|
Book Discussion Titles 2017
|
|
These lists are subject to change, but give you a good idea of what we will be reading this year.
Pick up your copy at the Main Desk on the First Floor and join us! Questions? 401-333-2552 x2
|
Evening Book Discussion Titles - Mondays at 6:30 p.m.
|
|
|
Cry, the beloved country
by Alan Paton
A novel depicting the racial ferment in the beautiful country of South Africa in 1948
Date: January 9, 2017
|
|
|
Just mercy : a story of justice and redemption
by Bryan Stevenson
The executive director of a social advocacy group that has helped relieve condemned prisoners explains why justice and mercy must go hand-in-hand through the story of Walter McMillian, a man condemned to death row for a murder he didn't commit. 30,000 first printing.
Date: February 13, 2017
|
|
|
The whistling season
by Ivan Doig
Hired as a housekeeper to work on the early 1900s Montana homestead of widower Oliver Milliron, the irreverent and perpetually whistling Rose and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris, endeavor to educate the widower's reluctant sons while witnessing local efforts on a massive irrigation project. Reader's Guide available. Reprint.
Date: March 13, 2017
|
|
|
Goodnight, Nebraska
by Tom McNeal
Recalling such classics as Winesburg, Ohio and Main Street, a debut novel recounts the fortunes of the townsfolk of a small Nebraska town, including a mysterious young man who embarks on a rocky marriage. Reprint. 40,000 first printing. Tour.
Date: April 10, 2017
|
|
|
H is for hawk
by Helen Macdonald
Recounts how the author, an experienced falconer grieving the sudden death of her father, endeavored to train for the first time a dangerous goshawk predator as part of her personal recovery
Date: May 8, 2017
|
|
|
Thunderstruck
by Erik Larson
A vivid portrait of the Edwardian era recounts two parallel stories--the case of Dr. Hawley Crippen, who murdered his wife and fled the country with his mistress to build a new life in America, and Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless communication--as the new technology is used to capture a killer. Reprint. 300,000 first printing.
Date: July 10, 2017
|
|
|
After This
by Alice McDermott
A vivid portrait of an American family during the middle decades of the twentieth century evokes the social, spiritual, and political turmoil of the era as seen through the experiences of a middle-class couple and their children, as they cope with the changing world around them. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.
Date: August 21, 2017
|
|
|
Back When We Were Grownups
by Anne Tyler
Beck Davitch looks back on her thirty-year marriage to Joe and her role as a mother and manager of the Open Arms, wondering if she is living the life she was meant to live and reconsidering her dedication to the family business. 250,000 first printing.
Date: September 11, 2017
|
|
|
John Adams
by David G. McCullough
Chronicles the life of America's second president, including his youth, his career as a Massachusetts farmer and lawyer, his marriage to Abigail, his rivalry with Thomas Jefferson, and his influence on the birth of the United States
Date: October 16, 2017
|
|
|
The zookeeper's wife : a war story
by Diane Ackerman
Documents the heroic true story of Warsaw Zoo keepers and resistance activists Jan and Antonina Zabinski who, in the aftermath of Germany's invasion of Poland, saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish citizens by smuggling them into empty cages and their home villa. Reprint. 70,000 first printing.
Date: November 13, 2017
|
|
|
The Good Lord Bird
by James McBride
Fleeing his violent master at the side of legendary abolitionist John Brown at the height of the slavery debate in mid-19th-century Kansas Territory, Henry pretends to be a girl to hide his identity throughout the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. By the best-selling author of The Color of Water. Reprint. Winner of the National Book Award. Movie tie-in.
Date: December 11, 2017
|
|
Daytime Book Discussion Titles - Thursdays at 10:00 a.m.
|
|
The Devil and Miss Prym : A Novel of Temptation
by Paulo Coelho
A mysterious stranger carrying a backpack containing a notebook and eleven gold bars arrives in the remote mountain village of Viscos, searching for the answer to a question that torments him: are human beings, in essence, good or evil? Reprint. 100,000 first printing.
Date: January 19, 2017
|
|
|
Just mercy : a story of justice and redemption
by Bryan Stevenson
The executive director of a social advocacy group that has helped relieve condemned prisoners explains why justice and mercy must go hand-in-hand through the story of Walter McMillian, a man condemned to death row for a murder he didn't commit. Simultaneous.
Date: February 16, 2017
|
|
|
As nature made him : the boy who was raised as a girl
by John Colapinto
The heartbreaking and muchcontested case of a boy who was surgically altered at birth to live as woman reinterprets a case that was initially hailed as proof that gender is culturally conditioned.
Date: March 16, 2017
|
|
|
Dead wake : the last crossing of the Lusitania
by Erik Larson
A chronicle of the sinking of the Lusitania discusses the factors that led to the tragedy and the contributions of such figures as Woodrow Wilson, bookseller Charles Lauriat, and architect Theodate Pope Riddle
Date: April 20, 2017
|
|
|
The pearl that broke its shell
by Nadia Hashimi
Adopting the custom of bacha posh in 2007 Kabul, which allows her to dress and be treated as a boy, attend school and chaperone her sisters until she is of marriageable age, Rahima, the daughter of a drug-addicted father, discovers that she is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. 50,000 first printing
Date: May 18, 2017
|
|
|
The soldier's wife
by Margaret Leroy
While her husband is away in the army, Vivienne de la Mare, living in a farmhouse on World War II-occupied Guernsey in the Channel Island with her two daughters and mother-in-law, falls in love with a German officer and must make a difficult decision that could tear her family apart. Original.
Date: June 15, 2017
|
|
|
The hummingbird
by Stephen P Kiernan
The skills and experience of a seasoned hospice nurse are tested by her soldier husband's battle with PTSD, whose difficulties are helped by the advice of a scandal-tainted history professor. By the award-winning author of The Curiosity.
Date: August 17, 2017
|
|
|
The whistling season
by Ivan Doig
Hired as a housekeeper to work on the early 1900s Montana homestead of widower Oliver Milliron, the irreverent and perpetually whistling Rose and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris, endeavor to educate the widower's reluctant sons while witnessing local efforts on a massive irrigation project. Reader's Guide available. Reprint.
Date: September 21, 2017
|
|
|
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.
Date: October 19, 2017
|
|
|
The Master Butchers Singing Club
by Louise Erdrich
Returning to his quiet German village home after World War I, trained killer Fidelis Waldvogel, accompanied by his wife, leaves to start a new life in America and finds his life irrevocably changed by a new relationship
Date: November 16, 2017
|
|
|
700 sundays
by Billy Crystal
A memoir based on the Emmy-nominated actor's Broadway play is a humorous and poignant portrayal of his youth that describes his experiences of growing up in a family headed by a father who worked two jobs to support the family before succumbing to heart failure when Crystal was fifteen. Reprint.
Date: December 14, 2017
|
|
|
|
|
|
|