WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen Date: September 18, 2008
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Depression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them hope.
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AN ARSONIST'S GUIDE TO WRITERS' HOMES IN NEW ENGLAND by Brock Clarke Date: October 16, 2008
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Sam Pulsifer is determined to put his past behind him after serving a prison term for torching an American literary landmark and killing two people in the blaze, but when the homes of notable American writers begin to go up in smoke, his history makes him the prime suspect.
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TEAM OF RIVALS: THE POLITICAL GENIUS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN by Doris Kearns Goodwin Date: November 20, 2008
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
An analysis of Abraham Lincoln's political talents identifies the character strengths and abilities that enabled his successful election above three accomplished candidates, in an account that also describes how he used the same abilities to rally former opponents in forming his cabinet and winning the Civil War.
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Date: December 18, 2008
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
RUN by Ann Patchett Date: January 15, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Struggling with single parenthood and a scandal that cost him his political career, Bernard Doyle fights his disappointment with his adopted sons' career choices before a violent event forces the members of his family to reconsider their priorities.
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THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neale Hurston (THE BIG READ) Date: February 19, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
An enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams.
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BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak Date: March 12, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel - a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
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DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson Date: April 16, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
An account of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 relates the stories of two men who shaped the history of the event - architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and serial killer Herman Mudgett.
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A PAINTED HOUSE by John Grisham Date: May 21, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder are seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy in a 1950s Southern cotton-farming community. Check the catalog
MY STROKE OF INSIGHT by Jill Bolte Taylor Date: June 18, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
A brain scientists recounts her experiences after suffering a stroke at the age of thirty-seven, describing her discovery of differences in the left and right side of the brain and the steps she took over a period of eight years to recover her health. Check the catalog
LOVING FRANK by Nancy Horan Date: July 16, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society. Check the catalog
NETHERLAND by Joseph O'Neill Date: August 20, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Abandoned amid the offbeat inhabitants of the Chelsea Hotel when his English wife and son return to London following September 11th, Hans, a banker originally from the Netherlands, struggles to find himself in his adopted country. Check the catalog
MARCH by Geraldine Brooks Date: September 17, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
In a story inspired by the father character in "Little Women" and drawn from the journals and letters of Louisa May Alcott's father, a man leaves behind his family to serve in the Civil War and finds his beliefs challenged by his experiences. Check the catalog
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov Date: October 15, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
A novel that studies the moral disintegration of a man whose obsessive desire to possess his step-daughter destroys the lives of those around him.
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EMBERS by Sándor Márai Date: November 19, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Following a forty-one year separation, two men reunite in a castle at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains to share stories and accusations touching on their lives and that of a third person, the now-dead lady of the castle. Check the Catalog
Date: December 17, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy Date: January 21, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
The classic nineteenth-century Russian novel in which a young woman is destroyed when she attempts to live outside the moral law of her society.
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A LESSON BEFORE DYING by Ernest J. Gaines Date: February 18, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
The story of two African American men struggling to attain manhood in a prejudiced society, the tale is set in Bayonne, La. in the late 1940s. It concerns Jefferson, a mentally slow, barely literate young man, who, though an innocent bystander to a shootout between a white store owner and two black robbers, is convicted of murder and sentenced to death, and the sophisticated, educated man who comes to his aid. Check the Catalog