JMRL blog

The Central Library Brown Baggers enjoyed a lively discussion of “My Antonia” (published 1918) by Willa Cather on Thursday August 21st.  This is the second book by Cather we have discussed with the first being Cather’s final published work (1940), “Sapphira and the Slave Girl”  which we discussed back in May 2024.   Jim, the narrator […]

…After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?” Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki Japan in 1954. At the age of 5, his family moved to Britain. His first two novels were set in Japan. But […]

On July 17th, Central Library Brown Baggers discussed Elizabeth Strout’s “Tell Me Everything” , a 2024 Oprah’s Book Club selection and the 5th title in Strout’s “Amgash” series.  (The books in this series all take place in a fictional small town in Maine, and the characters intersect through the different books.)  The books can be […]

JMRL is excited to announce a brand-new collaboration with 106.1 The Corner! Starting this fall, you can catch monthly live broadcasts of The Corner’s midday show, hosted by Samantha Federico and Fievel, broadcasting right from JMRL branches across the region. Each broadcast will run from 10 AM – 12 PM and will feature two exciting […]

Books on Tap met on July 3 to discuss Howards End  by E.M. Forster. Forster, one of the most successful Edwardian English authors, received an astonishing 22 nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Howards End was published in 1910, the fourth of five novels published during Forster’s lifetime.  Reactions to the book were mixed […]

Central Brown Baggers had an uplifting discussion of “The Storied Life of AJ Fikry”  by Gabrielle Zevin on June 12th.  A charming read about a widowed bookstore owner (AJ) whose life is turned around (saved?) thanks to his adoption of Maya, a precocious toddler.  It’s a book (primarily set in a bookstore located on an […]

Last Summer, Geoff Marsh visited three JMRL Library branches, drawing so much attention that Library staff invited him back for another series of performances as part of the Summer 2025 Performer and Featured Presenter lineup. This year, Geoff Marsh visited eight library branches over the course of four days, entertaining audiences of all ages with […]

On June 5, Books on Tap met at Random Row Brewing to discuss People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. Henry attended Hope College and completed a residency at the New York Center for Art & Media Studies at Bethel University. Her first several novels were written for young adults. But she decided she […]

Starting on July 1, 2025 eligible items will autorenew! 

On May 15th, Central’s Brown Baggers discussed The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny. . The plot of this title takes place in the Canadian village of Three Pines (as most of her novels do) just after the global Covid pandemic has ended.  Chief Inspector Gamache and his crew are appointed to provide security for […]

Central Brown Baggers met at noon April 17th to discuss “Lie Down With Lions” by Ken Follett.  This title was a bit of an outlier from the books typically read by this group, but the group selected this title by a fairly adjudicated vote at the annual selection meeting in Dec. 2023.  Plot summary–An American […]

On May 1, Books on Tap discussed The Red Pony by John Steinbeck.  Participants had mixed reactions to the book. One reader described it as being “bleak” due to the theme of loss running throughout all of the stories. Many felt the death of the pony and the pregnant mare were tragic and sad. Readers […]