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Great Decisions Discussion Group - LL Conf (NBL)
Thursday, March 1 and 8, 7:15 pm
LL Conf. Room
This discussion group is sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association and is a national program that reviews eight current foreign policy issues. A book is required to fully participate in the discussion and can be ordered at www.fpa.org either as an electronic version or a paperback. Each topic has background material and discussion questions in the book. Each topic is completed in one night so participants can attend or only one. For more information and to register contact Becky Glimco at beckyglimco@aol.com or 630-881-4948.
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Reader's Night Out (NIC)
Monday, March 5, 7:00 pm
Quigley's Irish Pub, 43 E. Jefferson St.
Socialize with other readers at Quigley's Irish Pub in downtown Naperville and share recent reads and favorite titles. Arrive at 6:15 p.m. to purchase dinner, or join the group at 7 p.m. for the discussion only. *Program requires advance registration.
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Out of This World Book Club (NIC)
Wednesday, March 7, 7:00 pm
Program Room
"The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" by Patricia McKillip
Young Sybel, the heiress of powerful wizards, needs the company of no-one outside her gates. In her exquisite stone mansion, she is attended by exotic, magical beasts: Riddle-master Cyrin the boar; the treasure-starved dragon Gyld; Gules the Lyon, tawny master of the Southern Deserts; Ter, the fiercely vengeful falcon; Moriah, feline Lady of the Night. Sybel only lacks the exquisite and mysterious Liralen, which continues to elude her most powerful enchantments.
But when a soldier bearing an infant arrives, Sybel discovers that the world of man and magic is full of both love and deceit, and the possibility of more power than she can possibly imagine.
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Read Aloud Book Club (95th)
Thursday, March 8 & 22, 10:00 am
Lookout Room
Reading aloud is a long-standing social tradition. Historically, families often read together as a form of entertainment, and factory workers had books read to them as a way to relieve the tedium. Naperville Public Library is reaching out in that tradition with its Read Aloud Book Club for adults who wish to enjoy and explore the written word in this historical format. The book club is open to all adult readers, especially those who are learning English. Short stories will be read at a pace determined by the group.
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Criminal Spines Book Club (NBL)
Thursday, March 8, 7:00 pm
Program Room
"Magpie Murders" by Anthony Horowitz
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job. Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder. Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective.
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Readers' Rendezvous Daytime Book Club (NIC)
Tuesday, March 13, 11:00 am
Program Room
"Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren
An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world. Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more. Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s remarkable stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work. Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with a brilliant, wounded man named Bill, who becomes her lab partner and best friend. Their sometimes rogue adventures in science take them from the Midwest across the United States and back again, over the Atlantic to the ever-light skies of the North Pole and to tropical Hawaii, where she and her lab currently make their home.
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Great Books Reading and Discussion Group
Tuesday, March 20, 7:00 pm
LL Conf. Room
"Politics" by Aristotle
The Politics is one of the most influential texts in the history of political thought, and it raises issues which still confront anyone who wants to think seriously about the ways in which human societies are organized and governed. By examining the way societies are run--from households to city states--Aristotle establishes how successful constitutions can best be initiated and upheld.
The readers are from "The Great Books Reading and Discussion Program, Second Series, Volume 1." The book is available on a first-come, first-served basis at Naper Blvd. and Nichols Library. Book can be purchased by visiting the Great Books Foundation website, www.greatbooks.org, or try abedbook.com.
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Readers' Choice Book Club (95th)
Wednesday, March 21, 10:30 am
Lookout Room
"The Gilded Years" by Karin Tanabe
Since childhood, Anita Hemmings has longed to attend the country’s most exclusive school for women, Vassar College. Now, a bright, beautiful senior in the class of 1897, she is hiding a secret that would have banned her from admission: Anita is the only African-American student ever to attend Vassar. With her olive complexion and dark hair, this daughter of a janitor and descendant of slaves has successfully passed as white, but now finds herself rooming with Louise “Lottie” Taylor, the scion of one of New York’s most prominent families. Though Anita has kept herself at a distance from her classmates, Lottie’s sphere of influence is inescapable, her energy irresistible, and the two become fast friends. Pulled into her elite world, Anita learns what it’s like to be treated as a wealthy, educated white woman—the person everyone believes her to be—and even finds herself in a heady romance with a moneyed Harvard student. It’s only when Lottie becomes infatuated with Anita’s brother, Frederick, whose skin is almost as light as his sister’s, that the situation becomes particularly perilous. And as Anita’s college graduation looms, those closest to her will be the ones to dangerously threaten her secret. Set against the vibrant backdrop of the Gilded Age, an era when old money traditions collided with modern ideas, Tanabe has written an unputdownable and emotionally compelling story of hope, sacrifice, and betrayal—and a gripping account of how one woman dared to risk everything for the chance at a better life.
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