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Book Discussions at Somerset County Libraries |
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Popular Fiction Book Discussion
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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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Tuesday, July 17th at 7:00pm Something like happy by Eva WoodsThirty-five-year-old Annie Hebden is stuck in a rut until her bubbly new friend, Polly Leonard, challenges her to try a new way to be happy each day for 100 days. |
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Tuesday, August 21st 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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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. July's Mystery Type: Any Holiday Mysteries Wednesday, July 11th 10am - 11:30am |
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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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Tuesday, August 7th at 7:00pm Manhattan Beach by Jennifer EganYears after she is placed in the hands of a stranger vital to her family's survival, Anna takes a job at the Brooklyn Naval Yard during the war while meeting with the man who helped them and learning important truths about her father's disappearance. |
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"Suspense with Susie" Discussion Group
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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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Tuesday, September 25th at 7:00pm Behind closed doors by B. A. ParisThe friends of a seemingly perfect socialite couple begin to see cracks in the façade when they realize that the husband and wife are never apart and that there are bars on one of the couple's upstairs windows |
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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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Monday, July 9th at 6:00pm I let you go by Clare MackintoshDevastated by a hit-and-run accident that has ended the life of her young son, Jenna moves to the remote Welsh coast to search for healing while two dedicated policemen try to get to the bottom of the case. |
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Wednesday, July 18th at 12:00pm Seating arrangements by Maggie ShipsteadPossessing a Harvard education and all of the accoutrements of a privileged life, Winn Van Meter attends the wedding of his eldest daughter, which is scandalized by the bride's advancing pregnancy, her sister's broken heart and the seductive machinations of wedding party members. |
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Monday, August 13th at 6:00pm Commonwealth : a novel by Ann PatchettA five-decade saga tracing the impact of an act of infidelity on the parents and children of two Southern California families traces their shared summers in Virginia and the disillusionment that shapes their lasting bond. |
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Wednesday, August 15th at 12:00pm The stars are fire by Anita ShreveA novel based on the true story of the largest fire in Maine's history follows the experiences of a pregnant woman who struggles to protect her two young children and watches her home burn while her husband joins the volunteer firefighters. |
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Tuesday Morning Page Turners
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Tuesday, June 12th at 10:00am The help by Kathryn StockettLimited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project against a backdrop of the budding civil rights era. |
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Tuesday, July 12th at 10:00am Mennonite in a little black dress : a memoir of going home by Rhoda JanzenA poet describes how, after her husband left her for a relationship with a man and she subsequently was seriously injured in a car crash, she returned home to her close-knit Mennonite family and came to terms with her failed marriage and her choices in life |
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Tuesday, August 14th at 10:00am The sense of an ending by Julian BarnesFollows a middle-aged man as he reflects on a past he thought was behind him, until he is presented with a legacy that forces him to reconsider different decisions, and to revise his place in the world |
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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, July 25th at 7:00pm All our wrong todays : a novel by Elan MastaiLiving in an alternate world of flying cars, moon bases and plentiful food, aimless Tom Barren is blindsided by an accident of fate that leads to a time-travel mishap that lands him in our less-than-ideal 2016, where he discovers wonderful unexpected versions of his own life. |
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Thursday, June 14th at 1:00pm and Thursday, June 21st at 7:15pm 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. 350,000 first printing. |
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Thursday, July 12th at 1:00pm Americanah : a novel by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieSeparated by differing ambitions after falling in love in occupied Nigeria, beautiful Ifemelu experiences triumph and defeat in America, while Obinze endures an undocumented status in London until the pair is reunited in their homeland fifteen years later |
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Thursday, August 9th at 1:00pm The curious charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra PatrickFinding a mysterious bracelet among his late wife's possessions, 69-year-old Arthur Pepper breaks from his routine life for the first time since her death and embarks on a quest to learn about his wife's life before their marriage, a journey that leads to unexpected self-discoveries. |
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Thursday, June 7th at 1:30pm The Alice Network by Kate QuinnIn 1947, pregnant Charlie St. Clair, an American college girl banished from her family, arrives in London to find out what happened to her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, and meets a former spy who, torn apart by betrayal, agrees to help her on her mission. |
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Wednesday, June 27th at 7:15pm Mozart's last aria : a novel by Matt ReesIn 1791 Austria, Madame Maria Anna Berchtold von Sonnenburg journeys to Vienna to pay her final respects to her brother, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who died under mysterious circumstances, and becomes submerged in a world of suspicion and intrigue. |
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Thursday, July 12th at 1:30pm Every Note Played by Lisa GenovaA once-celebrated concert pianist who is gradually succumbing to ALS is forced to accept help from the estranged wife he pushed away, a situation that forces the couple to reconcile their past before time runs out. By the best-selling author of Still Alice. |
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Wednesday, July 25th at 7:15pm The women in the castle by Jessica ShattuckIn a novel set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, three widows' lives and fates become intertwined. |
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Thursday, August 9th at 1:30pm Tuck everlasting by Natalie BabbittThe Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when they discover that a ten-year-old girl and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from ever growing any older |
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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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Thursday, July 12th at 7:30pm Kingfishers catch fire by Rumer GoddenIn colonial India, Sophie Barrington Ward, a recently widowed Englishwoman with two young children, tries to make a life for her family in a small village, but her disregard for local politics and customs results in a near-tragic misunderstanding |
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Thursday, August 9th at 7:30pm Death Of Ivan Ilych And Other Stories by Leo TolstoyDrawing on the experience of his own struggle to find enlightenment and a deeper spiritual understanding of life, Tolstoy in The Death of Ivan Ilyich takes us on the final journey towards death with Ivan Ilych, who, falling victim to an incurable illness, ponders on his own life its shallowness and lack of compassion, wondering what is the meaning of it all. At times somber, at times satirical, Tolstoy's novel raises questions about the way we live and how we should strive even at the end to seek final redemption. It is a powerful masterpiece of psychological exploration, and has influenced writers as diverse as Hemingway and Nabokov. |
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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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