bearing the name Deliverance Dane.  In her quest to discover who this woman was and seeking a rare artifact--a physick book--Connie begins to feel  haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials and fears that she may be more tied to Salem's past than she could have imagined.

 

BOOKALICIOUS

forest-of-handsThe Forest of hands and teeth

By: Carrie Ryan

Date: Monday, October 10th, 2016 @ Village Vintner

Start Time: 7:00PM

Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

 

CLASSICS

vanity-fairVanity fair : a novel without a hero

By: William M. Thackeray

Date: Wednesday, October 19th, 2016 @ Harnish

Start Time: 7:00PM

Thackeray's most well-known work, Vanity Fair is a satirical epic of love and social adventure. The story follows the trials and tribulations of two young women Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. After leaving the shelter of Miss Pinkerton's Academy, they come to Vanity Fair where the charming and amoral Becky and sweet Amelia, along with an interesting and varied cast of victims and villains, suffer through elopements and betrayals, fortunes made and lost, and battles, both military and domestic.

NIGHT READERS

improbabilityThe Improbability of Love

By: Hannah Rothschild

Date: Thursday, October 20th, 2016 @ Harnish

Start Time: 7:00PM

When lovelorn Annie McDee stumbles across a dirty painting in a junk shop while looking for a present for an unsuitable man, she has no idea what she has discovered. Soon she finds herself drawn unwillingly into the tumultuous London art world, populated by exiled Russian oligarchs, avaricious Sheikas, desperate auctioneers and unscrupulous dealers, all scheming to get their hands on her painting - a lost eighteenth-century masterpiece called ‘The Improbability of Love’. Delving into the painting’s past, Annie will uncover not just an illustrious list of former owners, but some of the darkest secrets of European history – and in doing so she might just learn to open up to the possibility of falling in love again.

 

August 2016 Book Discussions

August 1, 2016

Looking for something new to read? Check out what our book clubs are reading for August! All are welcome to attend our book discussions. You don\'t need to register. Simply stop by the Adult Services Desk at the Main Library (Harnish) to pick up copies of the current month\'s book selections.

SPINECRACKERS

\"SPINECRACKERSThe Language of Flowers

By: Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Date: Friday, August 5th, 2016 @ Harnish

Start Time: 10:00 AM

The story of a woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past.

BOOK CLUBBERS

Lock In

By: John Scalzi

Date: Thursday, August 4th, 2016 @ Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 PM

A pandemic results in millions of paralyzed people locked inside their minds.  Science provides a way for them to interact with the rest of humanity, but this science fiction plot turns into a thriller with a police procedural/medical mystery twist.

BOOKALICIOUS

Dumplin

By: Julie Murphy

Date: Monday, August 8th, 2016 @ Village Vintner

Start Time: 7:00 PM

Sixteen-year-old Willowdean wants to prove to everyone in her small Texas town that she is more than just a fat girl, so, while grappling with her feelings for a co-worker who is clearly attracted to her, Will and some other misfits prepare to compete in the beauty pageant her mother runs.

CLASSICS BOOK CLUB

CLASSIC AUG

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

By: Ken Kesey

Date: Wednesday, August 17th, 2016 @ Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 PM

A criminal feigns insanity and is admitted to a mental hospital where he challenges the autocratic authority of the head nurse.

 

NIGHT READERS

NIGHT READERS AUG2

Our Souls at Night

By: Kent Haruf

Date: Thursday, August 18th, 2016 @ Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 PM

In Holt, Colorado, widower Louis Waters is initially thrown when the widowed Addie Moore suggests that they spend time together, in bed, to stave off loneliness, but soon they are exchanging confidences and memories.

 

JULY 2016 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

June 23, 2016

Looking for something new to read? Check out what our book clubs are reading for July!  All are welcome to attend our book discussions.   You don\'t need to register.  Simply stop by the Adult Services Desk at the Main Library (Harnish) to pick up copies of the current month\'s book selections.

SPINECRACKERS BOOK CLUB

launguage of flowersThe Language of Flowers
By: Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Date: Friday, July 1st, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 10:00AM

The story of a woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past.

