Book Discussion Kits

  /    /  Book Discussion Kits

Book discussion kits are available at the Smith Library.
Included in the kits: 8 regular and 2 large print books of the same title and discussion questions to lead the group.

One member of your book discussion group borrows the kit for the entire group and is responsible for all the materials. Kits check out for 6 weeks and the bag and its entire contents must be returned to the library at the same time.
Please visit or contact the Smith Library for questions regarding the kits and their availability.

 

Beautiful Little Fools: A Novel - Kindle edition by Cantor, Jillian.  Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

 

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor

Jillian Cantor revisits the glittering Jazz Age world of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, retelling this timeless American classic from the women’s perspective. Beautiful Little Fools is a quintessential tale of money and power, marriage and friendship, love and desire, and ultimately the murder of a man tormented by the past and driven by a destructive longing that can never be fulfilled.

Source: GoodReads

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Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

A stunning novel about love, work, and marriage that asks how far one family and one community will go to protect their future. Colleen and Rich Gundersen are raising their young son, Chub, on the rugged California coast. It’s 1977, and life in this Pacific Northwest logging town isn’t what it used to be.

Source: Simon and Schuster

Amazon.com: The Secrets We Kept: A novel: 9780525656159: Prescott, Lara:  Books

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

The Secrets We Kept combines a legendary literary love story–the decades-long affair between Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, who was sent to the Gulag and inspired Zhivago’s heroine, Lara–with a narrative about two women empowered to lead lives of extraordinary intrigue and risk.

Source: Penguin Random House

The Midnight Library: A Novel: Haig, Matt: 9780525559474: Amazon.com: Books

The Midnight Library By Matt Haig

Matt Haig’s unique novel The Midnight Library ponders the infinite possibilities of life. It is about a young woman named Nora Seed, who lives a monotonous, ordinary life and feels unwanted and unaccomplished. One night, her despair reaches a peak and she commits suicide.
Source: Publisher’s Weekly

American Dirt (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel - Kindle edition by Cummins,  Jeanine. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

American Dirt tells the story of Lydia Quixano Pérez, a middle-class Mexican bookseller who flees Acapulco with 8-year-old son, Luca, after a drug cartel violently attacks a quinceañera she’s attending, killing her journalist husband who earlier had profiled the cartel leader, Javier.

Source: Buzzfeed News

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. When June sees an opportunity to reinvent one of Athena’s works as her own a crazy ride ensues pushing the publishing world, social media platforms and personal self worth to the limits.

Source: Barnes & Nobel

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan

Olivia McAfee, a professional beekeeper and single mother, fled Boston to try to give her son, Asher, a better life in small-town New Hampshire. Things go well for their first 12 years in Adams. Then he meets Lily Campanello, a new girl who, like his mother, has fled a troubled past. Things get very serious quickly; then, one afternoon, Asher finds Lily dead at the bottom of her basement stairs.

Source: Kirkus Reviews

Amazon.com: The Paris Library: A Novel: 9781982134198: Charles, Janet  Skeslien: Books

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien

When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved Library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal.

Source: Simon and Schuster

The Four Winds: A Novel: Hannah, Kristin: 9781250178602: Amazon.com: Books

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

Source: Pan Macmillan

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Set in a small Kentucky town in Depression-era America, the novel details the lives of five women who become traveling librarians, delivering books to the people of Kentucky. The story follows Alice Wright, a British woman, who moves after marrying the Kentucky native Bennett Van Cleve.

Source: The Crimson

The Dutch House: A Novel: Patchett, Ann: 9780062963673: Amazon.com: Books

The Dutch House By Ann Pratchett

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together.

Source: annpratchett.com

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. There, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters begin to examine their own lives as well as their connection to their mother.

Source: The Bibliofile

Educated: A Memoir: Westover, Tara: 9780399590504: Amazon.com: Books

Educated by Tara Westover

Educated is a memoir by the American author Tara Westover. Westover recounts overcoming her survivalist Mormon family in order to go to college, and emphasizes the importance of education in enlarging her world.

Source: Wikipedia

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

The New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story. In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son–but Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path…

Source: The Bibliofile

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Prologue (1965) Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Prologue (1965) The story opens with a policewoman holding part of a wedding dress after something tragic has taken place. Part I Now: 2019. Chapters 1 – 11 In 2018, following the death of their mother Eleanor Bennett, siblings Byron Bennett and Benedetta …

Source: The Bibliofile

 

 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman! It’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. But, like science, life is unpredictable and when Elizabeth Zott gets the opportunity to host America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six her unusual approach to the kitchen has people questioning her motives as she encourages viewers to change the status quo.

Source: Barnes & Noble

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So, it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters. But, then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing Julia’s family connection which changes their lives for generations.

Source: Good Reads