Books to Go : For Book Groups
Mount Prospect Public Library offers book discussion kits specifically designed for book groups. Each kit may be checked out for 6 weeks and includes 10 copies of a title as well as a binder containing information about the book, biographical information on the author, and questions for discussion. To reserve a kit, contact the Fiction/AV/Teen desk in person, by calling 847-590-4070, or by e-mailing us at readers@mppl.org. This service is funded by Friends of the Mount Prospect Library.
Book Discussion Kit Guidelines
Book Discussion Kit Titles
Fiction
The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
Based on the 1918 Bolshevik revolutionary murder of Czar Nicholas II and the rest of the Russian royal family, the story is told from the perspective of the event's only surviving witness, a young kitchen boy.
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
In a world in which Alaska, rather than Israel, has become the homeland for the Jews following World War II, Detective Meyer Landsman and his half-Tlingit partner Berko investigate the death of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
In a tale spanning twenty-five years, a doctor delivers his newborn twins during a snowstorm and, rashly deciding to protect his wife from their baby daughter's affliction with Down Syndrome, turns her over to a nurse, who secretly raises the child.
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
An Indian request in 1854 for 1,000 white brides to ensure peace is secretly approved by the U.S. government in this alternate-history novel. Their journey west is described by May Dodd, a high-society woman released from an asylum where she was incarcerated by her family for an affair.
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman with a troubled past who lives in a remote nineteenth-century Wisconsin town, has advertised for a reliable wife; and his ad is answered by Catherine Land, a woman who makes every effort to hide her own dark secrets.
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
The daughters of a ruthlessly ambitious family, Mary and Anne Boleyn are sent to the court of Henry VIII to attract the attention of the king, who first takes Mary as his mistress, in which role she bears him an illegitimate son, and then Anne as his wife.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
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.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
An unlikely extended family is formed when a high school teacher helps a pregnant student make a home with two elderly bachelor ranchers.
Loving Frank by Nancy HoranFact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting in Oak Park, Illinois, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society.
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
Margaret Hughes, a septuagenarian living in Seattle, takes in a series of boarders who help her cope with her illness, and whose lives become unexpectedly connected to each other.
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
While summoned home to tiny Egret Island to take care of her estranged mother, Jessie Sullivan meets Brother Thomas, a monk who is about to take his final vows, and encounters the legend of a mysterious chair dedicated to a saint who had originally been a mermaid.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
A portrait of the immigrant experience follows the Ganguli family from their traditional life in India through their arrival in Massachusetts in the late 1960s and their difficult melding into an American way of life.
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik
From the initial formation of The Freesia Court Book Club and over the course of the next thirty years, five women in small-town Minnesota share the events, triumphs, tragedies, hardships, joys, and sorrows of their lives.
Martha Quest by Doris Lessing
Martha Quest, a passionate and intelligent young British woman growing up on a farm in Africa, rebels against her snobbish parents as she determines to live her life to the fullest.
The Photograph by Penelope Lively
Finding a mysterious photograph of his late wife, Kath, holding hands with another man, Glyn begins a search that proves shocking to Kath's family and friends.
Run by Ann Patchett
Struggling with single parenthood and a scandal that cost him his political career, Bernard Doyle fights his disappointment with his adopted son’s career choices before a violent event forces the members of his family to reconsider their priorities.
Lark & Termite: A Novel by Jayne Anne Phillips
Set against the backdrop of the Korean War in the 1950s, a novel about family, the repercussions of war, and the bonds that sustain personal relationships focuses on a single family--Lark, her brother Termite, their mother Lola, and Termite's soldier father, Robert Leavitt.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
In the aftermath of a horrific small-town school shooting, lawyer Jordan McAfee finds himself defending a youth who desperately needs someone on his side, while intrepid detective Patrick DuCharme works with a primary witness in the daughter of the superior court judge assigned to the case.
Gilead by Marilynn Robinson
As the Reverend John Ames approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable family secrets.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey--a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
Remembering the December afternoon twenty years earlier when her father and she found an abandoned infant in the snow, Nicky recalls her father's efforts to escape society after a tragedy and a young woman's struggles to live with her choices.
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
At the edge of the continent, in the small town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large but doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her. Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize.
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
A chance encounter between two families--the Donaldsons, and the Iranian-born Yasdans--at the Baltimore airport, as both couples await the arrival of an adopted daughter from Korea, prompts an examination about what it means to be an American while the lives of the two families intertwine over the years.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Twin brothers born from a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone come of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, where their love for the same woman drives them apart.
Nonfiction
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul by Karen Abbott
A history of America's most famous brothel, Chicago's Everleigh Club, which catered to some of America's leading moguls, actors, and writers from 1900 to 1911, profiles its aristocratic proprietors and their efforts to elevate the industry to new heights.
The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman
In a true story, Warsaw Zoo keepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski save the lives of hundreds of Jewish citizens in the aftermath of Germany's invasion of Poland by smuggling them into empty cages.
Crashing Through: a True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See by Robert Kurson
A fascinating profile of Michael May, a man blinded by a chemical explosion at the age of three, describes his successful life as a CIA analyst, champion skier, entrepreneur, and family man, who is offered a rare chance to see once again through risky, cutting-edge stem-cell transplant surgery.
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace – One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
The author, having been rescued and resuscitated by Himalayan villagers after a failed attempt to climb K2, worked to build schools that would particularly benefit the young girls who were forbidden an education by Taliban restrictions, an endeavor for which his life was repeatedly threatened.
Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario
The story of one Honduran boy's difficult and dangerous journey to find his mother, who had made the trek northward to the United States in search of a better life when Enrique had been five years old, but who had never made enough money to return home for her children. This poignant account addresses the issues of family and the implications of illegal immigration.
Book Discussion Kit Guidelines
- Book discussion kits may be checked out for 6 weeks. They may not be renewed.
- Kits may be reserved up to a year in advance through the Fiction/AV/Teen desk in person, by calling 847-590-4070, or by e-mailing us at readers@mppl.org.
- Kits should be picked up at the Fiction/AV/Teen desk.
- Kits are checked out to one person. Members of the group should get their copies from the person who checked out the kit. Kits come as a set. Individual items from the kit may not be checked out.
- Only one kit at a time may be checked out to an individual.
- The individual who checks out the kit is responsible for the return of the complete kit, including the bag, the books, and the binder.
- Overdue book discussion kits will be fined $5.00 per day per kit.
- Failure to return book discussion kits on time may infringe on future borrowing privileges of such kits.
- Book discussion kits must be returned to the Check Out (Circulation) desk during regular Library hours (Monday through Friday 9 a.m. – 10 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.) They may not be returned in the book drop.
- Book discussion kits are available for reciprocal borrowing but may not be interlibrary loaned.
