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Book Discussions at Somerset County Libraries |
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Popular Fiction Book Discussion
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Tuesday, April 17th at 7:00pm Wonder by R. J. PalacioTen-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student |
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Tuesday, May 15th at 7:00pm The almost sisters by Joshilyn JacksonSwept off her feet by a costumed man at a comics convention, a graphic novelist discovers that she is pregnant with a biracial child and avoids telling her conventional Southern family while assisting her elderly grandmother, who has been hiding a dangerous secret linked to the Civil War. |
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Tuesday, June 12th at 7:00pm How to stop time by Matt HaigA man with a secret rare condition that has enabled him to survive for centuries moves to London to become a high-school history teacher and considers defying his protective guardians' rule against falling in love when he becomes entranced by a captivating colleague. |
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Mysterious Mornings
Love a good mystery? Always looking for a new book because you've read EVERYTHING by your favorite author? Or do you just really enjoy reading mysteries? come and join our Mysterious Morning discussions!
Every other month we'll discuss a different sub-genre of mysteries. Pick a book from an author you haven't read already and tell the group all about it. There's only one big rule -- don't tell us how it ends!
A list of suggested authors and titles are available at the Bridgewater Library and books will be on display about a month prior to the discussion. (If you're a voracious mystery reader you can read more than one. May's Mystery Type: Gothic Suspense Wednesday, May 9th 10am - 11:30am July's Mystery Type: Any Holiday Mysteries Wednesday, July 11th 10am - 11:30am |
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Tuesday, April 3rd at 7:00pm Little fires everywhere : a novel by Celeste NgFighting an ugly custody battle with an artistic tenant who has little regard for the strict rules of their progressive Cleveland suburb, a straitlaced family woman who is seeking to adopt a baby becomes obsessed with exposing the tenant's past, only to trigger devastating consequences for both of their families. |
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Tuesday, June 5th at 7:00pm Behold the dreamers : a novel by Imbolo MbueTwo marriages, one immigrant working class and the other from the top one percent, are shaped by financial circumstances, infidelities, secrets and the 2008 recession. |
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"Suspense with Susie" Discussion Group
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Tuesday, May 29th at 7:00pm Unraveling Oliver by Liz NugentA best-selling debut from Ireland follows a shocking act of violence committed by a successful and charismatic writer of children's books on his wife and literary partner, an attack that leaves her in a coma and causes their baffled friends and family to investigate what happened. |
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Tuesday, July 24th at 7:00pm It's always the husband by Michele CampbellA debut suspense novel by a former New York City federal prosecutor depicts an increasingly troubled friendship among three former college roommates who reflect on their shared experiences and growing animosity when one of them is found dead. |
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Historical Fiction Book Discussion Group
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Wednesday, May 18th at 3:00pm Lilac girls : a novel by Martha Hall KellyThe lives of three women converge at the Ravensbrück concentration camp as one resolves to help from her post at the French consulate, one becomes a courier in the Polish resistance, and one takes a German government medical position |
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Monday, April 9th at 6:00pm The nightingale by Kristin HannahReunited when the elder's husband is sent to fight in World War II, French sisters Vianne and Isabelle find their bond as well as their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways. Discussion guide available online. |
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Wednesday, April 18th at 12:00pm Brooklyn : a novel by Colm TóibÃnLeaving her home in post-World War II Ireland to work as a bookkeeper in Brooklyn, Eilis Lacey discovers a new romance in America with a charming blond Italian man before devastating news threatens her happiness |
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Monday, May 14th at 6:00pm Hillbilly elegy : a memoir of a family and culture in crisis by J. D. VanceShares the poignant story of the author's family and upbringing, describing how they moved from poverty to an upwardly mobile clan that included the author, a Yale Law School graduate, while navigating the demands of middle-class life and the collective demons of the past. |
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Wednesday, May 16th at 12:00pm Elizabeth is missing by Emma HealeyWhen Maud, an aging grandmother who is slowly losing her memory, is convinced that her best friend Elizabeth is missing and in terrible danger, she becomes obsessed with saving her beloved friend despite the fact that no one—not even her daughter, the police and Elizabeth's son— believe her. |
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Monday, June 11th at 6:00pm The Testament by John GrishamA suicidal billionaire, a burnt-out Washington litigator, and a woman who has forsaken technology to work in the wilds of Brazil are all brought together by an astounding mystery of the testament. |
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Wednesday, June 20th at 12:00pm The good dream by Donna VanLiereDenounced by her 1950 Tennessee community as an old maid, 30-something Ivorie Walker hides her loneliness and grief over her mother's death behind good-humored independence before advocating on behalf of a feral boy who has been stealing vegetables from her garden. |
