Book Discussions at Somerset County Libraries
Wintertime and Book Groups: Perfect Together!
 
Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to join a book group? Want to read things a little outside your comfort zone? Want to talk about books with other lovers of books?
 
Discover an SCLSNJ Book Discussion Group.For every SCLSNJ Book Discussion Group you attend during January, February and March you will receive a ticket to enter to win one of three SCLSNJ boat totes filled with Library swag and goodies.
Bridgewater Library
Popular Fiction Book Discussion 
Tuesday, November 19th at 7:00pm
 
The book woman of Troublesome Creek : a novel
by Kim Michele Richardson

During Kentucky’s Great Depression, Pack Horse Library Project member Cussy Mary Carter, a young outcast, delivers books to the hillfolk of Troublesome Creek, hoping to spread learning in these desperate times, but not everyone is keen on her or the Library Project.
Tuesday, December 17th at 7:00pm
 
Evvie Drake starts over : a novel
by Linda Holmes

Young widow Evvie Drake and major league pitcher Dean Tenney, who has lost his game and needs a chance to reset his life, form an unlikely relationship when Dean moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie's house
Tuesday, January 21st at 7:00pm
 
Where the crawdads sing
by Delia Owens

Viewed with suspicion in the aftermath of a tragedy, a beautiful hermit who has survived for years in a marsh becomes targeted by unthinkable forces. 
Classics Discussion Group
Thursday, January 23rd at 7:00pm
 
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert

An ordinary woman's unfulfilled dreams of romantic love lead her to a series of desperate acts, including adultery, in a classic novel set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century bourgeois France
Thursday, March 26th at 7:00pm
 
Tom Jones
by Henry Fielding

"A masterful work that recaptures the spirit of 18th-century English life, Tom Jones was an instant sensation upon its 1749 publication. The mock epic traces the adventures of its lusty, good-hearted hero as he seeks his fortune in the company of thieves, whores, soldiers, and other vividly drawn characters. Beloved for its bawdy humor and biting social commentary, it ranks among the greatest of comic novels"
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.
 
November's Mystery Type:
Mysteries Set in Faraway Places
Wednesday, November 13th
10am - 11:30am
 
January's Mystery Type:
Mysteries On the Move
Wednesday, January 15th
10am - 11:30am
 
Hillsborough Library
"Suspense with Susie" Discussion Group
Tuesday, November 19th at 7:00pm
 
All the beautiful lies : a novel
by Peter Swanson

Devastated when his father commits suicide days before his college graduation, Harry returns to his home in Maine, where he is baffled by the increasingly sensual attentions of a mysterious woman and his own alluring stepmother, who he comes to realize are hiding dangerous secrets. By the award-winning author of The Girl With a Clock for A Heart. 100,000 first printing.
Tuesday, January 28th at 7:00pm
 
Blood orange
by Harriet Tyce

A young lawyer's idyllic family life and blossoming career is upended by a murder case involving a questionable confession and the lawyer's toxic affair with a manipulative senior partner.
 
Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00pm
 
Blood sisters : a novel
by Jane Corry

Years after a childhood friend dies on a sunny school morning, Kitty languishes in an institution with no memory of the accident that put her there, while Alison works as an art teacher in a prison where threatening notes and an assault on a prisoner reveal the workings of a vengeful killer
Manville Library
Nighttime Book Discussion Group
Monday, December 9th at 6:00pm
 
Skipping Christmas : a novel
by John Grisham

Luther and Nora Krank decide to avoid the chaos and frenzy of Christmas by taking a Caribbean cruise during the holidays, but their plans have unexpected consequences
Monday, January 13th at 6:00pm
 
A piece of the world : a novel
by Christina Baker Kline

Tells the story of Christina Olson, who served as the host and inspiration for artist Andrew Wyeth, despite an incapacitating illness. By the New York Times best-selling author of Orphan Train.
Monday, February 10th at 6:00pm
 
Chariot on the mountain
by Jack Ford

Based on little-known true events, a fictional account from an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist recreates a female slave's treacherous journey toward freedom during the days before the Civil War, a time when the traditions of the Old South still existed.
Daytime Book Discussion Group
Wednesday, November 20th at 12:00pm
 
Starry night : a Christmas novel
by Debbie Macomber

Gossip columnist Carrie Slayton tracks down reclusive writer Finn Dalton in the Alaskan wilds, discovering that Finn is as mysterious as his reputation suggests before facing a difficult choice between her career and her heart
Wednesday, December 18th at 12:00pm

