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Book Discussion Groups 2014
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Read the book and come for a lively discussion. Copies are available at the Adult Circulation desk one month prior to the meeting. New members are always welcome! No registration required.
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Daytime Book Discussion - 3rd Wednesday of the month - 10:00am
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Washington Squareby Henry JamesWednesday, January 15, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m. Rejected by the man she loves when he discovers that her father will disinherit her if they marry, Catherine Sloper again meets Morris Townsend after the death of her forbidding and domineering parent.
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The Last Newspaperman : a novelby Mark Di IonnoWednesday, February 19, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m. Jersey in the '30s was Fred Haines s beat, though it was hardly worthy of the reporter who d scooped the Ruth Snyder story back in '27. "The most famous Daily News cover ever," Haines bragged. His photo showed Snyder strapped to the electric chair. "Respectable" papers denounced it as vulgar, but it sold millions of copies and cemented Haines s reputation as the go-to "tabloid guy" just as celebrity worship was becoming an American obsession.
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The Aviator's Wife : a novelby Melanie BenjaminWednesday, March 19, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.A story inspired by the marriage between Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh traces the romance between a handsome young aviator and a shy ambassador's daughter whose relationship is marked by wild international acclaim, history-making flights and the world-shocking abduction of their child.
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Go Tell It on the Mountainby James BaldwinWednesday, April 16, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.Renowned black author James Baldwin's classic first novel captures a vivid and provocative portrait of the African-American experience.
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Butterfield 8by John O'HaraWednesday, May 21, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.Representing the letter “O” in a series of twenty-six collectible editions, this tale of a down and out woman in post-Depression era New York City reveals the shocking truths that hide beneath the surface of a so-called polite society.
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The Round Houseby Louise ErdrichWednesday, June 18, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 14-year-old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family.
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Song Yet Sungby James McBrideWednesday, July 16, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.A tale set against a backdrop of slave rights conflicts in the nineteenth-century Chesapeake Bay region finds young runaway Liz Spocott inadvertently inspiring a slave breakout from the attic prison of a notorious slave thief who vengefully calls slave catcher Denwood Long out of retirement.
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The Human Stainby Philip RothWednesday, August 20, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.In an insightful new novel by the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author of I Married a Communist, a college professor with a sexual indiscretion in his past is hounded from his job by academic enemies who label him a racist.
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Runaway : Storiesby Alice MunroWednesday, September 17, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.
A new collection of short fiction by the acclaimed author of The Love of a Good Woman captures the lives of women of all ages and circumstances, as they deal with the limits and lies of passion, unfulfilled dreams, motherhood, betrayal, and the bonds of love--between men and women, friends, and parents and children.
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The Greater Journey : Americans in Paris(Part 1 & 2) by David G. McCulloughWednesday, October 15, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.The best-selling author of 1776 tells the story of the generations of American artists, writer, and doctors who traveled to Paris--the intellectual, scientific, and artistic capital of the western world; fell in love with the city and its people; and changed America through what they learned there.
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The Greater Journey : Americans in Paris(Part 3) by David G. McCulloughWednesday, November 19, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.The best-selling author of 1776 tells the story of the generations of American artists, writer, and doctors who traveled to Paris--the intellectual, scientific, and artistic capital of the western world; fell in love with the city and its people; and changed America through what they learned there.
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Tender is the nightby F. Scott FitzgeraldWednesday, December 17, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.A story of Americans living on the French Riviera in the 1930s is a portrait of psychological disintegration as a wealthy couple supports friends and hangers-on financially and emotionally at the cost of their own stability
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Evening Book Discussion - 1st Tuesday of the month - 7:30 pm
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This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tuesday, January 7, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.
A critical account of its own era, introducing many themes which would be developed in later works, Fitzgerald's first novel was an instant critical and commercial success, propelling him into the limelight as a literary celebrity. Charting the life of Amory Blaine, an ambitious young man loosely based on Fitzgerald himself, this novels follow him as he moves from his well-heeled Midwest home to study at Princeton, and then starts frequenting the circles of high society as an aspiring writer. Experiencing failure and frustration in love and in his career, Blaine finds his youthful enthusiasm gradually giving way to disillusionment, cynicism, and a life of dissolution. A critical account of its own era, introducing many themes which would be developed in later works, Fitzgerald's first novel was an instant critical and commercial success, propelling him into the limelight as a literary celebrity.
