APL Book Clubs
Downtown Book Club
Located at Harmony Cafe
233 E. College Avenue
(located in the former Pilgrim's Cafe as of 4/22/09)
noon - 1 pm
last Wed of each month
Co-sponsored with Harmony Cafe.
Led by Amy, Adult Programming Library Assistant
Jun 24 |
The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
 Many will greet this taut, clear-eyed memoir of grief as a long-awaited return to the terrain of Didion's venerated, increasingly rare personal essays. The author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem and 11 other works chronicles the year following the death of her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne, from a massive heart attack on December 30, 2003, while the couple's only daughter, Quintana, lay unconscious in a nearby hospital suffering from pneumonia and septic shock. Dunne and Didion had lived and worked side by side for nearly 40 years, and Dunne's death propelled Didion into a state she calls "magical thinking." "We might expect that we will be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss," she writes. "We do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return and need his shoes." Didion's mourning follows a traditional arc—she describes just how precisely it cleaves to the medical descriptions of grief—but her elegant rendition of its stages leads to hard-won insight, particularly into the aftereffects of marriage. "Marriage is not only time: it is also, paradoxically, the denial of time. For forty years I saw myself through John's eyes. I did not age." In a sense, all of Didion's fiction, with its themes of loss and bereavement, served as preparation for the writing of this memoir, and there is occasionally a curious hint of repetition, despite the immediacy and intimacy of the subject matter. Still, this is an indispensable addition to Didion's body of work and a lyrical, disciplined entry in the annals of mourning literature. |
July 29 |
Free-for-All: Read What You Want - tell us about what you're reading now, one of your favorite reads of all time, etc...
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August 26 |
Dewey: a small-town library cat who touched the world, by Vicki Myron
 The charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.
The story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat, starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the book return slot at the Spencer, Iowa, Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility (for a cat), and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.
--From publisher comments. |
September
30 |
Free-for-All: Read What You Want - tell us about what you're reading now, one of your favorite reads of all time, etc...
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October 28 |
The Year of Pleasures, by Elizabeth Berg
 When Betta Nolan's husband dies, she honors a promise she made to him to move to a small town and start a new life. Without minimizing her great sorrow, she nonetheless attempts to find pleasure on a daily basis. The Year of Pleasures is about deliberately acknowledging the solace found in ordinary things: a warm bath, good food, the beauty of nature, music, art found in museums and in gardens. Above all, this novel is about the various kindnesses people can and do offer one another. Betta's journey from grief to joy is an inspiring reminder of what is available to us all, regardless of our life circumstances. It suggests that no matter what we lose, life is ready to give bountifully to those who will receive.
--From publisher comments. |
November 25 |
Free-for-All: Read What You Want - tell us about what you're reading now, one of your favorite reads of all time, etc...
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Newcomers are welcome. Free and open to the general public. No registration required.
To see if a book is available for reservation, call Reference at 832-6173.
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made upon request and if feasible.
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