Seven days of us
by Francesca Hornak

"A warm, wry, sharply observed debut novel about what happens when a family is forced to spend a week together in quarantine over the holidays... It's Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew's elder daughter--who is usually off saving the world--will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, she's been told she must stay in quarantine for a week...and so too should her family. For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity--and even decent Wi-FI--and forced into each other's orbits. Younger, unabashedly frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being immersed in first-world problems. As Andrew sequesters himself in his study writing scathing restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole family upside down. In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who's about to arrive..."
Wednesday, January 15th at 12:00pm
 
Miller's Valley : a novel
by Anna Quindlen

Coming of age in a dwindling 1960s farming community in eastern Pennsylvania, Mimi struggles with profound family secrets and the pain of falling in love with the wrong person against a backdrop of dynamic historical periods. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Object Lessons.
Wednesday, February 19th at 12:00pm
 
The story of Arthur Truluv : a novel
by Elizabeth Berg

Making daily visits to the grave of his beloved late wife, Arthur forges unexpected relationships with a nosy neighbor and a troubled teen who dubs him "Truluv" before the trio discovers healing and family together
Fantasy Book Discussion Group
Tuesday, November 19th at 6:30pm
 
The book of the unnamed midwife
by Meg Elison

Philip K. Dick Award Winner for Distinguished Science Fiction When she fell asleep, the world was doomed. When she awoke, it was dead. In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth's population--killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant--the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one. Gone are the pillars of civilization. All that remains is power--and the strong who possess it. A few women like her survived, though they are scarce. Even fewer are safe from the clans of men, who, driven by fear, seek to control those remaining. To preserve her freedom, she dons men's clothing, goes by false names, and avoids as many people as possible. But asthe world continues to grapple with its terrible circumstances, she'll discover a role greater than chasing a pale imitation of independence. After all, if humanity is to be reborn, someone must be its guide
Tuesday, December 17th at 6:30pm
 
Red rising
by Pierce Brown

A tale set in a bleak future society torn by class divisions follows the experiences of secret revolutionary Darrow, who after witnessing his wife's execution by an oppressive government joins a revolutionary cell and attempts to infiltrate an elite military academy
Tuesday, January 21st at 6:30pm
 
The graveyard book
by Neil Gaiman

After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own
Tuesday, February 18th at 6:30pm
 
The testaments
by Margaret Atwood

A long-anticipated sequel to the best-selling The Handmaid’s Tale is set 15 years after Offred stepped into an unknown fate and interweaves the experiences of three female narrators from Gilead. 
Thursday Thrillers
Thursday, December 5th at 6:00pm
 
The lying game
by Ruth Ware

In the wake of a woman's horrifying discovery of human remains along a scenic tidal estuary, the members of a once-inseparable clique from a second-rate boarding school near the English Channel reflect on their participation in a dangerous game of deception that contributed to the death of a teacher. 
Thursday, January 2nd at 6:00pm
 
Stone mothers
by Erin Kelly

Decades after fleeing her home and the body she helped bury, Marianne resolves to do anything to protect the life she has built against an ex's threats about coming forward. By the award-winning author of The Poison Tree
Thursday, February 6th at 6:00pm
 
The child finder : a novel
by Rene Denfeld

Hired to find a young girl who went missing three years earlier, private investigator Madison Culver embarks on a search in a remote Oregon forest, where she is forced to confront painful realities from her own past as a lost child
Mary Jacobs Library
Tuesday Morning Page Turners
Tuesday, January 14th at 10:00am
 
Killers of the Flower Moon : The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann

Presents a true account of the early 20th-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. 
Tuesday, February 11th at 10:00am
 
Before we were yours : a novel
by Lisa Wingate

A tale inspired by firsthand accounts about the notoriously corrupt Tennessee Children's Home Society follows the efforts of a Baltimore assistant D.A. to uncover her parents' fateful secrets in the wake of a political attack and a chance encounter with a stranger.
Tuesday, March 10th at 10:00am
 
My sister, the serial killer
by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Realizing that her beautiful, beloved younger sister has murdered yet another boyfriend, an embittered Nigerian woman works to direct suspicion away from the family, until a handsome doctor she fancies asks for her sister's number
North Plainfield Library
Thursday, November 14th at 1:00pm or
Thursday, November 21st at 7:15pm
 
Circe
by Madeline Miller

A highly anticipated follow-up to the award-winning The Song of Achilles follows the banished witch daughter of Titans as she hones her powers and interacts with famous mythological beings before a conflict with one of the most vengeful Olympians forces her to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals.
Thursday, December 12th at 1:00pm
 
Holidays on ice
by David Sedaris

A best-selling classic features six additional works on the joys and embarrassments of favorite holidays, in a volume that includes tales of tardy trick-or-treaters, the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to another culture, and a barnyard Secret Santa scheme gone awry.
Thursday, January 9th at 1:00pm
 
