Book Discussions Tonight and Beyond

If you haven't joined a book discussion, or if you've been thinking about coming back, try one of our upcoming events.  We love new members!  Copies of books are available at the checkout desk for readers signing up for the discussion, or by request.

Tonight, at 6:30, there will be a discussion of
The Memory Palace ,  a nonfiction  book by Mira Bartok.  When piano prodigy Norma Herr was healthy, she was the most vibrant personality in the room. But as her schizophrenic episodes became more frequent and more dangerous, she withdrew into a world that neither of her daughters could make any sense of. Next month's nonfiction book will be Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave  by Adam Alter, on Tuesday, October 8, at 6:30 p.m. Why are people named Kim, Kelly, and Ken more likely to donate to Hurricane Katrina victims than to Hurricane Rita victims? Are you really more likely to solve puzzles if you watch a light bulb illuminate? How did installing blue lights along a Japanese railway line halt rising crime and suicide rates? Drunk Tank Pink is the first detailed exploration of how our environment shapes what we think, how we feel, and the ways we behave.

Next week, our fiction group will meet and talk about the bestselling novel, The Kitchen House  by Kathleen Grissom, on Monday, September 16, at 1 p.m.  When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family.The Kitchen House  is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail.  In October, we'll travel to the world of Henry VIII and discuss Bring Up the Bodies  by Hilary Mantel on Monday, October 21, at 1 p.m.  Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice.  Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne’s head?  

Love reading mysteries and thrillers? Join Book 'Em!  Our next book is The Poacher’s Son  by Paul Doiron, to be discussed on Monday, September 23, at 12:30 p.m. Set in the wilds of Maine, this is an explosive tale of an estranged son thrust into the hunt for a murderous fugitive--his own father. This is the first in Doiron's award winning series featuring game warden Mike Bowditch.  Next month we'll travel back in time and discuss Maisie Dobbs  by Jacqueline Winspear, on Monday, October 28, at 12:30 p.m.  Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence and the patronage of her benevolent employers, she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.