Book Club, Tuesday 1/8 6:30 pm, Visalia LIbrary

“I was drawn through these pages in a single sitting—their pull is true and magnetic. . . . [Knight’s] tale becomes universal thanks to the expert care of Finkel’s writing. . . The Stranger in the Woods is, ultimately, a meditation on the pains of social obligation and the longing toward retreat that resides in us all.” —Michael Harris, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“Michael Finkel has done something magical with this profound book . . . [His] investigation runs deep, summoning . . . the human history of our own attempts to find meaning in a noisy world.” —Michael Paterniti, author of Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein’s Brain.

Mystery Readers Book Group, May 18

Mystery Readers Book Group

Sponsored by The Friends of the Library 

(559) 713-2709

For May: This month's theme is academic mysteries. Read any mystery relating with teachers, graduation or schools!

Next Meeting
May 18 at 6:30pm

Come and bring a friend!!

Mystery Readers Book Group, April 20

 Mystery Readers Book Group

Sponsored by The Friends of the Library 

(559) 713-2709

For April: Dig for clues! Read any gardening mystery.

Next Meeting
April 20 at 6:30pm

Come and bring a friend!!

First Tuesday Book Club, May 3

For May, we're reading The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig.

Summary: Tom Harry has a streak of frost in his black pompadour and a venerable bar called The Medicine Lodge, the chief watering hole and last refuge of the town of Gros Ventre, in northern Montana. Tom also has a son named Rusty, an “accident between the sheets” whose mother deserted them both years ago.The pair make an odd kind of family, with the bar their true home, but they manage just fine. 

Until the summer of 1960, that is, when Rusty  turns twelve. Change arrives with gale force, in the person of Proxy, a taxi dancer Tom knew back when, and her beatnik daughter, Francine. Is Francine, as Proxy claims, the unsuspected legacy of her and Tom’s past? Without a doubt she is an unsettling gust of the future, upending every certainty in Rusty’s life and generating a mist of passion and pretense that seems to obscure everyone’s vision but his own. As Rusty struggles to decipher the oddities of adult behavior and the mysteries build toward a reckoning, Ivan Doig wonderfully captures how the world becomes bigger and the past becomes more complex in the last moments of childhood.

We are meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on May 3 from 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm.

First Tuesday Book Club, April 5

For April, we're reading On the Beach by Nevil Shute.

Summary: After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is heading their way and bringing certain death to everyone in its path. Among them is an American submarine captain struggling to resist the knowledge that his wife and children in the United States must be dead. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from somewhere near Seattle, and Captain Towers must lead his submarine crew on a bleak tour of the ruined world in a desperate search for signs of life. Both terrifying and intensely moving, On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare.

We are meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on April 5 from 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm.

Mystery Readers Book Group, March 16

 Mystery Readers Book Group

Sponsored by The Friends of the Library 

(559) 713-2709

For March: Read your all time favorite mystery. It's hard to choose, but bring your favorite to the March meeting!

Next Meeting
March 16 at 6:30pm

Come and bring a friend!!

First Tuesday Book Club, March 1

For March, we're reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.

Summary: Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.

Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through.

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life...as only a dog could tell it.

We are meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on March 1 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.

Mystery Readers Book Group, February 17

Mystery Readers Book Group  

Sponsored by The Friends of the Library 

(559) 713-2709

For February: Read a book you got for the holidays!

Next Meeting
February 17 at 6:30pm

Come and bring a friend!!

First Tuesday Book Club, February 2

For February, we're reading In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson.

Summary: Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestsellerA Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiousity.

Despite the fact that Australia harbors more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else, including sharks, crocodiles, snakes, even riptides and deserts, Bill Bryson adores the place, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond that beaten tourist path. Wherever he goes he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging, and these beaming products of land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine fill the pages of this wonderful book. Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide.

We are meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on February 2 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.

First Tuesday Book Club, January 5

For January, we're reading Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler.

Summary: A tale inspired by the marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald follows their union in defiance of her father's opposition and her abandonment of the provincial finery of her upbringing in favor of a scandalous flapper identity that gains her entry into the literary party scenes of New York, Paris and the French Riviera.

