Good Reads

Library volunteer and coordinator of the First-Wednesday Book Discussion Group at the Library, Lynn Forand, asked the members to list their three favorite titles of all time…and here are their answers, for your reading pleasure.
Thanks, Lynn!

 OUR BEST OF……WEDNESDAY MORNING BOOK GROUP

Rose In Bloom by Louisa May Alcott

Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy (3 volumes)

Mornings On Horseback by David McCullough

Stealing Heaven: The Love Story of Heloise and Abelard by Marion Meade

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

Diary of Anne Frank

The Plague by Albert Camus

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Cry  the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris

Gift from the Sea by Ann Morrow Lindbergh

The Cave by Jose Saramago

Ulysses by James Joyce

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Trustee from the Tool Room by Nevil Shute

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (children’s book)

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

84,Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

{ 0 comments }

Oh, I just loved this book. I read it over the holidays and mostly, could not put it down. As I got toward the end…I…tried…to…read…it…s-l-o-w-l-y, so it would not be over. Probably not unlike the author, Will Schwalbe’s, relationship with his mother, Mary Anne Schwalbe, as they worked on their own version of a book discussion group during the months of hospital visits for her chemotherapy and cancer treatment.  Schwalbe, an author, editor, and now web entrepreneur, wrote about this unique book group as he helped his mom through the end of her life, one cut short by pancreatic cancer.  It is a mother-son-family relationship story; a story of living and working in New York – especially about the publishing world; a cancer story indeed, and a lovely tribute to a remarkable woman who you may not know, but will surely remember after reading this book. Especially good are the brief descriptions of several fiction and non-fiction books and the list of titles and authors mentioned in an Appendix at the back of the book. A great read.  If you read it, let me know what you think. -jc, Jane Cain, Library Director

{ 0 comments }