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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. |
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Popular Fiction Book Discussion
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Tuesday, February 18th at 7:00pm The care and feeding of ravenously hungry girls by Anissa GrayWhen their formidably strong-willed eldest sister is arrested, abruptly transitioning their family from respectability to disgrace, two younger sisters confront complicated dynamics in their family and identities to uncover what really happened |
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Tuesday, March 17th at 7:00pm The braid : a novel by Laetitia ColombaniAn Indian “untouchable” who would give her daughter an education, a Sicilian wigmaker who would save her father’s business and a Canadian lawyer and single mother with cancer find their lives intertwined by a fateful object. |
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Tuesday, April 21st at 7:00pm The beekeeper of Aleppo : a novel by Christy LefteriA beekeeper and his artist wife have their lives upended and must flee after war destroys their home in Aleppo, Syria, and they set off on a dangerous journey through Turkey and Greece, towards an uncertain future in England. |
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Classics Discussion Group
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Thursday, January 23rd at 7:00pm Madame Bovary by Gustave FlaubertAn 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 |
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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" |
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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. 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 |
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"Suspense with Susie" Discussion Group
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Tuesday, November 19th at 7:00pm All the beautiful lies : a novel by Peter SwansonDevastated 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. |
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Tuesday, January 28th at 7:00pm Blood orange by Harriet TyceA 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. |
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Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00pm Blood sisters : a novel by Jane CorryYears 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 |
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Nighttime Book Discussion Group
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Monday, December 9th at 6:00pm Skipping Christmas : a novel by John GrishamLuther 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 |
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Monday, January 13th at 6:00pm A piece of the world : a novel by Christina Baker KlineTells 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. |
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Monday, February 10th at 6:00pm Chariot on the mountain by Jack FordBased 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. |
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Daytime Book Discussion Group
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Wednesday, November 20th at 12:00pm Starry night : a Christmas novel by Debbie MacomberGossip 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 |
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Wednesday, December 18th at 12:00pmSeven 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..."
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Wednesday, January 15th at 12:00pm Miller's Valley : a novel by Anna QuindlenComing 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. |
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Wednesday, February 19th at 12:00pm The story of Arthur Truluv : a novel by Elizabeth BergMaking 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 |
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Fantasy Book Discussion Group
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Tuesday, November 19th at 6:30pm The book of the unnamed midwife by Meg ElisonPhilip 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 |
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Tuesday, December 17th at 6:30pm Red rising by Pierce BrownA 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 |
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Tuesday, January 21st at 6:30pm The graveyard book by Neil GaimanAfter 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 |
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Tuesday, February 18th at 6:30pm The testaments by Margaret AtwoodA 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. |
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Thursday, December 5th at 6:00pm The lying game by Ruth WareIn 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. |
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Thursday, January 2nd at 6:00pm Stone mothers by Erin KellyDecades 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 |
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Thursday, February 6th at 6:00pm The child finder : a novel by Rene DenfeldHired 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 |
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Tuesday Morning Page Turners
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Tuesday, January 14th at 10:00am |
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Tuesday, February 11th at 10:00am Before we were yours : a novel by Lisa WingateA 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. |
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Tuesday, March 10th at 10:00am My sister, the serial killer by Oyinkan BraithwaiteRealizing 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 |
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Thursday, November 14th at 1:00pm or Thursday, November 21st at 7:15pm Circe by Madeline MillerA 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. |
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Thursday, December 12th at 1:00pm Holidays on ice by David SedarisA 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. |
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Thursday, January 9th at 1:00pm A gentleman in Moscow : A Novel by Amor TowlesDeemed 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. |
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Thursday, February 13th at 1:00pm or Thursday, February 20th at 7:15pm Disappearing Earth : a novel by Julia PhillipsThe 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. |
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Thursday, March 12th at 1:00pm or Thursday, March 19th at 7:15pm Crazy rich Asians by Kevin KwanEnvisioning 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. |
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Thursday, November 21st at 1:30pm The Underground Railroad : a novel by Colson WhiteheadAfter 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 |
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Tuesday, December 3rd at 7:15pm Tartuffe and other plays by MolièrePresents a collection of seven comedic plays representing the many facets of Moliere's genius and offering an introduction to his comic inventiveness and insight |
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Thursday, December 12th at 1:30pm The little prince by Antoine de Saint-ExupéryAn 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 |
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Thursday, July 11th at 7:30pm The Eyre affair : a novel by Jasper FfordeIn 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. |
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Thursday, August 8th at 7:30pm The Custom of the Country by Edith WhartonA 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. |
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Thursday, September 12th at 7:30pm Skeletons on the Zahara : a true story of survival by Dean KingRetracing 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. |
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Thursday, November 14th at 7:30pm Smilla's sense of snow by Peter HøegSmilla 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 |
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Thursday, December 12th at 7:30pm We'll only be discussing A Christmas Carol. |
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Thursday, January 9th at 7:30pm Our man in Havana by Graham GreeneFollows 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. |
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Thursday, February 13th at 7:30pm Great Expectations: An Overview of Charles Dickens's Life and Worksby Presented by Dr. Jessica Brent from Raritan Valley Community College2020 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. |
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Thursday, March 12th at 7:30pm The widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata MasseyIn 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 |
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Somerset County Library System of New Jersey1 Vogt Drive
P.O. Box 6700
Bridgewater, New Jersey 08807
(908) 526-4016www.sclsnj.org/ |
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