Book Club

Discussion Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2012.
Growing up in a New England orphanage unaware of his family and of how he had lost his left hand as an infant, twelve-year-old Ren is terrified of the future, until a young man shows up claiming to be his long-lost brother, with whom he embarks on an adventure-filled odyssey of scam artists, petty criminals, and resurrection men. New York Times Notable Books, 2008; John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize winner, 2008; Kirkus Reviews Best Books, 2008; Alex Award.

Discussion Date: Tuesday, May 1, 2012.
Thirteen of du Maurier's early shorter fictional works are in this collection: each story written before the author's twenty-third birthday and some in print for the first time since the 1930s. These are compelling tales of human foibles and tragic romance.

Discussion Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2012.
A dark tale of America's dysfunctional coming years, and of the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink. Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction, 2010; New York Times Notable Books of 2010; Boston Book Review Best Fiction, 2010; Wilson Fiction Core Collection, 2011 supplement.

Discussion Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2012.
In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather's recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with "the deathless man." But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her--the legend of the tiger's wife. National Book Award finalist; Library Journal Best Books; New York Times Notable Books of 2011; ALA Notable Books, 2012; Indies Choice for Best Debut Fiction.

Discussion Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2012.
In the vast expanse of late-Victorian Britain, two boys come to life: George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, in shabby genteel Edinburgh, both of them feeling at once near to and impossibly distant from the beating heart of Empire.
New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year, 2006; Kirkus Reviews Best Books, 2006.

Discussion Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2011.
When Olive Wellwood’s oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of the new Victoria and Albert Museum—a talented working-class boy who could be a character out of one of Olive’s magical tales—she takes him into the storybook world of her family and friends. But the joyful bacchanals Olive hosts at her rambling country house—and the separate, private books she writes for each of her seven children—conceal more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined. Listed in Fiction Core Collection (H.W. Wilson); Library Journal Best Books 2009; James Tait Black Memorial Prize winner.