Downtown Book Club

Located at Harmony Cafe - 124 N. Oneida Street
noon - 1 pm
the last Wednesday of each month

Bring a lunch or treat yourself from the Cafe menu. Co-sponsored with Harmony Cafe. Led by Amy, Adult Programming Library Assistant

Apr 30	Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson One man's campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia: in 1993 Greg Mortenson was an American mountain-climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan's Karakoram. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of a Pakistani village, he promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time--Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban. In a region where Americans are often feared and hated, he has survived kidnapping, death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself--at last count, his Central Asia Institute had built fifty-five schools. --From publisher description
May 28	Free-for-All: Read What You Want - tell us about what you're reading now, one of your favorite reads of all time, etc...
Jun 25	The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield A compelling emotional mystery about family secrets and the magic of books and storytelling. A dying writer bids a young bookshop assistant to write her biography.
Jul 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...
Aug 27	A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini Mariam and Laila are born a generation apart but are are brought together by war and fate. Together they endure the dangers surrounding them and discover the power of both love and sacrifice.

Hearthstone Book Club

Located in APL's Lower Level Meeting Room

Led by Christine Cross, Executive Director of Hearthstone, and Elizabeth Eisen, Adult Programming Librarian at APL.

Theme:
"Victorian Life:
The Good, The Bad, and the Murder of it All"

  The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson.
Wed, Mar 12, 1 - 2 pm

"Their fates were linked by the magical Chicago World's Fair of 1893, nicknamed the "White City" for its majestic beauty. Architect Daniel Burnham built it; serial killer Dr. H.H. Holmes used it to lure victims to his World's Fair Hotel, designed for murder. Both men left behind them a powerful legacy, one of brilliance and energy, the other of sorrow and darkness.

Here, then, is your ticket to the greatest fair in history -- a place where incredible dreams came to life alongside darkest nightmares."

~from a publicity flyer for The Devil in the White City

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Theme:
"Victorian Life:
Thoughts of Home"

Home: A Short History of an Idea by Witold Rybczyski.
Wed, Apr 9, 1 - 2 pm

"Walk through five centuries of homes both great and small-from the smoke-filled manor halls of the Middle Ages to today's Ralph Lauren-designed environments-on a house tour like no other, one that delightfully explicates the very idea of "home." You'll see how social and cultural changes influenced styles of decoration and furnishing, learn the connection between wall-hung religious tapestries and wall-to-wall carpeting, discover how some of our most welcome luxuries were born of architectural necessity, and much more. Most of all, Home opens a rare window into our private lives-and how we really want to live."

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Theme:
"Victorian Women:
Beyond the Corset "

Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World by Simon Garfield.
Wed, May 14, 1 - 2 pm

"Born of a laboratory accident, mauve--this odd shade of purple--revolutionized fashion, industry, and the practice of science. Mauve became the most desirable shade in the fashion houses of Paris and London in the late 1800s and sparked new interest in the industrial applications of chemistry research. of color illustrations."