BOOK CLUBBERS

good luckThe Good Luck of Right Now
By: Matthew Quick

Date: Thursday, July 7, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00PM

When his mother dies, 38-year-old Bartholomew Neil, who doesn't know how to be on his own, discovers a letter in his mother's underwear drawer that causes him to write a series of highly intimate letters to actor Richard Gere, while embarking on a quest to find out where he belongs.

BOOKALICIOUS

ill give you the sun

I'll Give You the Sun
By: Jandy Nelson

Date: Monday, July 11, 2016 @ Village Vintner
Start Time: 7:00PM

A story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal told from different points in time, and in separate voices, by artist Jude and her twin brother Noah.

CLASSIC BOOK CLUB

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A Tale of Two Cities
By: Charles Dickens

Date: Wednesday, July, 20, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00PM

Set before and during the French Revolution in the cities of Paris and London, A Tale of Two Cities tells the story of Dr. Manette\'s release from imprisonment in the Bastille and his reunion with daughter, Lucie. A French aristocrat, Darnay, and English lawyer, Carton, compete in their love for Lucie and the ensuing tale plays out against the menacing backdrop of the French Revolution and the shadow of the guillotine.

NIGHT READERS BOOK CLUB

maraudersThe Marauders
By: Tom Cooper

Date: Thursday, July 21, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00PM

When the BP oil spill devastates the Gulf Coast, those who made a living by shrimping find themselves in dire straits. For the oddballs and lowlifes who inhabit the sleepy, working class bayou town of Jeannette, these desperate circumstances serve as the catalyst that pushes them to enact whatever risky schemes they can dream up to reverse their fortunes. At the center of it all is Gus Lindquist, a pill-addicted, one armed treasure hunter obsessed with finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte.

March 2016 Book Discussions

March 25, 2016

Looking for a good book club read? Here\'s what our book clubs have been busy reading this month.

BOOK CLUBBERS

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
by Chris Bohjalian.
Date: Thursday, March 03, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00 PM

Living in an igloo of ice and trash bags half a year after a cataclysmic nuclear disaster, Emily, convinced that she will be hated as the daughter of the drunken man who caused the meltdown, assumes a fictional identity while protecting a homeless boy.

SPINECRACKERS BOOK CLUB

Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
by Maria Semple.
Date: Friday, March 04, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 10:00 AM

When her notorious, hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled, and agoraphobic mother goes missing, teenage Bee begins a trip that takes her to the ends of the earth to find her.

BOOKALICIOUS

All the Bright Places
by Jennifer Niven
Date: Monday, March 14, 2016 @ Village Vintner
Start Time: 7:00 PM

Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school--both teetering on the edge--it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the "natural wonders" of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another.

CLASSIC BOOK CLUB

Mayor of Casterbridge
by Thomas Hardy
Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00 PM

Dramatizes the human condition as a struggle between powerful men and against fate.  In this tale, violent, natural and social forces toss the characters about like rag dolls as the mayor is destroyed by his protege.

NIGHT READERS BOOK CLUB

West of Sunset
by Stuart O'Nan
Date: Thursday, March 17, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00 PM

F. Scott Fitzgerald's last years as a Hollywood screenwriter recounted.

Need Something Different for Book Club?

January 28, 2016

Try The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue.  The protagonist, Razi, is a spirited, independent women.  Not so unusual in today’s world, but in the 1920’s she was quite a maverick.   Driven in her focus to attend medical school at Northwestern, Razi also finds it her mission to educate women on their reproductive rights in secret “boyless” meetings.

The story centers on her passionate love affair that ends abruptly when she dies in a tragic accident.   Razi, now “in-between” the physical world and the hereafter, spends her time searching for her lost love.  After almost 70 years “in-between” she finds herself tugged into the life of Amy and Scott.   Razi manipulates their world in all the eerie ways a ghost can in an effort to get Amy to unleash the secrets that are keeping her from having a happy, fulfilling marriage.

It is a great mixture of romance, mystery and the spiritual world that provoked lively discussions of feminism, great loves, and, of course…ghosts.

February 2016 Book Discussions

January 22, 2016

All are welcome to attend our book discussions.   You don't need to register.  Simply stop by the Adult Services Desk at the Main Library (Harnish) to pick up copies of the current month's book selections. 

BOOK CLUBBERS

The Boston Girl
by Anita Diamant
Date: Thursday, February 04, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00 PM

Dive into the life of an early 20th century immigrant with Addie Baum as she explains to her grand-daughter how she became the modern woman she is today.  By the end of the book, you might believe Addie's tale is a real biography!

