Main Library Book Group
No meetings in July and August—this fall, we will resume meeting on the second Monday of the month, starting September 8th.
2nd Monday of the month from 7-8:30 PM
Led by at Main Library – 361 Washington St. No sign-up is necessary. The book is available at the circulation desk one month before the discussion.
(See Rosalie's recent recommendations.)
Frances Itani, Remembering the Bones
Oct 20, 2008 Main Library
A lyrical, emotionally complex novel as the narrator, born on April 21, 1926, the exact same day as Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, reflects on her life and times during a sudden difficult time.
Alice Greenway, White Ghost Girls
Nov 10, 2008 Main Library
A first novel. A haunting story of sibling love and danger set in Hong Kong during the Vietnam war. Two sisters tumble into their teenage years against an extraordinary backdrop both sensuous and dangerous.
Jim Shepard, Like You'd Understand, Anyway: Stories
Dec 8, 2008 Main Library
From a veteran fiction writer, a collection of tightly written short stories set from Chernobyl to Bridgeport, with a host of narrators.
Natalie Angier, The Canon: a Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
Jan 12, 2009 Main Library
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times on the great issues of our time—from stem cells and bird flu to evolution and global warming.
Maggie O'Farrell, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Feb 9, 2009 Main Library
A great-aunt, after being committed to a mental institution for sixty years is declared sane and safe enough to be released and live with a great-niece who has never heard of her. An intricate novel of family tensions, secrets, malice and longings.
Susan Richards Shreve, Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven
Mar 9, 2009 Main Library
A memoir of a childhood, an illness, family and friendships in the 1950s.
John Burnham Schwartz, The Commoner
Apr 13, 2009 Main Library
Narrated by an unhappy empress, this novel vividly evokes the secrets and ceremonies of the Japanese imperial palace.
Andrew Sean Greer, The Story of a Marriage
May 11, 2009 Main Library
A novel that is a microcosm of the changing times in the 1950s through the life of a young African-American woman and her marriage. Lyrical and surprising.
Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge
Jun 8, 2009 Main Library
Thirteen linked stories bring to life a hardscrabble Maine town seen through the eyes of a retired school teacher. Honest and empathetic, the main character is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life.