The Library Book Discussion Group’s next meeting will be Monday, June 16 at 7 p.m. for a discussion of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

Second Tuesday Women's Reading Group  will meet next on Tuesday, June 10 at 7:30 p.m. They will be discussing Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl. Please feel free to drop in for the meeting or contact Sarah Levinson at hal@umich.edu if you are interested in participating.

The Second Tuesday Women’s Reading Group will meet again in September. Contact Sarah Levinson at hal@umich.edu for more information.

Winchester Public Library Book Discussion Group meets at 7 p.m. in the Library Meeting Room. Discussion is informal and anyone who has read the book is welcome to drop in. For more information please e-mail Janet Nelson or call her at the Reference Dept., (781) 721-7171 x20.

Meetings are on the third Monday of each month from September through November, (no meeting in December), and from January through June. The meeting is shifted to Tuesday when the third Monday is a holiday.

Members of the group receive notification of the books and dates, but anyone who has read the book is welcome to drop in.

Generally books are available at the Circulation Desk approximately a month before the group's meeting date. Please check the titles below for any exceptions in availability. Group members choose the books to read, the Library supplies the books, and the discussion is informal.

Monday, September 17
March by Geraldine Brooks. 

March, “Brooks's luminous second novel, imagines the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women…Brooks, who based the character of March on Alcott's transcendentalist father, Bronson, relies heavily on primary sources for both the Concord and wartime scenes; her characters speak with a convincing 19th-century formality, yet the narrative is always accessible. Through the shattered dreamer March, the passion and rage of Marmee and a host of achingly human minor characters, Brooks's affecting, beautifully written novel drives home the intimate horrors and ironies of the Civil War and the difficulty of living honestly with the knowledge of human suffering.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Monday, October 15
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to   Promote Peace — One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson.

Dangerously ill from an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, in 1993, “Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way… Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts.” (Publishers Weekly) “[N]ot only a thrilling read…proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world.” (Tom Brokaw)

This is the WINCHESTER READS book this year. Find out more at: www.winpublib.org/winchesterreads.htm

Monday, November 19
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman

Friedman “embarks on a ‘trail of globalization’ that leads him from Wal-Mart warehouses in Bentonville, Ark., to office parks in Bangalore, India. Thanks to a convergence of trends--cheap telecommunications, expanded trade, open-source software, Google--the global playing field is being ‘flattened’ faster than ever before…[He] sees this transition as the century's epic story line, one that may break the red-blue divide of U.S. politics while lifting millions of young Chinese and Indians into the middle class.” (Time)  “[A]s he has with other global issues, Friedman brings coherence and a workable plan of action to the fundamental changes our world is experiencing.” (Booklist)

Tuesday, January 22
Leonardo’s Swans by Karen Essex

“At the heart of this involving novel are Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, two sisters separated by only a year, but wildly different in terms of personality. Stunning, ambitious Isabella is married to handsome Francesco Gonzaga, a brilliant warrior, but it is Beatrice who makes a better match when she weds the powerful Ludovico Sforza, a ruthless Milanese leader with his eye on the duchy and political power in Italy. Beatrice wants nothing more than for Ludovico…to love her; but he seems more taken with Isabella. Isabella hopes to use Ludovico's desire for her to obtain her a sitting with Ludovico's court painter, the renowned Leonard da Vinci….Ludovico's lusts and political maneuverings end up costing both women dearly. With lush, colorful descriptions, Essex brings to life the Sforza court and the competitive d'Este sisters' complex relationships with each other, their husbands, and Leonardo. Powerful historical fiction.” (Booklist)

Tuesday, February 19
The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle

“Boyle…seriously examin[es] social and political issues in this timely novel. He establishes an obvious dichotomy by interweaving the scrapping, makeshift, in-the-present lives of illegal aliens Candido and America Rincon with the politically correct, suburban, plan-for-the-future existence of wealthy Americans Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher,…provoking question after question concerning immigration, unemployment, discrimination, and social responsibility. Surprisingly, Boyle manages to address these issues in a nonjudgmental fashion, depicting the vast inequity in these parallel existences. This highly engaging story subtly plays on our consciences, forcing us to form, confirm, or dispute social, political, and moral viewpoints. This is a profound and tragic tale.” (Booklist)