SPINECRACKERS BOOK CLUB

Wild : From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
Date: Friday, February 05, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 10:00 AM

This engaging memoir chronicles the author’s brave and some might say reckless decision to hike 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert to the state of Washington by herself.  With no real long-distance hiking experience, Strayed embarks upon a life changing journey along one of the most scenic and challenging trails in the United States.   Read our full review.

BOOKALICIOUS - A NOT SO YA BOOK CLUB

Love Letters to the Dead
by Ava Dellaira
Date: Monday, February 08, 2016 @ Village Vintner
Start Time: 7:00 PM

When Laurel starts writing letters to dead people for a school assignment, she begins to spill about her sister's mysterious death, her mother's departure from the family, her new friends, and her first love.

CLASSICS BOOK CLUB

Wide Sargasso Sea
by Jean Rhys
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Start Time: 6:30 PM

A passionate and heartbreaking novel which brings into the light one of fiction's most mysterious characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.  A society so driven by hatred that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.

NITE READERS BOOK CLUB

Destiny of the Republic
by Candice Millard
Date: Thursday, February 18, 2016 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00 PM

January 2016 Book Discussions

January 5, 2016

All are welcome to attend our book discussions. Stop by the Adult Services Desk at the Main Library (Harnish) to pick up your copies today!

BOOK CLUBBERS

Landline
by Rainbow Rowell
Date: Thursday, January 07, 2016 @ Harnish
Time: 7:00 PM

Separated from her husband and kids during Christmas, Georgie McCool discovers a magic phone that allows her to talk to her husband in the past, before they married.  Will their conversations change her future and repair their currently strained relationship?

SPINECRACKERS BOOK CLUB

The Boston Girl
by Anita Diamant
Date: Friday, January 08, 2016 @ Harnish
Time: 7:00 PM

Dive into the life of an early 20th century immigrant with Addie Baum as she explains to her grand-daughter how she became the modern woman she is today.  By the end of the book, you might believe Addie's tale is a real biography!

BOOKALICIOUS - For adults who enjoy reading YA

Heist Society
by Ally Carter
Date: Monday, January 11, 2016 @ Village Vintner
Time: 7:00 PM

A group of teenagers uses their combined talents to re-steal several priceless paintings and save fifteen-year-old Kat Bishop's father, himself an international art thief, from a vengeful collector.

CLASSICS BOOK CLUB

Middlemarch
by George Elliot
Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 @ Harnish
Time: 6:30 PM

Complex tale of idealism, disillusion, profligacy, loyalty and frustrated love.  This is a penetrating analysis of the life of an English provincial town during the time of social unrest prior to the Reform Bill of 1832.

NITE READERS BOOK CLUB

We Are Called to Rise
by Laura McBride
Date: Thursday, January 21, 2016 @ Harnish
Time: 7:00 PM

An immigrant boy; a middle-aged housewife; a social worker in Las Vegas; a wounded soldier. These lives of people from different backgrounds and experiences collide in a stunning coincidence. When presented the opportunity to sink into despair, these characters rise. Through acts of remarkable charity and bravery, they rescue themselves.

July 2015 Book Discussions

June 30, 2015

All are welcome to attend our book discussions.  Stop by the Adult Services Desk at the Main Library (Harnish) to pick up your copies today!

 

BOOK CLUBBERS


Date:Thursday, July 02, 2015 @ Harnish
Time: 7:00 PM
The Light in the Ruins
by Chris Bohjalian

Hoping to safeguard themselves from the ravages of World War II within the walls of their ancient villa in Florence, the noble Rosati family become prisoners in their home when eighteen-year-old Cristina's courtship by a German lieutenant prompts the Nazis to take over the estate, a situation that leads to a serial murder investigation years later.

BOOKALICIOUS

Date: Monday, July 13, 2015 @ Village Vintner Winery
Time: 7:00 PM
The Running Dream
by Wendelin Van Draanen

When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again.

CLASSICS BOOK CLUB

Date:Wednesday, July 15, 2015 @ Harnish
Time:7:00 PM
Lonesome Dove
by Larry McMurtry

This Pulitzer Prize winning novel focuses on the relationship of several retired Texas Rangers and their adventures driving cattle herd from Texas to Montana.

