Book Groups

03/13/2010 - 5:15pm

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

Current Selection:
 

April 12:  All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy – 3rd Floor Conference Room

The national bestseller and the first volume in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses is the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself.  With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood. 

Future Selections:

May 10:  A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore – 3rd Floor Conference Room
June 14:  Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel – Room 2
July 12:  The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X – 3rd Floor Conference Room
August 9:   The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown – 3rd Floor Conference Room
September 13  Travel Writing by Peter Ferry – Room 2
October 11:  Little Bee by Chris Cleave – 3rd Floor Conference Room
November 8:   Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner – 3rd Floor Conference Room
December 13:   To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck – Room 2
January 10:  The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker – 3rd Floor Conference Room

 

03/13/2010 - 5:12pm

Meets the second Tuesday of the month from 12-1 p.m. in Room 2 at Headquarters. Bring your lunch and join us!  (Please note:  we will not meet in December 2009.)

Current Selection:  

April 13: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson


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.

Future Selections:

May 11: The End of Food by Paul Roberts
June 8: Heyday: A Novel by Kurt Anderson
July 13: Reader's Choice
August 10: The Increment by David Ignatius
September 14: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
October 12: Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls
November 9: Choose a book by Louise Erdrich
December 14: While I'm Falling by Laura Moriarty
January 11: Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee 

03/15/2010 - 3:54pm

Rediscover the timeless, treasured delights of the classics. Read, savor, and engage in lively discourse with our newest Book Group. Meets the 3rd Monday of every month, 7-8 p.m. For more information, please call the Adult Reference Desk at 372-1144 ext. 232.

Current Selection:

March 15: The Stranger by Albert Camus

A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. In the story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sun-drenched Algerian beach, Camus was exploring what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."

Future Selections:

April 19: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
May 17: Portrait of An Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
June 21: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
July 19: Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
August 16: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
September 20: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
October 18: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
November 15: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
 

03/13/2010 - 5:10pm

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

Current Selection:

April 1: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
 

The three laws of Robotics: 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm 2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior.

Future Selections:

May 6: The Glass Castle: a Memoir by Jeannette Walls
June 3: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
July 1: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet
August 5: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
September 2: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
October 7: The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
November 4: The Shack by William P. Young
December 2: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

02/16/2010 - 10:33pm

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

Current Selection:

March 23:  The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Reflections of a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who lectured on "Really achieving your childhood dreams," shortly after having been diagnosed with terminal cancer. His advice concerned seizing the moment while living, rather than dying.

Title selections for 2010 will also be discussed.

Future Selections:

April 27:  Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
 

02/16/2010 - 10:46pm

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:

 

March 16: Prayers for the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno

Taking post-9/11 conspiracy theories that blamed the attacks on Zionist agents as the seed for this unusual thriller, Ferrigno (The Wake-Up) posits a nuclear terrorist onslaught in 2015 on New York City, Washington, D.C., and Mecca that has all the earmarks of a Mossad operation.

Future Selections:

 

03/01/2010 - 3:18pm

Recommendations for enticing monthly reading.

Current Selection:

March:  The Associate by John Grisham

Three months after leaving Yale, Kyle McAvoy becomes an associate at the largest law firm in the world, where, in addition to practicing law, he is expected to lie, steal, and take part in a scheme that could send him to prison, if not get him killed.

Future Selections:

April:  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
May:  East of Eden by John Steinbeck
June:  Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
July:   Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
August:  The Defector by Daniel Silva
September:   The Help by Kathryn Stockett
October:  Return to Sullivan’s Island by Dorthea Benton Frank
November:  A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
December:  Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner
 

 

03/13/2010 - 5:06pm

Meets at 12:30 on the second Friday of each month.

Current Selection:

April 9:  The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
 

The story of Ann Eliza Young's crusade against polygamy interwines with a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah.

Future Selections: 

May 14:  Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
June 11:  Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
July 9:  1776 by David McCullough
August 13:  Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson
September 10:  The Help by Kathryn Stockett
 

03/19/2009 - 2:04pm

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 branch or check our program listing for this month's topic.

03/19/2009 - 2:05pm

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 2-4 PM.