We are meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on January 5 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.

Mystery Readers Book Group, December 16

Mystery Readers Book Group

Sponsored by The Friends of the Library 

(559) 713-2709

For December: No book to read!

Instead, bring a wrapped book (paperback or hardback - may be new or gently used) with no name on it. Some people have added bookmarks or other items; however, gifts shouldn't be very expensive.

We will play the "Yankee Swap" game with the wrapped books.

Next Meeting
December 16th at 6:30pm

Come and bring a friend!!

Mystery Readers Book Group, November 18

Mystery Readers Book Group  

Sponsored by The Friends of the Library 
(559) 713-2709

For November: Read a mystery book by its cover!

Choose a book by its cover

Next Meeting
November 18 at 6:30pm

Come and bring a friend!!

First Tuesday Book Club, December 1

For December, we're reading Brave New World: with the essay "Brave New World Revisited" by Aldous Huxley.

Summary: Huxley's vision of the future comes to life in his astonishing 1931 novel Brave New World--a world of tomorrow in which capitalist civilization has been reconstituted through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering--and its sequel, written thirty years after his classic novel of the future, in which Huxley describes the shocking scientific devices and techniques available to any group in a position to manipulate society. 

We will be meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on December 1 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.

First Tuesday Book Club, November 3

For November, we're reading 1984 by George Orwell.  

Summary: Published in 1949, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future as a warning about the menaces of totalitarianism. The novel is set in an imaginary future world that is dominated by three perpetually warring totalitarian police states. The book's hero, Winston Smith, is a minor party functionary in one of these states. His longing for truth and decency leads him to secretly rebel against the government. Smith has a love affair with a like-minded woman, but they are both arrested by the Thought Police. The ensuing imprisonment, torture, and reeducation of Smith are intended not merely to break him physically or make him submit but to root out his independent mental existence and his spiritual dignity.  

We will be meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on November 3 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.

First Tuesday Book Club, October 6

For October, we're reading Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye.  

Summary: New York City, 1845. Timothy Wilde, a 27-year-old Irish immigrant, joins the newly formed NYPD and investigates an infanticide and the body of a 12-year-old Irish boy whose spleen has been removed. 

We will be meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on October 6 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.

Mystery Readers Meeting, September 16

Mystery Readers Book Group  

Sponsored by The Friends of the Library 
(559) 713-2709

For September: Read any mystery author that you haven't before!

(look on stopyourekillingme.com for ideas)

 

Next Meeting
September 16th at 6:30pm

Come and bring a friend!!

First Tuesday Book Club, September 1

For September, we're reading Wonder by R. J. Palacio.

Summary: Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.

We will be meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on September 1 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.

Mystery Readers Meeting, August 19

Mystery Readers Book Group  

Sponsored by The Friends of the Library 
(559) 713-2709

For August: Read any mystery that takes place in a foreign COLD country

(look on stopyourekillingme.com for ideas)

Iceland

Next Meeting
August 19 at 6:30pm

Come and bring a friend!!

First Tuesday Book Club, August 4

For August, we're reading Le Divorce by Diane Johnson. 

Summary: Le Divorce recounts the adventures of two sisters from California who make a modern pilgrimage to the City of Light. Pregnant and abandoned by her French husband, Roxeanne Walker de Persand turns to her younger sister, Isabel, for support, while the powerful Persand family exerts subtle but firm control over her decision whether or not to divorce. Complicating matters is the disposition of a family heirloom, a painting in Roxy's possession that is suddenly discovered to be worth millions. In the midst of a variety of schemes, the stakes are suddenly raised by a crime of passion, disrupting everyone's motives and plans.

We will be meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on August 4 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.

First Tuesday Book Club, July 7

For July, we'll be reading You Know When The Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon.

Summary: A collection of interconnected stories relate the experiences of Fort Hood military wives who share a poignant vigil during which they raise children while waiting for their husbands to return.

We will be meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on July 7 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.