Monday, March 17
The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa

“Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. The dramatic sweep and richness of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power, and place it among the greatest historical novels of our time.” (Amazon.com)

Tuesday, April 22
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Monday, May 19
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

“In this very topical memoir, Kingsolver has penned a ‘heroic story’ that demonstrates how ‘growing your own fruits and vegetables, with people you love, can be as rewarding an experience as any on the face of the earth’ (San Francisco Chronicle)…The author's passion and narrative prowess make Animal an entertaining, often page-turning read. Her biologist husband Steven offers pithy sidebars about the politics of sustainable agriculture, as well as advice on how to make a change at home. Eldest daughter Camille supplies simple, nutritious recipes. Their combined efforts resulted in nearly universal praise from the critics.” (Bookmarks Magazine)

Monday, June 16
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

“Hosseini's follow-up to his best-selling debut, The Kite Runner, views the plight of Afghanistan during the last half-century through the eyes of two women. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a maid and a businessman, who is given away in marriage at 15 to Rasheed, a man three times her age; their union is not a loving one. Laila is born to educated, liberal parents in Kabul the night the Communists take over Afghanistan…A devastating tragedy brings Laila to the house of Rasheed and Mariam, where she is forced to make a horrific choice to secure her future. At the heart of the novel is the bond between Mariam and Laila, two very different women brought together by dire circumstances. Unimaginably tragic, Hosseini's magnificent second novel is a sad and beautiful testament to both Afghani suffering and strength. Readers who lost themselves in The Kite Runner will not want to miss this unforgettable follow-up.” (Booklist)

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Second Tuesday Women's Reading Group 2007-2008

The group meets at 7:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month from September - June in the Library Meeting Room. Anyone who has read the book is welcome to drop in. For more information, please e-mail Sarah Levinson at hal@umich.edu or call Janet Nelson at the Library. Multiple copies of the book are usually available at the Circulation Desk approximately one month before the group's meeting.

Tuesday, September 11
Dream of the Walled City by Lisa Huang Fleischman.

Jade Virtue Liang, a character inspired by the author's grandmother, tells her life story in Dream of the Walled City. “Born in 1890 into an upper-class family, [she] lives through China's great political events (including the Boxer Rebellion and the Mao-led civil war) and equally unsettling social changes (among them the beginning of equality for women)…Real people and events intertwine with Fleischman's believable, if underdeveloped, fictional characters to good effect. This novel gives a very real sense of China's complicated and tumultuous history during the first half of the twentieth century.” (Booklist)

Tuesday, October 9
Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andreï Makine

“Winner of numerous accolades in Europe, Makine's lyrical, richly textured novel… renders with hypnotic grace the young protagonist Andrei's pivotal summer visits to his grandmother's Siberian home bordering the Russian steppe…Makine's storytelling abilities are as exhilaratingly intricate and mesmerizing as those of grandmother Charlotte, who journeyed far from her birthplace in France to marry a Russian husband...Lovers of fine literature will relish the stunningly perfect prose with which Makine achieves young Andrei's transformative experiences.” (Booklist)

Tuesday, November 13
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

"A virtuosic demonstration of Murakami's incredible range . . . thrilling, funny, sad, moving, scary--all at once. Since 1980, the year Haruki Murakami wrote his first short story, the Japanese author has been a walking definition of genius . . . He is a master of tone, and can manipulate a reader's curiosity at will, [and he] approaches the large subjects indirectly, through mood and bizarre occurrences, and always trusts his reader to be moved." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Tuesday, December 11
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho    

“This charming tale of Santiago, a shepherd boy, who dreams of seeing the world, is compelling in its own right, but gains resonance through the many lessons Santiago learns during his adventures. He journeys from Spain to Morocco in search of worldly success, and eventually to Egypt, where a fateful encounter with an alchemist brings him at last to self-understanding and spiritual enlightenment. The story has the comic charm, dramatic tension and psychological intensity of a fairy tale, but it's full of specific wisdom as well, about becoming self-empowered, overcoming depression, and believing in dreams. [A] sweetly exotic tale for young and old alike.” (Publishers Weekly)              