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Tuesday Morning Page Turners
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Tuesday, April 10th at 10:00am The Japanese lover : a novel by Isabel AllendeA multigenerational epic by the New York Times best-selling author of The House of the Spirits follows the impossible romance between a World War II escapee from the Nazis and a Japanese gardener's son, whose story is discovered decades later by a care worker who would come to terms with her past. |
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Tuesday, May 8th at 10:00am American fire : love, arson, and life in a vanishing land by Monica HesseThe Washington Post reporter and author of Girl in the Blue Coat documents the trial of a man who was charged with dozens of counts of arson in rural Virginia county, sharing insight into the perpetrator's struggles with addiction, his relationship with his accomplice girlfriend and the impact of the fires on their community. |
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Pathways Book Discussion Group
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Saturday, April 21st at 10:00am |
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Science Fiction Discussion Group
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Wednesday, April 25th at 7:00pm Wool by Hugh HoweyIn a future toxic landscape, a community that lives in an underground silo is rocked by the desire of Sheriff Holston, who has upheld the group's rules for years, to go outside, setting in motion events that kindle the fire of revolution |
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Thursday, April 12th at 1:00pm Still me by Jojo MoyesThe irrepressible Louisa Clark from Me Before You and After You arrives in New York to start a new life and a long-distance relationship with Ambulance Sam while working for the super-wealthy Gopniks, a job that introduces her to New York high society and a secretive man who reminds her of her own past. |
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Thursday, April 19th at 7:15pm My beloved world by Sonia SotomayorThe first Hispanic-American on the U.S. Supreme Court shares the story of her life before becoming a judge, describing such experiences as her youth in a Bronx housing project, her relationship with a passionately spiritual grandparent, the ambition that fueled her ivy-league education and the individuals who helped shaped her career. |
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Thursday, May 10th at 1:00pm and Thursday, May 17th at 7:15pm Before the fall by Noah HawleyThe stories of the wealthy victims of a plane crash intertwine with those of a down-on-his-luck painter and a four-year-old boy, the tragedy's only survivors, as odd coincidences surrounding the crash point to a possible conspiracy |
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Peapack-Gladstone Library
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Wednesday, March 28th at 7:00pm To accompany and enhance our book pick, Kathleen Carlucci, Director of The Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park will present a lecture and discussion about the "Wizard of Menlo Park", Thomas Edison. Edison was a pioneer in so many fields and he managed to streamline the process of invention during his auspicious career. The last days of night : a novel by Graham MooreWhen electric light innovator Thomas Edison sues his only remaining rival for patent infringement, George Westinghouse hires untested Columbia Law School graduate Paul Ravath for a case fraught with lies, betrayals and deception. By the best-selling author of The Sherlockian. |
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Thursday, April 12th at 1:30pm If the creek don't rise : a novel by Leah WeissOne of innumerable women in a North Carolina mountain town facing a bleak future with a dangerous alcoholic husband, Sadie considers a different life when a stranger sweeps in and knocks the world off-kilter for the entire community. |
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Wednesday, April 25th at 7:15pm The wonder : a novel by Emma DonoghueHired to care for a small Irish village girl said to have miraculously survived on nothing but "manna from heaven" for months, a journalist and nurse veteran of Florence Nightingale's Crimean campaign quickly finds herself fighting to save the child's life. By the best-selling author of Room. |
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Thursday, May 10th at 1:30pm The zookeeper's wife : A War Story by Diane AckermanDocuments 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. |
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Wednesday, May 23rd at 7:15pm The Lost City of the Monkey God : a true story by Douglas J PrestonThe co-author of the FBI Agent Pendergast series presents a high-suspense account of the discovery of a lost civilization, contemporaries of the Mayans who lived deep in the Honduran jungle. 150,000 first printing. |
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Thursday, April 12th at 7:30pm The street of a thousand blossoms by Gail TsukiyamaRaised by loving and traditionally minded grandparents, Japanese youths Hiroshi and Kenji are forced to put their dreams on hold in the wake of World War II and find their destinies intertwining with those of a famous sumo master's daughters. |
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Thursday, May 10th at 7:30pm Special Presentation by the Author! The Straight Spouse: A Memoir by Vivian FransenThe Straight Spouse: A Memoir is a love story about a woman who is married to a man who turns out to be gay -- and how she deals with it in unexpected ways. This story takes place in the early 1990s, and she believes she is the only woman in the world to face this unthinkable threat to her marriage. Her journey -- sometimes disturbing, sometimes uplifting is about the importance of letting go and finding one s own way through hard times. |
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Thursday, June 14th at 7:30pm Night by Elie WieselThe narrative of a boy who lived through Auschwitz and Buchenwald provides a short and terrible indictment of modern humanity |
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