January title

January book discussion

American Dirt

by Jeanine Cummins

Wednesday January 26th at 1pm

Type of meeting to be determined
(in-person, zoom or a hybrid)

Copies of the book (including regular and large print editions and audiobook on CD) are available for checkout at the library.

Also available as a hoopla audiobook, Overdrive/Libby ebook and Overdrive/Libby audiobook.

Let us know if you have any questions about accessing our online versions!

 

 

Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they'll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy—two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia's husband's tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia—trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier's reach doesn't extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?

American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed. It is a literary achievement filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page. It is one of the most important books for our times.

Already being hailed as "a Grapes of Wrath for our times" and "a new American classic," Jeanine Cummins's American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.  ----Publisher's website

 

November/December title

Perestroika in Paris

by Jane Smiley

 

Wednesday December 1st at 1pm

 

Copies of the book, including large print and audio editions, are available at the library. 

 

 From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals—and a young boy—whose lives intersect in Paris in this “feel-good escape” (The New York Times).

Paras, short for “Perestroika,” is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon at dusk, she finds the door of her stall open and—she’s a curious filly—wanders all the way to the City of Light. She’s dazzled and often mystified by the sights, sounds, and smells around her, but she isn’t afraid.

Soon she meets an elegant dog, a German shorthaired pointer named Frida, who knows how to get by without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians. Paras and Frida coexist for a time in the city’s lush green spaces, nourished by Frida’s strategic trips to the vegetable market. They keep company with two irrepressible ducks and an opinionated raven. But then Paras meets a human boy, Etienne, and discovers a new, otherworldly part of Paris: the ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly-one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother live in seclusion.

As the cold weather nears, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom. But how long can a runaway horse stay undiscovered in Paris? How long can a boy keep her hidden and all to himself? Jane Smiley’s beguiling new novel is itself an adventure that celebrates curiosity, ingenuity, and the desire of all creatures for true love and freedom.  --penguinrandomhouse.com

More about Girl, Woman, Other

Check out this great resource page for our upcoming discussion of Girl, Woman, Other (including a handy character list!).

October title

October Book Discussion

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Wednesday October 27 at 1pm 

Copies of the book are available at the library as well as on hoopla (audio, ebook) and Overdrive (audio, ebook).  

Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize
National Bestseller
“A must-read about modern Britain and womanhood… An impressive, fierce novel about the lives of black British families, their struggles, pains, laughter, longings and loves… Her style is passionate, razor-sharp, brimming with energy and humor. There is never a single moment of dullness in this book and the pace does not allow you to turn away from its momentum.”—Booker Prize judges

Bernardine Evaristo is the winner of the 2019 Booker Prize and the first black woman to receive this highest literary honor in the English language. Girl, Woman, Other is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of Black British women that paints a vivid portrait of the state of contemporary Britain and looks back to the legacy of Britain’s colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean.

The twelve central characters of this multi-voiced novel lead vastly different lives: Amma is a newly acclaimed playwright whose work often explores her Black lesbian identity; her old friend Shirley is a teacher, jaded after decades of work in London’s funding-deprived schools; Carole, one of Shirley’s former students, is a successful investment banker; Carole’s mother Bummi works as a cleaner and worries about her daughter’s lack of rootedness despite her obvious achievements. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters also intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class.

Sparklingly witty and filled with emotion, centering voices we often see othered, and written in an innovative fast-moving form that borrows technique from poetry, Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic and richly textured social novel that shows a side of Britain we rarely see, one that reminds us of all that connects us to our neighbors, even in times when we are encouraged to be split apart.
https://groveatlantic.com/book/girl-woman-other/

SEPTEMBER 

Karen is on vacation, but would want you to know that the September book group will be reading "The Stranger in the Woods: The extraordinary story of the last true hermit" by Michael Finkel.  We should be receiving the "READS to GO" bag of books via ILL  on Wednesday September 1st and will make those available asap.  

Many people dream of escaping modern life, but most will never act on it. This is the remarkable true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years, making this dream a reality--not out of anger at the world, but simply because he preferred to live on his own.

For August

I'm going on vacation at the end of the month so there is no specific book for August. However....Cindy Garland has generously volunteered to lead the group in discussing (what else??) BOOKS!  Have you read something great lately? Have an all-time favorite that you think would be great for a discussion? We’d like to compile everyone’s suggestions prior to the meeting date of August 25^th.  Please email your list of 2 or 3 books (or more if you so choose) with a descriptive line or 2 about each book to info@hopkintontownlibrary.org and we will put together a handout that everyone can take home. Or just come and listen to everyone’s suggestions on WEDNESDAY AUGUST 25^th at 1pm in the Community Room.

Have a great rest of your summer!  Karen

A Long Petal of the Sea Book Club Kit

A very nice book club kit from the author's website, including drink recipes! (sorry we won't be doing that at the library though!)

 

July title

 

 

July book discussion

Wednesday July 28th at 1pm

at the library

 

A Long Petal of the Sea

by Isabel Allende 

Copies of the book are available at the library.  Also available in Large Print and audio formats and as an Overdrive ebook and audiobook. 

 

  

In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Together with two thousand other refugees, Roser and Victor embark for Chile "the long petal of sea and wine and snow" on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda.  As unlikely partners, the couple embraces exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, they face trial after trial, but they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they might go home. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home.

