Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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.
Check the catalog 
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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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Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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.
Check the catalog
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
Meet to discuss books for the coming year.
Date: December 18, 2008
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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.
Check the Catalog
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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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Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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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Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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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Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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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Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
Holiday social and planning/choosing books for 2010.
Date: December 17, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
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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Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
A LESSON BEFORE DYING by Ernest J. Gaines
THE BIG READ
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
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
UNCOMMON READER by Alan Bennett
Date: March 11, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Obliged to borrow a book when her corgis stray into a mobile library, the Queen discovers a passion for reading, setting the palace upon its head and causing the royal head of Great Britain to question her role in the monarchy. Check the Catalog
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
CITY OF FALLING ANGELS by John Berendt
Date: April 15, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Traces the aftermath of the 1996 Venice opera house fire, an event that devastated Venetian society and was investigated by the author, who through interviews with local figures learned about the region's rich cultural history.
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Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
Date: May 20, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
A profile of the Lost Generation captures life among the expatriates on Paris' Left Bank during the 1920s, the brutality of bullfighting in Spain, and the moral and spiritual dissolution of a generation.
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Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
A COOK'S TOUR: IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT MEAL by Anthony Bourdain
Date: June 17, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
From Japan where he eats traditional fugu, a poisonous blowfish that can only be prepared by specially licensed chefs, to a delectable snack in the Mecong Delta, follows the author as he embarks on a quest around the world to find the ultimate meal. Check the Catalog
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Date: July 15, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation.
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Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
CITY OF THIEVES by David Benioff
Date: August 19, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Documenting his grandparents' experiences during the siege of Leningrad, a young writer learns his grandfather's story about how a military deserter and he tried to secure pardons by gathering hard-to-find ingredients for a powerful colonel's daughter's wedding cake. Check the Catalog
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester
Date: September 16, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Describes how more than ten thousand definitions were submitted for the first Oxford English Dictionary from Dr. W. C. Minor, an American Civil War criminal whose life of genius and insanity make this true story both fascinating and unique. Check the Catalog
Central-Brown Baggers Book Group ( adult )
FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley
Date: October 14, 2010
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
A monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator.
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Future Readings:
- Nov 18: SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
- Dec 16: Choose books for the coming year