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The Emperor of All Maladies : a Biography of Cancerby Siddhartha MukherjeeTuesday, February 4, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.A historical assessment of cancer addresses both the courageous battles against the complex disease and the misperceptions and hubris that have compromised modern understandings, providing coverage of such topics as ancient-world surgeries and the developments of present-day treatments. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in NonFiction.
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The Round Houseby Louise ErdrichTuesday, March 4, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 14-year-old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family. Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.
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The Last Newspaperman : a Novelby Mark Di IonnoTuesday, April 1, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.Jersey in the '30s was Fred Haines s beat, though it was hardly worthy of the reporter who d scooped the Ruth Snyder story back in '27. "The most famous Daily News cover ever," Haines bragged. His photo showed Snyder strapped to the electric chair. "Respectable" papers denounced it as vulgar, but it sold millions of copies and cemented Haines s reputation as the go-to "tabloid guy" just as celebrity worship was becoming an American obsession.
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The Woman in Whiteby Wilkie CollinsTuesday, May 6, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.When Walter Hartwright encounters a solitary, terrified, beautiful woman dressed in white on a moonlit night in London, he feels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress. The story, full of secrets, locked rooms, lost memories, and surprise revelations, features heroine Marian Halcombe and drawing-master Walter Hartright as sleuthing partners pitted against the diabolical Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde. This gothic psychological thriller, a mesmerizing tale of murder, intrigue, madness, and mistaken identity, has gripped the imagination of readers since its first publication in 1860. The breathtaking tension of Collins's narrative created a new literary genre of suspense fiction, which profoundly shaped the course of English popular writing.
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TransAtlantic : a Novel
by Colum McCann
Tuesday, June 3, 201 @ 7:30 p.m.
A tale spanning 150 years and two continents reimagines the peace efforts of democracy champion Frederick Douglass, Senator George Mitchell and World War I airmen John Alcock and Teddy Brown through the experiences of four generations of women from a matriarchal clan. By the National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin.
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Quiet : the Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
by Susan Cain
Tuesday, July 1, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.
A former Wall Street attorney, business coach and creator of ThePowerofIntroverts.com demonstrates how introverted people are misunderstood and undervalued in today's culture, charting the rise of extrovert ideology while sharing anecdotal examples to counsel readers on how to use introvert talents to adapt to various situations and empower introverted children.
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The Complete Plays
by Aristophanes
Tuesday, August 5, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.
Presents a lively new translation of the eleven surviving satirical plays of the great ancient Greek playwright, including such comedy classics as The Birds, Lysistrata, The Clouds, The Frogs, and The Wasps. Original.
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When Pride Still Mattered : a Life of Vince Lombardi
by David Maraniss
Tuesday, September 9, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.
Demythologizing one of the most mythical figures in sports history, a new biography of football coach Vince Lombardi covers his Italian-American roots, his Jesuit training, his relationships with wife and family, and his rise to prominence. Author Maraniss has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting with the Washington Post.
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Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Tuesday, October 7, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.
The classic novel of a man who created a monster, a study of a scientist who ventures into forbidden territory and his creation, who struggles to find his own place in a world that denies him.
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Runaway : Stories
by Alice Munro
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.
A new collection of short fiction by the acclaimed author of The Love of a Good Woman captures the lives of women of all ages and circumstances, as they deal with the limits and lies of passion, unfulfilled dreams, motherhood, betrayal, and the bonds of love--between men and women, friends, and parents and children.
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Book of Ages : the Life and Opinions of Jane Franklinby Jill LeporeTuesday, December 2, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m.A revelatory portrait of the founding father's youngest sister, Jane, draws on correspondence, artifacts and recently discovered portraits to reveal how in spite of obscurity and poverty she was, like her brother, a passionate reader, gifted writer and shrewd political commentator who made insightful observations about an early America.
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