Open For Discussion

Adult Book Discussion is open to all. No registration required. Meetings last one hour.
Questions? Call the Adult Information Desk at 329-4542, ext 600 or email us

Open for Discussion Winter 2012

The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball
Tuesday, January 17th
10:30AM & repeated 7:00PM
Thirty year old Harvard graduate Kristin Kimball chucked life as a Manhattan journalist after she interviewed a young, self taught farmer, fell in love and married him. The two eventually rented then bought a 500 acre farm on Lake Champlain and resolved to create a cooperative farm that provided members a fully rounded diet from their five acres of vegetables, dairy cows, and cattle, pigs, and hens. They eventually produced a self-sustaining farm and cooperative on the CSA model using draft horses instead of tractors and little outside help. Through no end of dirty, hard, fiercely satisfying work, the couple managed to keep the farm, eat well and feed 150 families.

Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Tuesday, February 21st
10:30AM & repeated 7:00PM
The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson (the title is borrowed from the celebrated black writer Richard Wright, who fled Jim Crow Mississippi in the 1920s to feel the warmth of those other suns) is based on more than a thousand interviews. It follows the exodus of Southern blacks from World War I through the Depression, World War II, the Civil Rights movement and riots of the 1960’s, into the 1970’s. The book follows the journey of three Southern blacks, each representing a different decade of the Great Migration as well as a different destination: Chicago, New York and Los Angeles and Oakland, the patterns determined by the train routes available to those bold enough to leave. Although this book is filled with statistics and history, it reads as three novellas tied together by the individuals who braved the trip north for a better life and those with unbreakable bonds to family ties who chose to stay behind.

Reading Together selection
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Tuesday, March 20th
10:30AM & repeated 7:00PM
In his novel Into the Beautiful North Luis Alberto Urrea gives us the compelling story of a young woman’s journey from Mexico to the United States and back again. Inspired by a showing of The Magnificent Seven at her local theater, and the banditos that are eyeing her increasingly desolate village, Nayeli starts her own quest to find her father and six other men to return to her village and protect it. Nayeli’s travels lead her through slums in Tijuana, the dangerous border crossing, and into the United States. Along the way, she and her friends gather supporters and champions, all of whom are on personal missions of their own. This funny and tender novel will give you a new perspective on the relationship between Mexico and the United States.
Movie tie-in: Magnificent Seven

Greater Journey by David McCullough
Tuesday, April 24 (fourth Tuesday)
10:30 AM & repeated 7:00 PM
Between 1830 and 1900, hundreds of Americans, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain, Samuel Morse, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, migrated to Paris. McCullough shows how their experiences in Paris helped shape American art, medicine, writing, science, and politics in profound ways when they returned to the United States. McCullough’s histories are well researched with intimate stories and connections that illuminate our history and knowledge of those who shaped it.
Move tie-in: Midnight in Paris

What Some Are Reading Chapter Seven
Thursday, May 3rd
6:30 PM
Come join us for our sixth year presenting this lively book talking soiree. Exchange book titles with other book group members and find out what titles have stimulated juicy discussions. We will also banter ideas to embellish book discussions, keeping them fresh, fascinating and fun. You will take home booklists for your group as well as for that nestled in the hammock summer afternoon read. Don’t miss it.
No registration required/ Free

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
Tuesday, May 15th
10:30 AM & repeated 7:00 PM
Remarkable Creatures is a riveting novel about the real life Mary Anning, who was considered the greatest fossil-hunter ever and Elizabeth Philpot whose fossil fish collection ended up in Oxford. In 1811 when she was 12 (Darwin was two) Mary’s first big find, a “crocodile” later named ichthyosaurus, rocked the scientific world. She later unearthed a plesiosaurus, a pterodactyl and a squaloraja (a transition fish, between sharks and rays). This novel spotlights the limited rights of women in society in general and science specifically. It is the story of a friendship between two women who were indirectly responsible for several male careers and insights including Darwin’s.