"One of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in [Isabel Allende's] long career."--The New York Times Book Review

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Esquire * Good Housekeeping * Parade

June title

 And now for something completely different!
Our June title will be Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

Here are the meeting details:

Wednesday June 30th at 1pm

IN PERSON! Under the library's new tent!

Reading options:

Hardcover copies! (available soon)

Hoopla audiobook (always available)

Hoopla ebook (always available)

Hoopla Spotlight book club resources

Overdrive ebook 

 

Here's a bit more about the book:
Heartwarming, wistful, and delightfully quirky, Before the Coffee Gets Cold explores the intersecting lives of four women who come together in one extraordinary café, where the service may not be quick, but the opportunities are endless.

Japanese playwright Kawaguchi’s evocative English-language debut is set in a tiny Tokyo café where time travel is possible. In four connected tales, lovers and family members take turns sitting in the chair that allows a person to travel back in time for only as long as it takes a single cup of coffee to cool. In “Husband and Wife,” a nurse goes back in time to visit her husband before his Alzheimer’s erased her from his memory; in “The Sisters,” a woman visits her younger sister, who died in an accident while trying to visit her, to apologize for not seeing her. Kawaguchi’s characters embark on lo-fi, emotional journeys unburdened by the technicalities often found in time travel fiction—notably, they are unable to change the present. The characters learn, though, that even though people don’t return to a changed present, they return “with a changed heart.” Kawaguchi’s tender look at the beauty of passing things, adapted from one of his plays, makes for an affecting, deeply immersive journey into the desire to hold onto the past. This wondrous tale will move readers.  ....Publisher's Weekly Review

Hopkinton READS! How to Make a Slave

Please join us for a discussion of How to Make a Slave and Other Essays on Thursday May 20th. You can join us at either 12 noon or 7pm.  Registration is required. The discussion will be led by Dr. Dottie Morris of Keene State College. Copies of the book are available to borrow OR purchase for $5.

The book is a bracing and often humorous examination by an acclaimed essayist of what it is to grow, parent, write, and exist as a black American male. Walker urges readers to do better as they consider, through his eyes, how to be a good citizen, how to be a good father, how to live, and how to love.

Discussion questions and more for The Dutch House

We'll be zooming on Wednesday April 28th at 1pm to discuss The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. Email kdixon@hopkintontownlibrary.org if you would like an invitation to the zoom meeting.  If so inclined you can check out discussion questions here.

April title

 

April's title is The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.  We'll meet (probably via zoom but possibly outside!) on April 28th at 1pm. This book is available in lots of formats including:

• hardcover copies, including large print editions (email kdixon@hopkintontownlibrary.org to reserve a copy for curbside pickup)
• hoopla audiobook
• hoopla ebook
• Overdrive/Libby audiobook
• Overdrive/Libby ebook

From the author's website:

THE DUTCH HOUSE
Ann Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder, returns with her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go.

“Do you think it’s possible to ever see the past as it actually was?” I asked my sister. We were sitting in her car, parked in front of the Dutch House in the broad daylight of early summer.”

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are. Filled with suspense, you may read it quickly to find out what happens, but what happens to Danny and Maeve will stay with you for a very long time.

More on Disappearing Earth

I hope you are enjoying reading Disappearing Earth for the 3/31 discussion.  I'll be sending out the Zoom link early next week.  In the meantime, Now Read This (a book club from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times) has some great links to material about the book and the author, as well as background information and discussion questions that can all be found here.

March title

 

 

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

The Library Book Group will meet on Wednesday March 31st at 1pm via Zoom. Please email or call the library to reserve a copy of the book.  Also available as an ebook or audiobook via Overdrive/Libby. 

 

One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of 2019

National Book Award Finalist
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize
Finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
Finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award
National Best Seller

 

Spellbinding, moving—evoking a fascinating region on the other side of the world—this suspenseful and haunting story announces the debut of a profoundly gifted writer.
One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two girls—sisters, eight and eleven—go missing. In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women.
Taking us through a year in Kamchatka, Disappearing Earth enters with astonishing emotional acuity the worlds of a cast of richly drawn characters, all connected by the crime: a witness, a neighbor, a detective, a mother. We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty—densely wooded forests, open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes, and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska—and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused.
In a story as propulsive as it is emotionally engaging, and through a young writer's virtuosic feat of empathy and imagination, this powerful novel brings us to a new understanding of the intricate bonds of family and community, in a Russia unlike any we have seen before. 

February title

 Library Book Group

Wednesday February 24th at 1pm

via zoom

The Henna Artist 

by Alka Joshi

 Copies of the book are available.  

Call 746-3663 or email info@hopkintontownlibrary.org 

to reserve a copy.

Also available on Overdrive/Libby and hoopla.

hoopla audio

Overdrive/Libby ebook

Overdrive/Libby audio

Vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman's struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between the traditional and the modern, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel.

Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist--and confidante--to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own...

Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow--a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.

Reading Group Guide and more for This Tender Land

Join us this Wednesday at 1pm for a discussion of This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger.

Check out the Reading Group Guide with discussion questions, a Q&A with the author, a Spotify playlist, and a map of the characters' journey.  Here are some photos that inspired the author.

Email kdixon@hopkintontownlibrary.org for the meeting link.

William Kent Krueger discusses THIS TENDER LAND with Barbara Peters