Tuesday, January 8
The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman  

In this book “…a lot is riding on a little mysterious carpet. Not any old welcome mat, but a precious Navajo tale-teller rug, full of portents, interwoven with bits of bark and feathers. Supposed to have been burned in a fire years before, the priceless artifact turns up in the pages of an interiors magazine, shown on the wall of a rich man named Jason Delos. After it's spotted by Joe Leaphorn, a retired Navajo policeman, and an old colleague of his (whose car almost immediately plunges down a canyon), the story ravels through an elaborate investigation of theft and murder. The gentle style of this laconic author and his even more laconic Leaphorn are immensely appealing, as are his insights into Navajo behavior.” (The Washington Post)  “Only Hillerman could so masterfully connect such disparate elements as an ancient cursed weaving, two stolen buckets of piñon sap and the Vietnam War. The conclusion is sure to startle longtime fans of this acclaimed mystery series.” (Publishers Weekly                

Tuesday, February 12
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace -- One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson.
This is the WINCHESTER READS book for the year. Find out more about the book, the author and our events.

Dangerously ill from an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, in 1993, “Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way… Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts.” (Publishers Weekly) “[N]ot only a thrilling read…proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world.” (Tom Brokaw)

Tuesday, March 11
Atonement by Ian McEwan.

“The major events of Booker Prize winner McEwan's novel occur one day in the summer of 1935. Briony Tallis, a precocious 13-year-old with an overactive imagination, witnesses an incident between Cecilia, her older sister, and Robbie Turner, son of the Tallis family's charwoman. Already startled by the sexual overtones of what she has seen,…[it] becomes easy for her to believe that the shadowy figure who assaults her cousin Lola late that night is Robbie. Briony's testimony sends Robbie to prison and, through an early release, into the army on the eve of World War II. Gradually understanding what she has done, Briony seeks atonement…,with the novel itself framed as a literary confession it has taken her a lifetime to write. Moving deftly between styles, this is a compelling exploration of guilt and the struggle for forgiveness.” (Library Journal) 

Tuesday, April 8
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert.

“Gilbert grafts the structure of romantic fiction upon the inquiries of reporting in this… travelogue of soul-searching and self-discovery. Plagued with despair after a nasty divorce, the author, in her early 30s, divides a year equally among three dissimilar countries, exploring her competing urges for earthly delights and divine transcendence. First, pleasure: savoring Italy's buffet of delights--the world's best pizza, free-flowing wine and dashing conversation partners…Then, prayer and ascetic rigor: seeking communion with the divine at a sacred ashram in India…Finally, a balancing act in Bali, where Gilbert tries for equipoise ‘betwixt and between’ realms, studies with a merry medicine man and plunges into a charged love affair. Sustaining a chatty, conspiratorial tone, Gilbert fully engages readers in the year's cultural and emotional tapestry--conveying rapture with infectious brio, recalling anguish with touching candor--as she details her exotic tableau with history, anecdote and impression.” (Publishers Weekly)

Because of the popularity of Eat, Pray, Love in the Networkwe may not be able to get more that a few copies. You may want to place your own individual hold for this book. For more information, please pick up a flyer in the library or call Janet Nelson at 721-7171 x20.

Tuesday, May 13
Lying on the Couch by Irving Yalom.

“This novel features a lot of lying (in more than one sense) on or next to a couch, for most of it is set in a California where psychoanalysts, lawyers, and gamblers abound. When ambitious young analyst Ernest Lash counsels Justin Astrid to leave his wife, Carol, a hotshot attorney, she and two colleagues dream up getting back at both men by having Carol become one of Ernest's patients in order to sabotage him. Meanwhile, Marshal Streider, Ernest's supervising analyst, wishes to become San Francisco's leading analyst and to develop an international reputation, and his ruthless campaign to do so blots out all opposition. But Streider's arrogance blinds him to one of his own patients, who turns out to be a highly competent scam artist. Badly jolted by his misadventure, Streider becomes one of Carol's clients in order to regain his lost funds. Although the law doesn't help her own scheme, ultimately, Carol, with Ernest's indirect aid, becomes Streider's ‘analyst.’ No violence, little sex, and much conversation add up to a surprisingly attention-holding story.” (Booklist)

Tuesday, June 10
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl.

“Reichl's hilarious, heart-warming, mouth-watering gastronomic comedy is based on the former New York Times critic's food and restaurant columns and experiences. Disguised as her own silver-haired mother or a Marilyn Monroe look-alike or a redhead, among others, Reichl differentiates the best from the pretenders among the restaurants of New York City.” (AudioFile)

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