Nov 2024 - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

1pm and 4:30pm

Join us to discuss the novel:
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
 by Gabrielle Zevin

 From the New York Times best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry—a glorious and immersive novel about two childhood friends, once estranged, who reunite as adults to create video games, finding an intimacy in digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives.

Read more: gabriellezevin.com/tomorrowx3/

Resources:

• Visit the Glass Flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History: www.hmnh.harvard.edu/glass-flowers 
• Play the vintage Donkey Kong: freekong.org
  
• Author's website: gabriellezevin.com
  
• Play Emily Blaster: gabriellezevin.com/emilyblastergame/
• Read Emily Dickinson's poetry: www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/emily-dickinson
• Watch a video play-through of the ca. 1990 Oregon Trail video game www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHdosJq66tg 
• Macbeth Act 5 scene 5 (you tell me how it relates to the book as a whole): https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/macbeth/read/5/5/
  

October 2024 - The Sentence

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

1pm and 4:30pm

The Sentence: A Novel by Louise Erdrich

A wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors.

The Sentence asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention," must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

Related Resources (some may contain spoilers):

• The Cambridge Dictionary's current definition of sentence: dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/sentence
• The setting of the book is Erdrich's real-life bookstore in Minneapolis:  birchbarkbooks.com/
• Video interview via PBS (I like this one, I didn't notice major spoilers) www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZKa2EnZydw
  
• Statistics on the incarceration of Native Americans: www.nicoa.org/new-report-reveals-high-incarceration-for-native-americans/
• Learning more about contemporary Native Communities: www.wernative.org and www.firstnations.org  November is Native American Heritage Month, learn more here: www.nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov
  
• Several interviews and such are listed here: https://westvanlibrary.ca/the-sentence-by-louise-erdrich/
• Interview with the author in The Paris Review (2024): www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/03/25/a-conversation-with-louise-erdrich/
• Background on the Dakota War of 1862 cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/us-dakota-war-1862 
• Etymology of the word sentence: www.etymonline.com/word/sentence
• Louise Erdrich will be at the Boston Book Festival on Oct. 26. bostonbookfest.org
  

Keep reading:

• Definitely peruse the "Totally Biased List of Tookie's Favorite Books" in the back of the book. 
• It is also collected here in order: www.listchallenges.com/totally-biased-list-of-tookies-favorite-books 
• You can print the list from this PDF yorkcounty.librarycalendar.com/sites/default/files/2024-04/Tookie%27s%20Biased%20List%20of%20Favorite%20Books_0.pdf
  
• Novels set during a pandemic (including COVID) - https://modernmrsdarcy.com/pandemic-novels/ 
• Novels set in bookstores: www.nationalbooktokens.com/13-books-about-bookshops  and www.icpl.org/books-more/staff-picks/lists/books-set-bookstore
• Louise Erdrich's new book (2024) is The Mighty Red https://birchbarkbooks.com/products/the-mighty-red
• Recent books by Native American and Canadian/First Nations authors: www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2491-90-recent-books-to-read-this-native-american-heritage-month
  
• More about race in Minnesota: https://shop.mnhs.org/products/good-time-truth
  

Discussion prompts: (some borrowed from: www.vox.com/culture/22927681/sentence-review-louise-erdrich and libromaniacs.com/the-sentence-book-club-questions/)

1. What do you believe we owe the dead?  (VOX)
   
2. The Sentence veers pretty wildly between emotional tones. Tookie’s theft of Budgie’s body is very madcap and fun, and then her early days at the bookstore are settled and restrained and slice-of-life-esque. By the time Erdrich gets into the pandemic and the protests over George Floyd’s murder, she’s writing something close to narrative nonfiction. Do the shifting tones work for you? (VOX)
3. Have you read any of the books recommended at the end? What did you think? (VOX)
   
4. What would be on your personal ghostbusting playlist? (VOX)
   
5.  How are all the sentences in the book related? Tookie’s prison sentence, the delicious sentences within the books that Tookie recommends, and the book called The Sentence and the (nearly deadly) sentence within it which sent Tookie into a kaleidoscopic tailspin. How are these various sentences related? How do they drive the narrative? (Libromaniacs)
6. Dissatisfaction is a positively voracious reader. After reading Deacon King Kong, he tells Tookie that he’s been transformed. Tookie ruminates, “That he could change because of a book brightened me up. It was the same with a lot of people who called to buy books.” Have you ever had that moment of transformation from reading a book…or experienced the glow from having recommended a transformative book? (Libromaniacs)
7. What are your desert island books? Might a dictionary make the list (now)?
   

