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Book Group in a Bag: Book groups can now check out a bag of books for their reading group. Bags have 10 copies and check out for 6 weeks. Browse what's availability and request one online.
Headquarters Book Group
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Meets the second Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. in the 3rd floor conference room

Current Selection:

June 10  -  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Meeting through mutual friends in Chicago, Hadley is intrigued by brash "beautiful boy" Ernest Hemingway, and after a brief courtship and small wedding, they take off for Paris, where Hadley makes a convincing transformation from an overprotected child to a game and brave young woman who puts up with impoverished living conditions and shattering loneliness to prop up her husband's career.
 

Future Selections:

July 8  -  Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
August 12  -  The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
September 9  -  Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
October 14  -  The School of Night by Louis Bayard
November 11  -  An Available Man by Hilma Wolitzer
December 9  -  The Gathering by Anne Enright

Porter Book Group
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

Meets the first Thursday of the month at 7:30 pm.

Current Selection:

June 6:  Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years-except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" (Philadelphia Inquirer). Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more-except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdala-and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.

Future Selections:

July 11:  Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
August 1:  The River of Doubt Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
September 5:  Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings
October 3:  Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
November 7:  Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
December 5:  Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

Book It! Salem Church Book Group
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog
Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

Join other readers to talk about books. The group meets the fourth Tuesday of the month from 7-9 pm.

Current Selection:

May 28:  Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the "cat's table"--as far from the Captain's Table as can be--with a ragtag group of "insignificant" adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury.
 

Upcoming Selections:

June 25:  Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
July 23:  Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
August 27:  In the Wood by Tana French
September 24:  The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
October 22:  Doc by Mary Doria Russell
November 26:  Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

England Run Book Group
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog
Book cover of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Meets the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7pm

Current Selection:

May 28 - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jay Gatsby had once loved beautiful, spoiled Daisy Buchanan, then lost her to a rich boy. Now, mysteriously wealthy, he is ready to risk everything to woo her back.

Upcoming Selections:
 
 
Snow Book Group
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog
Book cover of The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Join a lively and fun discussion of the month's selected title. Refreshments served. Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 10:30 a.m.

Current Selection:

May 21:  The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani
Two star-crossed lovers--Enzo and Ciro--meet and separate, until, finally, the power of their love changes both of their lives forever. Set during the years preceding and during World War I.

Upcoming Selections:

June 18:  State of Wonder by Ann Pratchett
July 16:  Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Snow's Book of the Month
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog
Book cover of When Tito Loved Clara by Jon Michaud

Recommendations for enticing monthly reading.

Current Selection:

May:  When Tito Loved Clara by Jon Michaud
Through brains and determination, librarian Clara Lugo has long since slipped the bonds of her confining Dominican neighborhood in the northern reaches of Manhattan. Now she tries to live a settled professional life with her American husband and son in the suburbs of New Jersey--often thwarted by her constellation of relatives who don't understand her gringa ways. Her mostly happy life is disrupted, however, when Tito, a former boyfriend from fifteen years earlier, reappears.

Upcoming Selections:

June:  Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
July:  Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie
August:  Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
September:  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
October:  Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
November:  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
December:  Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher

Readers of the Round Table (Montross)
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Meets from 11:00 - noon on the second Friday of each month. 

Current Selection:

June 14:  The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
During a party at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is dreaming of the future. She spies a stranger coming up the road and sees her mother speak to him. Before the afternoon is over, Laurel will witness a shocking crime that challenges everything she knows about her family and especially her mother, Dorothy.
 

Written in Virginia Book Group (Montross)
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog
Book cover of Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick

Meets at 7 p.m.

May 23: Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick
In 1948, a mysterious and charismatic man arrives in a small Virginia town carrying two suitcases; one contains his worldly possessions, the other is full of money. He soon inserts himself into the town's daily life, taking a job in the local butcher shop and befriending the owner and his wife and their son. But the passion that develops between the man and the wife of the town's wealthiest citizen sets in motion a series of events that not only upset the quiet town but threaten to destroy both him and the woman.

The Reading Guild (Cooper)
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog

The Reading Guild meets the third Tuesday of each month at 6:00 p.m. The group's members pick a theme like Shakespeare or travel every other month; the other months are open discussions of your favorite book or current reading. Everyone brings a dish to share! Call the Cooper Branch (804-224-0921) or check our program listing for this month's topic.

Let's Talk About Books (Newton)
Book Groups, Book Groups Monthly Selection, Reading Room Blog

Join Bobbie Borman, staff, and other readers to talk about books. There is no required reading; different types of books are explored like science fiction or just your favorite book. The group meets the third Monday of each month from 2-4pm at Newton Branch.