A gentleman in Moscow : A Novel
by Amor Towles

Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal in 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin, where he endures life in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold.
Thursday, February 13th at 1:00pm or
Thursday, February 20th at 7:15pm
 
 
Disappearing Earth : a novel
by Julia Phillips

The shattering disappearance of two young girls from Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula compounds the isolation and fears of a tight-woven community, connecting the lives of neighbors, witnesses, family members and a detective throughout an ensuing year of tension. A first novel.
Thursday, March 12th at 1:00pm or
Thursday, March 19th at 7:15pm
 
Crazy rich Asians
by Kevin Kwan

Envisioning a quality-time summer vacation in the humble Singapore home of a boy she hopes to marry, Chinese American Rachel Chu is unexpectedly introduced to a rich and scheming clan that viciously competes against other wealthy families and strongly opposes their son's relationship with an American girl. A first novel.
Warren Township Library
Thursday, November 21st at 1:30pm
 
The Underground Railroad : a novel
by Colson Whitehead

After Cora, a pre-Civil War Georgia slave, escapes with another slave, Caesar, they seek the help of the Underground Railroad as they flee from state to state and try to evade a slave catcher, Ridgeway, who is determined to return them to the South
Tuesday, December 3rd at 7:15pm
 
Tartuffe and other plays
by Molière

Presents a collection of seven comedic plays representing the many facets of Moliere's genius and offering an introduction to his comic inventiveness and insight
Thursday, December 12th at 1:30pm
 
The little prince
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

An aviator whose plane is forced down in the Sahara Desert encounters a little prince from a small planet who relates his adventures in seeking the secret of what is important in life
Watchung Library
Thursday, July 11th at 7:30pm
 
The Eyre affair : a novel
by Jasper Fforde

In a world where you can actually get lost (literally) in literature, Thursday Next, a notorious Special Operative in literary detection, races against time to stop the world's Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature, forcing her to dive into the pages of a novel to stop literary homicide, in a wildly imaginative, mesmerizing thriller. 
Thursday, August 8th at 7:30pm
 
The Custom of the Country
by Edith Wharton

A novel of manners by Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country is the story of Undine Spragg, a young woman with social aspirations who convinces her nouveau riche parents to leave the Midwest and settle in New York.
Thursday, September 12th at 7:30pm
Skeletons on the Zahara : a true story of survival
by Dean King

Retracing an epic eight-hundred-mile journey, the author of Patrick O'Brien: A Life Revealed chronicles the hardships encountered by twelve American sailors who, in 1815, were shipwrecked on the coast of North Africa, captured, sold into slavery, and sent on a difficult odyssey through the perilous heart of the Sahara.
Thursday, November 14th at 7:30pm
 
Smilla's sense of snow
by Peter Høeg

Smilla Jaspersen befriends her neighbor, a six-year ld boy who appears to be neglected, but when he dies in what is termed a tragic accident, Smilla begins to suspect that he was murdered
Thursday, December 12th at 7:30pm
 
A Christmas Carol and other holiday treasures : And Other Holiday Treasures
by Charles Dickens
 
We'll only be discussing A Christmas Carol.
Thursday, January 9th at 7:30pm
 
Our man in Havana
by Graham Greene

Follows the plight of Wormold, a former vacuum cleaner salesman, who becomes a slave to the expensive whims of his thirteen-year-old daughter, Milly, and takes on a job for MI6 as Secret Agent 5920015 to pay for them.
Thursday, February 13th at 7:30pm
 
Great Expectations: An Overview of Charles Dickens's Life and Works
by Presented by Dr. Jessica Brent from Raritan Valley Community College

2020 marks the 150th anniversary of Charles Dickens's death. Charles Dickens (February 7, 1812 to June 9, 1870) was a British novelist, journalist, editor, illustrator and social commentator during Britain's Victorian period. Dickens wrote such beloved classic novels as "Oliver Twist," "A Christmas Carol," "Nicholas Nickleby," "David Copperfield," "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations." Learn about his life and some of his novels in this program. This event will take place during the monthly WGL book discussion.
Thursday, March 12th at 7:30pm
 
The widows of Malabar Hill
by Sujata Massey

In 1921, Bombay's first female lawyer, Oxford graduate Perveen Mistry, investigates a suspicious will on behalf of three Muslim widows living in strict seclusion who become subject to a murderous guardian's schemes for their inheritances
Somerset County Library System of New Jersey1 Vogt Drive
P.O. Box 6700
Bridgewater, New Jersey 08807
(908) 526-4016
www.sclsnj.org/