Adult Book Club
The Edgewood Public Library is offering a book club for adults interested in literature. This group meets during the odd calendar months giving patrons 6 books a year to discover. This is a great way to socialize and meet new friends.
We meet in the library itself leaving no expectations for anyone to host in their own home or to feel inclined to have to purchase something if at a store.
The group will read a novel picked by the Library Director as they read, they choose the grade they would give the book. The library director has a preplanned set of questions for the discussion, but it is encouraged for members of the group to ask their own and share their insights.
The group is free, as the library utilizes the network of the Iowa Interlibrary Loan. This is where we can borrow books from other libraries at no charge to our patrons. Books will be available to all members of the group plus extras on hand for anyone interested in joining or just reading along.
Contact Tracey for more information or stop by the checkout desk to reserve a copy of our newest discussion book today!
January 2024 Book Club
Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy
Thriller/ Suspense
Snippet...
Newlyweds Sam Statler and Annie Potter are head over heels, and excited to say good-bye to New York and start a life together in Sam's sleepy hometown in upstate New York. Or, it turns out, a life where Annie spends most of her time alone while Sam, her therapist husband, works long hours in his downstairs office, tending to the egos of his (mostly female) clientele.
Little does Sam know that through a vent in his ceiling, every word of his sessions can be heard from the room upstairs. The pharmacist's wife, contemplating a divorce. The well-known painter whose boyfriend doesn’t satisfy her in bed. Who could resist listening? Everything is fine until the French girl in the green mini-Cooper shows up, and Sam decides to go to work and not come home, throwing a wrench into Sam and Annie's happily ever after.
Our Review...
The ladies of book club give the overall book a B+ rating. Two simple statements were made about this novel. First, it was hard to get into but once you were in, you were hooked. Second, where did that twist come from?
The ladies of book club enjoyed discussing the misleads, the twists and the suspense. And of course, would you eavesdrop on the therapy sessions downstairs if you could?
Definitely a book many of us enjoyed but would not have grabbed off the shelf for ourselves.
May 2024 Book Club
Code Name Sapphire by Pam Jenoff
Historical Fiction
Snippet...
A woman must rescue her cousin's family from a train bound for Auschwitz in this riveting tale of bravery and resistance, from the bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris
1942. Hannah Martel has narrowly escaped Nazi Germany after her fiancé was killed in a pogrom. When her ship bound for America is turned away at port, she has nowhere to go but to her cousin Lily, who lives with her family in Brussels. Fearful for her life, Hannah is desperate to get out of occupied Europe. But with no safe way to leave, she must return to the dangerous underground work she thought she had left behind.
Seeking help, Hannah joins the Sapphire Line, a secret resistance network led by a mysterious woman named Micheline and her enigmatic brother Mateo. But when a grave mistake causes Lily’s family to be arrested and slated for deportation to Auschwitz, Hannah finds herself torn between her loyalties. How much is Hannah willing to sacrifice to save the people she loves?
Inspired by incredible true stories of courage and sacrifice, Code Name Sapphire is a powerful novel about love, family and the unshakable resilience of women in even the hardest of times.
Our Review...
The average grade given by book club is an A-. This book was based on facts from a real event that the author's note at the end told us about, but it had true fiction pieces in it. Several of the events in the book kept you engaged and hooked into the novel. Many book clubbers love WWII books, and this is one that they loved. The book ended with an odd twist that no one saw coming but it also seemed rushed at the end almost as if the author met their page quota and decided to just end it.
September 2024 Book Club
The Readers of Broken Bow Recommend
by Katarina Bivald
Fiction
Snippet...
A debut novel to charm all listeners, that shows beyond all doubt that it's books, along with love, that make the world go round.
It all began with a correspondence between two quite different women: 28-year-old Sara from Haninge, Sweden, and 65-year-old Amy from the small town of Broken Wheel, Iowa. After years of exchanging books, letters and thoughts on the meaning of literature and life, Sara, mousy, disheveled, who has never been anywhere in her life--has really lived only for her work in a beloved bookshop, which has just closed its doors for the last time--bravely decides to accept her unknown friend's invitation to visit. But when she arrives, she finds her house empty, the funeral guests just heading home. . .
Sara finds herself alone. And what choice do the inhabitants of Broken Wheel have but to take care of their bewildered tourist? And what choice does Sara have, faced with a town where nobody reads and her desire to honour her friend, but to set up the perfect bookshop with all the books she and Amy shared--from Yann Martel's Life of Pi to Iris Murdoch and Jo Nesbo, to Bridget Jones and Doug Coupland's All Families Are Psychotic to Little House on the Prairie? And then watch as the townsfolk are, one by one, transformed in unexpected ways. . .
In the glorious tradition of 84 Charing Cross Road, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, Will Schwalbe's The End of Your Life Book Club, Jane Austen, and movies such as You've Got Mail and Love Actually, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is a big-hearted, witty book about books, friendship, love--and always being open to the unexpected.
Our Review...
Join us September 23 to discuss this novel at 2 pm.
March 2024 Book Club
The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell
Snippet...
For six amateur bakers, competing in Bake Week is a dream come true.
When they arrive at Grafton Manor to compete, they're ready to do whatever it takes to win the ultimate The Golden Spoon.
But for the show's famous host, Betsy Martin, Bake Week is more than just a competition. Grafton Manor is her family's home and legacy - and Bake Week is her life's work. It's imperative that both continue to succeed.
But as the competition commences, things begin to go awry. At first, it's small acts of sabotage. Someone switching sugar for salt. A hob turned far too high.
But when a body is discovered, it's clear that for someone in the competition, The Golden Spoon is a prize worth killing for...
Our Review...
The ladies of book club give the overall book an A- rating. Many enjoyed the nice easy read it allowed and the little twists that popped up.
There were many situations that you could see the outcome coming and then there were things that just got dropped along the way with no follow up.
Definitely another book many enjoyed but would not have grabbed off the shelf.
July 2024 Book Club
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
NonFiction
Snippet...
Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.
The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism.
Drawing on the boys' own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant. It will appeal to readers of Erik Larson, Timothy Egan, James Bradley, and David Halberstam's The Amateurs.
Our Review...
The book was very technical and hard to get into but if we stuck to it and made it in the ladies loved it! We even had a married couple listen to it on an audiobook and they loved it. The husband found it interesting and is waiting for the next audiobook to listen to with his wife.
The overall grade was an A- just because it was so technical to get into at first.
The group watched the PBS Documentary ( The Boys of '36) after the discussion. Then a few days later a small group of them enjoyed the motion picture production at the library.