"Books Sandwiched In" provides readers with a regular opportunity to participate
in informal, facilitated discussion of noteworthy works of fiction and nonfiction. All
are welcome to join us on the first Wednesday of the month, at 11:30 am in the conference
room on the lower level of the Library. Participants are encouraged to bring a lunch and
share their thoughts on the current reading selection, copies of which are available on a
first-come first-served basis at the circulation desk.
The group has established two annual traditions. In August, the group will discuss the
book that has been selected for the Carolina Summer Reading Program. And in September, in
recognition of Banned Books Week, the group will discuss a book that has been challenged
or banned. Celebrated annually during the last week of September, Banned Books Week is
sponsored by the American Library Association and the American Booksellers Association
and endorsed by the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.
Upcoming Discussions
- April 7th, 2010
11:30am Meeting Room
- America, America: A Novel by Ethan Canin
Corey Sifter is the narrator in this novel of a rupture in the American dream as he looks back on the struggles between public idealism and personal ruthlessness. Canin gives the reader an eager, observant Corey who is 16 in 1971 and living in a little town in western New York state. The town is ruled by Liam Metarey , a tycoon of Scottish descent. Metarey is wealthy but sets out to reverse America ’s politics of greed. He makes Corey the caretaker of his extensive lands and in effect “adopts” him. Metarey plans to create his own president and chooses as his intended candidate Henry Bonwiller, a United States senator from New York who has a deeply flawed character. After becoming involved in the presidential campaign, Corey eventually becomes the publisher of a small independent newspaper and marries one of Metarey’s daughters. Canin splices his complex characters into the news of the 1960’s and 70’s and delivers a powerful political novel.
[ Show Detail ]
- May 5th, 2010
11:30am Meeting Room
- The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
This is Berendt’s first book since Midnight… and is the same unique brand of journalism, story-telling and social insight that made him a household name. This is a portrait of the intriguing and colorful private Venice after the tourists leave in the off-season. It opens after a colossal fire destroyed the Fenice Opera House and through stories of the Venetians themselves, Berendt describes natives and expatriates who reveal many secrets, some of which are connected to the fire and others not. The variety of people he interviews range from those who live in castles to those in cottages, often the city’s eccentrics. The chaos, corruption and crime are as characteristic of Venice as its winding canals.
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- June 2nd, 2010
11:30am Meeting Room
- The Night Journal - Elizabeth Crook
A mesmerizing novel of four generations of Southwestern women bound to a mythical legacy
With its family secrets and hallowed texts containing explosive truths, The Night Journal suggests A. S. Byatt’s Possession transplanted to the raw and beautiful landscape of the American Southwest. Meg Mabry has spent her life oppressed by her family’s legacy—a heritage beginning with the journals written by her great-grandmother in the 1890s and solidified by her grandmother Bassie, a famous historian who published them to great acclaim. Until now, Meg has stubbornly refused to read the journals. But when she concedes to accompany the elderly and vipertongued Bassie on a return trip to the fabled land of her childhood in New Mexico, Meg finally succumbs to the allure of her great-grandmother’s story—and soon everything she believed about her family is turned upside down.
goodreads.com
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- July 7th, 2010
11:30am Meeting Room
- The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
It’s not laws or constitutional theory that rules the High Court, argues this absorbing group profile, but quirky men and women guided by political intuition. Toobin surveys the Court from the Reagan administration onward , as the justices wrestled with abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, gay rights and church-state separation. He gives a gossipy account of the lives and motives of individuals that often ended up with a middle-of-the-road consensus, not a conservative revolution expected from a Court dominated by Republican appointees. This is not a treatise for attorneys but an insight into the background and behind-the-scenes that often does not make its way into the news for the citizens.
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Past Discussions
Click here to view past discussions.
For more information about “Books Sandwiched In” contact
Nancy Dixon.