NITE READERS BOOK CLUB


Date:Thursday, July 16, 2015
Time: 7:00 PM
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson

While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, the mistress of an inn and her son find a treasure map that leads them to a pirate's fortune.

June Book Club Selections

June 16, 2015

Looking for a little reading inspiration?  Here’s what our book clubs have been reading this month.

BOOK CLUBBERS
(Meets the first Thursday evening of each month)

The expats : a novel
by Chris Pavone.

An international spy thriller about a former CIA agent who moves with her family to Luxembourg where everything is suspicious and nothing is as it seems.

 

 

SPINECRACKERS
(Meets the first Friday morning of each month)

Marrying Mozart
by Stephanie Cowell

Eighteenth-century Europe comes alive with unforgiving winters and yawning princes; scheming parents and the enduring passions of young talent. Set in Mannheim, Munich, Salzburg and Vienna, Marrying Mozartis the richly textured love story of a remarkable historical figure-and four young women who engaged his passion, his music, and his heart.

 

CLASSICS
(Meets the third Wednesday evening of each month)

The Pioneers
by James Fenimore Cooper

Natty Bumppo, now on the threshold of old age, finds his way of life challenged as the land he has roamed becomes private property and the laws of man supplant the laws of nature.

 

 

BOOKALICIOUS
(Meets the second Monday evening of each month at Village Vintner)


Fake ID
L. R. Giles

“An African-American teen in the Witness Protection Program moves to a new town and finds himself trying to solve a murder mystery when his first friend is found dead”

 

 

NITE READERS
(Meets the third Thursday evening of each month)

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin

The irascible A.J. Fikry, owner of Island Books, has already lost his wife. Now his most prized possession, a rare book, has been stolen from right under his nose. One night upon closing, he discovers a toddler in his children’s section with a note from her mother saying she can no longer raise her. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the transformation of both bookstore and owner, especially to a lovely yet eccentric sales rep.

Want to join us next month?  Stop by the Adult Services desk to pick up the reading selections for NEXT month!

May 2015 Book Discussions

May 1, 2015

Here’s what we’re reading this month …

SPINE-CRACKERS BOOK DISCUSSION
Friday, May 1, 2015 @ Harnish
Start Time: 12:30 PM
The Invention of Wings
by Sue Monk Kidd

The story follows Hetty “Handful” Grimke, a Charleston slave, and Sarah, the daughter of the wealthy Grimke family. The novel begins on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership over Handful, who is to be her handmaid, and continues for the next thirty-five years of their lives. Inspired in part by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, a feminist, suffragist and an abolitionist.

BOOK CLUBBERS
Thursday, May 7, 2015 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00 PM
Girls from Corona Del Mar
by Rufi Thorpe

While Mia struggles with a mother who drinks, a pregnancy at fifteen, and younger brothers she loves but can’t quite be good to, her longtime friend Lorrie Ann is surrounded by her close-knit family. A sudden loss catapults Lorrie Ann into tragedy: things fall apart, and then fall apart further-and there is nothing Mia can do to help. And as good, kind, brave Lorrie Ann stops being so good, Mia begins to question just who this woman is and what that question means about them both.

BOOKALICIOUS
Monday, May 11, 2015 @ Village Vintner
Start Time: 7:00 PM
Between Shades of Gray
by Ruta Sepetys

In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author’s family.

CLASSICS BOOK CLUB
Wednesday, May 20, 2015 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00 PM
The Warden
by Anthony Trolloppe

Reverend Septimus Harding is warden of the alms-house at Barchester providing charity for twelve of the town’s neediest and an income for himself to the town’s way of thinking. John Bold, even though he is in love with the Reverend’s daughter, decides to look into this apparent misuse of church funds.

 

NITE READERS BOOK CLUB
Thursday, May 21, 2015 @ Harnish
Start Time: 7:00 PM
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
by Karen Fowler

Coming of age in middle America, eighteen-year-old Rosemary evaluates how her entire youth was defined by the presence and forced removal of an endearing chimpanzee who was secretly regarded as a family member and who Rosemary loved as a sister.
Stop by the Adult Services Desk at the Main Library (Harnish) to pick up your copies today!