Sept 2024 - Circe by Madeline Miller

September 2024

Discussion -  Wed., Sept. 18, 1pm, and NEW!!! an encore discussion at 4:30pm

Come to either or both!

"An epic spanning thousands of years that's also a keep-you-up-all-night page turner." - Ann Patchett

Circe: A Novel

by Madeline Miller (2020)

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, Medea, and wily Odysseus.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love, and loss, and a celebration of indomitable strength.

Copies of the book are available at the library and on Libby as audiobook (get on the Libby wait list asap) [note that the audiobook on Hoopla is in Spanish]. If you wish to purchase a copy, mention our book group at Gibson's or Main Street Bookends and they will kindly offer a discount.

Resources:  

The author's website has a lot of great resources, including a character list, background information, and a reader's guide: https://madelinemiller.com/circe/

Background on the character Circe throughout literature: www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Circe/circe.html

Some fun reading aides, like an interactive map of Odysseus's journey and a pronunciation guide, are on this UPenn site: www2.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/homer/index.php?page=odymap

Keep reading:

Circe features in Homer's Odyssey in Book X. You can read a translation by Samuel Butler online: www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1727/pg1727-images.html#chap10  or translated by Alexander Pope: www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3160/pg3160-images.html#chap10 The library has the Robert Fagles translation on our shelves as a book and as audiobook CDs.

Circe is also a minor character in the 3rd century BCE book, The Argonautica, by Apollonius Rhodiusin. This is the story many of us know as Jason and the Argonauts. You can read that online here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/830/830-h/830-h.htm#linknoteref-1404 (Book IV)

"Circe," a short story by Eudora Welty, (1955) is digitized here: http://ereserve.library.utah.edu/Annual/ENGL/5510/Coles/circe.pdf

If you liked Circe, try these other books based on characters of classical mythology or see the display in the fiction and nonfiction sections of the library: https://www.carnegielibrary.org/staff-picks/classic-myths-revisited-beyond-circe and www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/myth-retelling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2024 - Project Hail Mary

  

August 2024

Discussion -  Wed., August 21, 1pm

An irresistible interstellar adventure

Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir (2021)

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

As his memories incrementally return, Grace realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he?

Copies available at the library. Or, at Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Resources:  

PDF of resources from the publisher: https://penguinrandomhousesecondaryeducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PHMKit.pdf

Learn more about the element xenon: https://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele054.html

NASA's Buoyancy Lab (p281) is real. Take a video tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWVcYIYCFK8

"Simplified" explanation of relativity and time dilation (I'm still confused): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuD34tEpRFw

Podcast interview with Andy Weir (spoilers for sure) https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/andy-weir-project-hail-mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 2024 - The Deepest Map (extra book discussion in the evening)

July 2024 - The Deepest Map

Discussion -  July 24, 5:30pm

"A riveting ocean of a book, packed with gripping adventures, high-stakes exploration and political intrigue. Trethewey leads us to the bottom of the sea and deftly shows why it all matters so much." — Helen Scales, author of The Brilliant Abyss

The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World's Oceans 

by Laura Trethewey (2023)

The dramatic story of the last mysterious place on earth—the world’s seafloor—and the deep-sea divers, ocean mappers, marine biologists, entrepreneurs, and adventurers involved in the historic push to chart it, as well as the opportunities, challenges, and perils this exploration holds now and for the future. 

Resources:

• About the author: https://nautiluslive.org/people/laura-trethewey
• What is Hydrography (with helpful infographic!): https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/hydrography.html
• NOAA and ocean mapping: https://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explainers/mapping.html
• Seafloor mapping chat with Laura Trethewey & the Nautilus Team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWcLdY2wAnA
• Keep reading: here are some recent ocean science books: https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/04/21/11-must-read-ocean-books-2022/
• National Geographic maps of the ocean 1903-2001: https://www.natgeomaps.com/wall-maps/map-archive/oceans
  

Mentioned in the book: 

• OET and the Nautilus: nautiluslive.org and their YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/evnautilus
• Five Deeps Expedition https://fivedeeps.com/
• Cassie Bongiovanni: https://eos.unh.edu/spotlight/cassie-bongiovanni
• UNH ocean mapping program: https://ccom.unh.edu/ (I want to go back in time and enroll at 18!) and a page on careers in ocean exploration: https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/oceanage/welcome.html
• The movie The Life Aquatic (HTL has the DVD)
• Saildrone's ocean mapping applications: https://www.saildrone.com/solutions/ocean-mapping  (and here is the video from inside Hurricane Sam)
• BBC Documentary series The Blue Planet II: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/blue-planet-ii
  

July 2024 - The Kamogawa Food Detectives

 

July 2024 - The Kamogawa Food Detectives

“What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?.”

