Doris Kearns Goodwin’s
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
will be discussed on
July 15, 2009.
Potluck begins at 6:00pm at a group member’s home
Book Discussion begins at 7:30pm.
Please contact the group leader, Leane Ellis, for information on where the group will meet.
This book discussion group combines the enjoyment of reading a single title and the desire to share insights, observations, and feelings about that one book with others who have read it. So many novels create a need in some readers to share their reactions about the book with others, as well as an opportunity to personally grow from the discussions of related themes and common experiences.
The next gathering of Beebe Library’s book discussion group, Books By the Lake, is on July 15, 2009 when the book group will meet at a group member’s home for a potluck and a discussion of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. NON-FICTION
Goodwin’s perspective offers fresh insights into Lincoln’s leadership style and his deep understanding of human behavior and motivation. The author makes the case for Lincoln’s political genius by examining his relationships with three men he selected for his cabinet, all of whom were opponents for the Republican nomination in 1860: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates.
Book Discussions are planned for the third Wednesday of the month September through July at 7:30pm (We skip June & August.). All adult patrons enthusiastic about reading and talking about what they have read are invited to attend as often as they can. The conversations are lively, intelligent, and insightful–come and join us!
There are some copies of each title available at the Beebe Library, so reserve and pick up your copy as soon as possible.
The Group Leader brings copies of the next title to each meeting.
The 2009-2010 selections for Books by the Lake:
In the House of the Spirits, the Trueba family embodies strong feelings from the beginning of the 20th century through the assassination of Allende in 1973. Daughter of Fortune is the story of a young woman’s quest for love and fortune during the California Gold Rush in San Francisco, and is followed in time by Portrait in Sepia. With her earliest memories erased by a brutal trauma, Aurora del Valle is raised amid great wealth in Chile by her shrewd, commanding grandmother. But her nights are tormented by a nightmare set in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
This book takes a look at an ordinary substance–salt, the only rock humans eat–and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning. 2002.
Disenchanted with life and losing his cherished solitude in the wake of returning estranged family members, wealthy bachelor Hugo Whittier deliberately overindulges in tobacco use against the recommendations of his doctor and involves himself in the affairs of others. 2004.
In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation. 2008.
Holiday Potluck begins at 6:30pm at a group member’s home.
On Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, during the first half of the 20th century, the lives of four very different sisters slowly unravel. This unforgettable epic, which spans four generations, quotes Emily Bronte on the first page, so you can see where the inspiration lies. Filled with secrets, guilt, and redemption, this novel is haunting and beautifully written. It’s amazing that one family can be so devoted to each other yet, at the same time, keep so many secrets. Oprah pick. 1996.
Bring your ballot suggestions to the next two meetings.
Diaz recounts the saga of Dominican American nerd-boy Oscar in irresistible, high-energy Spanglish. “You really want to know what being an X-Man feels like? Just be a smart bookish boy of color in a contemporary U.S. ghetto. Mamma mia! Like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest.” That’s Oscar’s deal, but Diaz also has much to say about sci-fi fandom, bodacious chicas, and an ancient family curse. National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. 2007.
Title suggestions for 2010-2011 season due.
HISTORICAL. During the final months of World War II, a small group of people make their way westward across a ravaged Europe in a desperate attempt to reach British and American lines. 2008.
Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society. 2007
Ballots due before 12N, May 10, 2010.
Teasing out the consequences of a simple thought experiment—what would happen if the human species were suddenly extinguished—Weisman has written a sort of pop-science ghost story, in which the whole earth is the haunted house. From a patch of primeval forest in Poland to monumental underground villages in Turkey, Weisman’s enthralling tour of the world of tomorrow explores what little will remain of ancient times while anticipating, often poetically, what a planet without us would be like. 2007.
Ballot winners announced for 2011-2012
Three friends on the verge of their thirties–beautiful, sophisticated Marina Thwaite; Danielle, a quiet TV producer; and Julius, a freelance writer–make their way through New York City, until Marina’s idealistic cousin, Bootie, arrives to complicate their lives. 2006
End-of-Year Potluck begins at 7:00pm at a group member’s home.
Previous Discussions (1998 to 2009)
![[Wakefield Public Library]](http://www.wakefieldlibrary.org/wp-content/themes/wakefield/images/logo_hive_yellow.gif){kind=logo}