A Good American by Alex George

Tuesday

April 16, 2013

7:00 pm

A Good American

by

Alex George

 A Good American tells of Jette’s dogged determination to feed a town sauerkraut and soul food; the loves and losses of her children, Joseph and Rosa; and the precocious voices of James and his brothers, sometimes raised in discord…sometimes in perfect harmony.

This is the story of the Meisenheimer family, told by James, a third-generation American living in Beatrice, Missouri. It’s where his German grandparents—Frederick and Jette—found themselves after journeying across the turbulent Atlantic, fording the flood-swollen Mississippi, and being brought to a sudden halt by the broken water of the pregnant Jette.

 

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm 

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Tuesday

February 15, 2013

7:00 pm

People of the Book 

by

Geraldine Brooks

From the Pulitzer Prize winning author of March, the journey of  a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war. Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur. This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fiftheenth-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of timy artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding only begin to unlcok its deep mystries and unexpectedly plunge Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm 

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or 

 email Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org or Janie Stammen at jstammen@oplin.org 

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Tuesday

January 15, 2013

7:00 pm

In this debut novel by gifted storyteller Karen Thompson Walker, the world is ending not with a bang so much as a long, drawn-out whimper. The Earth's rotation slows, gradually stretching out days and nights and subtly affecting the planet's gravity. The looming apocalypse parallels the adolescent struggles of 10-year-old Julia, as her comfortable suburban life succumbs to a sort of domestic deterioration. Julia confronts her parents' faltering marriage, illness, the death of a loved one, her first love, and her first heartbreak. Thompson Walker’s language is precise and poetic, but never overpowers the realism she imbues to her characters and the slowing Earth they inhabit. Most impressively, she has written a coming-of-age tale that asks whether it's worth coming of age at all in a world that might end at any minute. Like the best stories about the end of the world, The Age of Miracles is about the existence of hope and whether it can prevail in the face of uncertainty.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

Tuesday

December 18, 2012

Special Christmas Meeting

at

Bella’s Italian Grille

1081 West Bank Road 

(Dutch Treat for dinner)

6:30 pm

In a departure from his usual thrillers, bestselling author David Baldacci brings us this sweet holiday tale full of humor, romance, mystery, and a reminder of what Christmas is all about.

Meeting the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or

email Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org or Janie Stammen at jstammen@oplin.org

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Tuesday

November 20, 2012

7:00 pm

An old-fashioned, romantic tale of two star-tangled lovers. Beginning in the Italian Alps, the story travels by various routes to New York's Little Italy, a Hoboken factory, backstage at the Metropolitan Opera, Minnesota's Iron Range and the trenches of France. Trigiani is a master of palpable and visual detail. She brings to vivid life the terrible ocean crossings, the tribulation of getting through immigration control at Ellis Island, and the whole look, feel and material reality of the New World. You may remember this author from the bestselling Big Stone Gap series.

Join Mercer County Library's Newest Book Discussion GROUP

Meeting the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or

email Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org or Janie Stammen at jstammen@oplin.org

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Tuesday

October 16, 2012

7:00 pm

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America 
is a 2003 non-fiction book presented in the style of a novel. Set in Chicago circa 1893, intertwining the true tales of Daniel H. Burnham, the architect behind the 1893 World's Fair, and Dr. H. H Holmes, the serial killer who lured his victioms to their deaths in his elaborately constructed "Murder Castle." Both men left behind a powerful legacy; one of brilliance and energy, the other of sorrow and darkness.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

Tuesday

September 18, 2012

7:00pm

For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. Their beachfront property, won on a barroom bet after the war, sits on three acres of sand and pine nestled between stretches of rocky coast. At the cottage, built by Kelleher hands, cocktail hour follows morning mass, nosy grandchildren snoop in drawers, and decades-old grudges simmer beneath the surface. By turns wickedly funny and achingly sad, Maine unveils the sibling rivalry, alcoholism, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer to Maine and to each other.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org