The Kamogawa Food Detectives

By Hisashi Kashiwai (2013)

translated by Jesse Kirkwood (2024)

Discussion -  July 17, 1pm

A father-daughter duo are ‘food detectives’. Through ingenious investigations, they recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories – dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility. A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal.

Copies of the book are available at the library. It is also on Libby and other streaming services. 

At Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Resources:

• List of Temples and Shrines in Kyoto (with photos)
• Recipe for Nabeyaki Udon
• Kyoto introduction and travel guide: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2158.html
• If you want to read more Japanese literature translated into English - https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/list/share/356654627/1847845719  and  https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/108744
• If you liked this, look for the sequel...the English translation of 2014's The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is expected in October!
  
• Here's a list of Japanese Workplace fiction - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/198201
• As discussed in the meeting,the Netflix show Midnight Diner has some common themes: www.netflix.com/title/80113037

June 2024 Of Time and Turtles

June 2024 

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell

by Sy Montgomery

Wednesday June 19th at 1pm

Copies of the book are available to borrow at the library. Also available on Libby (ebook or audiobook).

At Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Check out Sy Montgomery and Matt Patterson's recent appearance on New Hampshire Chronicle - FOR THE LOVE OF TURTLES.

Watch a short video with lots of cool turtles walking around (from symontgomery.com)

When acclaimed naturalist Sy Montgomery and wildlife artist Matt Patterson arrive at Turtle Rescue League, they are greeted by hundreds of turtles recovering from injury and illness. Endangered by cars and highways, pollution and poachers, these turtles--with wounds so severe that even veterinarians would have dismissed them as fatal--are given a second chance at life. The League's founders, Natasha and Alexxia, live by one motto: Never give up on a turtle.

But why turtles? What is it about them that inspires such devotion? Ancient and unhurried, long-lived and majestic, their lineage stretches back to the time of the dinosaurs. Some live to two hundred years, or longer. Others spend months buried under cold winter water. Montgomery turns to these little understood yet endlessly surprising creatures to probe the eternal question: How can we make peace with our time?

In pursuit of the answer, Sy and Matt immerse themselves in the delicate work of protecting turtle nests, incubating eggs, rescuing sea turtles, and releasing hatchlings to their homes in the wild. We follow the snapping turtle Fire Chief on his astonishing journey as he battles against injuries incurred by a truck.

Hopeful and optimistic, Of Time and Turtles is an antidote to the instability of our frenzied world. Elegantly blending science, memoir, and philosophy, and drawing on cultures from across the globe, this compassionate portrait of injured turtles and their determined rescuers invites us all to slow down and slip into turtle time.

May 2024 - Symphony of Secrets

 May 2024 - Symphony of Secrets

“A twisty, mesmerizing mystery— Brendan Slocumb’s writing is like music itself, dancing elegantly from the page.” —Danya Kukafka, bestselling author of Notes on an Execution

SYMPHONY OF SECRETS

A novel by Brendan Slocumb (2023)

Discussion -  May 15, 1pm

Note from Sarah: It is my opinion that the less you know, the better this book will read. Most of the blurbs, reviews and even the accolades reveal too much. This bit below at least gives you something without revealing too much....

In present day New York City, Bern Hendricks has just received the call of a lifetime: to authenticate the long-lost musical masterpiece of Frederick Delaney – arguably the greatest and most prolific composer since Beethoven. 

Bern thought he knew everything there is to know about the man and his music, but soon discovers that the truth behind the masterpieces – and behind Frederick Delaney himself – is far more complicated than he could ever have imagined. The story takes the reader back to 1920s Manhattan, when the struggling musician Freddy Delaney meets the enigmatic Josephine Reed...

Copies of the book are available at the library. It is also on Libby and other streaming services. 

At Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

While you read:

• Listen to some of the classical and early 20th century music that inspired the characters in the book. In our CD collection at the library, we have Schubert, Gershwin, Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, a ragtime collection, and more.
• I created this YouTube playlist of songs mentioned in the book and related to it.
  
• in between chapters, check out Brendan's podcast "How Music Can Save Your Life"
• Short documentary of interest (maybe similar to "Delaney kids," though I haven't watched it through yet) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xttrkgKXtZ4

Resources below (some may contain spoilers!)

