The Friends of the Library Book Discussion
The Friends of the Mount Prospect Public Library book discussion group is led by Laura Luteri and meets the third Wednesday of each month in Meeting Room B at the Library, at 7:30 p.m. Books are available one month prior to the discussion.
The Friends of the Library Book Discussion Titles for 2008:
January 16: Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris
For generations, privileged young men have attended the elite St. Oswald's School for Boys, but as the new term gets under way, a number of increasingly devastating incidents occurs, including murder, leaving the unraveling school in the hands of the only person who can save it.
February 20: Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos M.N. Eire
A survivor of the Cuban Revolution recounts his pre-war childhood as the religiously devout son of a judge, and describes the conflict's violent and irrevocable impact on his friends, family, and native land.
March 19: March by Geraldine Brooks
In a story inspired by the father character in Little Women and drawn from the journals and letters of Louisa May Alcott's father Bronson, a man leaves behind his family to serve in the Civil War and finds his marriage and beliefs profoundly challenged by his experiences.
April 16: Wish You Well by David Baldacci
In 1940, tragedy forces Lou, her little brother Oz, and their invalid mother to leave New York and move to the mountains of southwestern Virginia to live with their great-grandmother, Louisa Mae Cardinal, but a climatic courtroom battle could determine the fates of the entire family and all those who have been touched by them.
May 21: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
An evocative story of friendship set against the backdrop of a nineteenth-century China in which women suffered from foot binding, isolation, and illiteracy follows an elderly woman and her companion as they communicate their hopes, dreams, joys, and tragedies through a unique secret language.
June 18: The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
After making a mistake that will ruin any chance of a partnership, workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting suffers a breakdown, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere, where she is mistaken for someone looking for a job and is hired as a housekeeper, but her new employers are unaware that she is an attorney with no housekeeping skills at all.
July 16: The Girl in the Green Glass Mirror by Elizabeth Mc Gregor
Devastated by her husband's abandonment, Catherine Sergeant seeks refuge in her career evaluating fine art and her growing friendship with architect John Brigham, a man with his own tragic secrets, who shares her passion for the work of Victorian painter Richard Dadd, and painted most of his finest work while incarcerated in an insane asylum.
August 20: The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin
An account of the deadly 1888 snowstorm in the Great Plains that killed more than five hundred people including numerous schoolchildren which describes how the storm devastated immigrant families and dramatically affected poineer advancement.
September 17: Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
Beck Davitch looks back on her thirty-year marriage to Joe and her role as a mother and manager of the Open Arms, wondering if she is living the life she was meant to live and reconsidering her dedication to the family business.
October 15: More Than You Know by Beth Richardson Gutcheon
In a novel that explores marriage, divorce, and family ties, Hannah Gray shares her personal story of passion and loss, introducing the ghost who haunted her and the boy she had once loved.
November 19: The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
The aftermath of the 1996 Venice opera house fire, an event that devastated Venetian society, is investigated by the author, who through interviews with local figures learns about the region's rich cultural history.
December 17: 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal
A memoir based on the actor's Broadway play describes his experiences growing up in a family headed by a father who worked two jobs to support the family before succumbing to heart failure when Crystal was fifteen years old.
