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THURSDAY EVENING BOOK GROUP
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Book discussions are held at the Library on the first Thursday of each month (excluding summer) from 7-9pm. Books are available one month prior to the discussion. You may pick up books at the previous meeting, or you may get them at the Main Desk anytime the Library is open. Please bring your library card to the meeting to check books out. In the case of cancellation for bad weather or any other reason, the meeting will be held on the following Thursday evening. Cancellation information is posted on the Library's voice mail, and announced on WCCM-Radio. All books announced here are tentative, based on availability of multiple copies. To confirm dates, book selections, or for more information, contact Krista McLeod at extension 10,
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2011-12 Schedule:
September 8 - Summer Reading Round-Up!
Join us for our annual book-review-fest of all the ooks we read this summer that we loved and hated! Come prepared to talk about at least one or two books you read this summer, and armed with a pencil to jot down suggestions from group members.
Fall Series: Such Agreeable Friends
"Animals are such agreeable friends -- they ask no questions and pass no criticisms" George Eliot, 1857
Some people have a special bond with animals, and many books have been written about this deep relationship. We have selected four titles for our fall series that explore the friendships and rivalries between humans and other species.
October 6, 2011: A visit with Walt Whitman
Stephen Collins will perform “Unlaunch’d Voices-An Evening with Walt Whitman, bringing the famed American Civil War bard to life for us. We will provide books of Whitman’s collected works for you to take home from the September meeting to brush up before you meet the poet!
November 3 : The Story of Edgar Sawtell by David Wroblewski
This daring novel is a modern take on Hamlet set in rural Wisconsin. The young hero, born mute, communicates with people, dogs, and the occasional ghost through his own mix of sign and body language. The author’s extraordinary use of language immerses readers in a living breathing world that is both fantastic and utterly believable. In selecting for temperament and a special intelligence, Edgar’s grandfather started a line of unusual dogs,--the Sawtelles—and his sons carried on his work. But among human families, undesirable traits aren’t so easily predicted and clashes can erupt with tragic force.
December 1, 2011: Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
Hordes of bloodthirsty wolves are slaughtering the arctic caribou, and the Canadian government assigns naturalist Farley Mowat to investigate. He is dropped alone onto the frozen tundra, where he begins his mission to love among the howling wolf packs and study their ways. Mowat soon discovers not a den of marauding killers but a courageous family of skillful providers and devoted protectors of their young. This non-fiction classic is also marvelous film of the same title.
January 5, 2012: Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian
This novel opens with a bang…literally…a shot from a deer-hunting rifle that hits animal-rights activist Spencer McCullough. The story of a family in crisis unfolds from this point, and questions about parenting, choices made by familes, the meaning of life, death and the mistakes we make all are touched upon in the narrative. Because it turns out that not only was the gun owned by Spencer’s brother-in-law, but the shot was fired by Spencer’s 12 year old daughter…
Februay 2, 2012 The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
A young Indian boy named Pi Patel, son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, sets off on a journey with his family to start a new life in Canada. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Often compared to big fish (which was one of our group’s selections last year), this book is about the power of stories in our lives, whether those stories are religion in nature or generated by the demands of our psyches.
Spring Series: "If Music Be the Food of Love"
Play on! Said William Shakespeare in “Twelfth Night”. Music is a powerful force in human societies, and in this series we will read books that have characters of storylines that deal with music or musicians.
March 1, 2012: Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice
Rice makes real for us the exquisite society of the 18th-century castrati, the alluring male sopranos whose glorious voices brought them the adulation of the royal courts and grand opera houses of Europe. These were men who lived as idols, concealing their pain as they were adored as angels, yet shunned as half men.
April 5, 2012: Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks This book examines the extreme effects of music on the human brain and how lives can be utterly transformed by the simples of harmonies. With clinical studies covering the tragic (individuals afflicted by an inability to connect with melody) and triumphant (Alzheimer’s patients who find order and comfort through music), Sacks provides an erudite look at the notion that humans are truly a “musical species”.
May 3, 2012 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
Cesar and Nestor Castillo come to New York City rom Cuba in 1949 with a dream of becoming mambo stars. Eventually they do—performing on “I Love Lucy” with their hero Desi Arnaz and recording with their own band, the Mambo Kings. This Pulitzer-Prize winning novel follows the band as they cruise the East Coast club circuit in a flamingo-pink bus.
June 7, 2012- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
A tale of unlikely love and secret desires, this novel employs the techniques of magical realism without fantasy. A beautiful soprano is invited to a small, poor South American country to sing at a private party for a wealthy Japanese industrialist. Just as her lovely voice trills the last note of her concert, a small group or rag-tag “terrorists” burst in and take the party guests hostage. The story that follows will haunt you.
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