Learn more:

• about Brendan Slocumb:
• His website: www.brendanslocumb.com
• A podcast interview viewsonbooks.com/17-striking-a-chord-brendan-slocumb-on-music-representation-and-unraveling-the-symphony-of-secrets/
• Listen to and watch a concert Slocumb conducted: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga1XZUMVPFU
  
• about Ragtime, Jazz and other early 20th century American music: 
• Ken Burns' documentary Jazz is available to borrow on Hoopla
• The musical movie Ragtime is in our DVD section. 
• We have several books on the history of jazz on our shelves: head to the 781.65 section
• What Is Jazz? - from the National Museum of American History
• April is Jazz Appreciation Month! April 30 is International Jazz Day!
  

Read more:

• by Slocumb: The Violin Conspiracy
• books set in 1920s: bookgirlsguide.com/books-set-in-the-1920s/  and bookriot.com/books-set-in-the-1920s/
  

April 2024 - The Spy Coast

“Expect mystery, action, and bloodshed in this exciting thriller launched straight from the peaceful shores of Maine.” — Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW

THE SPY COAST

Book 1 of the Martini Club Series

A Thriller by Tess Gerritsen (2023)

Discussion -  April 17, 1pm

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.

But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends―all retirees from the CIA―to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.

Copies of the book, including large print and audiobook CD, are available at the library. It is not on Libby or Hoopla. 

At Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Resources below (check back for more through the month)

Learn more:

• Meet the author! She is making the rounds with this, her latest, book -- in Maine (March 28) and Mass. (April). 
• Short interview with Gerritsen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF0pVMeUy0Y
• Longer interview with Gerritsen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZVl8rXYSgc
• Articles about what it's like to be a CIA operative: https://www.themuse.com/advice/work-like-a-spy-career-advice-from-a-cia-operative  or CIA analyst: https://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/working/2017/02/what_s_it_like_to_be_a_cia_analyst.html
  

Read more:

•  by Gerritsen, including her very popular Rizzoli and Isles mystery series
•  books set in Maine: https://bibliolifestyle.com/books-set-in-maine/

 

 

 

 

March 2024 - Hester

 

 

“But there's another kind of strength we've got...It comes from knowing the difference between who you are and who they think you are.”
― Laurie Lico Albanese, Hester

HESTER

by Laurie Lico Albanese (2022)

Discussion -  March 20, 1pm

For more about the book, check out the author's website.

A good, non-spoiler summary is here: www.secretvictorianist.com/2022/12/neo-victorian-voices-hester-laurie-lico.html

Copies of the book, including audiobook, are available at the library. It is also on Libby (audio and ebook) and Hoopla (audio). 

At Main Street Bookends or Gibson's, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Resources below (check back for more through the month)

Learn more:

• About the book and authors from the Author's website or an Interview with the author (may have spoilers)
• About synesthesia from this 200-year history of the phenomenon
• About (or plan a visit to) Salem, Mass.
• Salem Maritime National Historic Site
• House of the Seven Gables I toured this last October - it's well worth a tour
• Salem Witch Museum
• The memorial to the victims of the witch hunt is a must-do.
  
• About Hawthorne in Salem and Hawthorne's connections to "the witch delusion" 
• About How to embroider a flower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9t1qX-xi7s 

Read more...

• Hawthorne - his The Scarlet Letter (set in Boston) and The House of the Seven Gables (set in Salem) are both apropos here, of course.
  
• NOTE: if you don't want spoilers for The Scarlet Letter while reading Hester, I think these are the only 4 parts with spoilers: 304-305, bottom half of 313, and 317. If you avoid reading these pages, you won't spoil a later reading of SL, and you won't be lost at all in Hester (but go back to them after you read SL!).
  
• Fiction about Writers: https://www.beyondthebookends.com/fiction-books-about-writers/
  
• Fiction about witch hunts:
• Lots of recent publications here: https://offtheshelf.com/2023/09/historical-fiction-witch-books/
• Long list here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/75416.Witch_Hunts_in_Historical_Fiction
• A Kind of Spark, by Elle McNicoll (YA novel that discusses witch hunts in Scotland)
• Needlework in Fiction: 
• https://www.artinfiction.com/blog/a-stitch-in-time-five-novels-inspired-by-embroidery  
• A Goodread's list
  
• The Scarlet Letter - Hester Prynne is an accomplished needleworker
• The Fair Maid of Perth (mentioned page 190), by Walter Scott
  
• NF and Fiction about synesthesia: https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/books-about-synesthesia.html
• Susan Cheever's American Bloomsbury is a "smart, dishy romp through the intersecting personal lives of a cluster of geniuses who all lived in Concord, Massachusetts, in the mid-1800s" including Hawthorne (quote is not mine, but from that link).