Anorexia Starves the Family, Too
Brave Girl Eating: a family’s struggle with anorexia by Harriet Brown will be discussed at the next meeting of Memoirs and Coffee, one of Bernardsville Public Library’s monthly book groups. The meeting will take place in the Community Room on Tuesday, May 24th, at 10:30 a.m.. This book group is open to the public; please feel free to attend. The discussion will be led by staff member Pat Kennedy-Grant. Harriet Brown is an assistant professor of magazine journalism at the … Continue reading
David Foster Wallace
The Pale King, an unfinished novel by the late, laureled American author David Foster Wallace, will be released in bookstores next week. Because the premise of the story deals with the routine (or not) of work in an IRS center, the publisher set the release date to coincide with the normal deadline for tax filing, April 15th. Well, there are always those creative types who know their way around deadlines, and in this case, both Amazon and Barnes & Noble … Continue reading
Library Book Groups Meeting Next Week
There will be two opportunities next week to join in book discussions at Bernardsville Library. Both library book groups will be meeting to discuss their respective selections, and you are welcome to participate. Memoirs and Coffee book group will be discussing Temple Grandin’s memoir, Thinking in Pictures: and other reports from my life with autism. Dr. Grandin is Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and is a noted advocate of improved lifestock handling. She has designed numerous lifestock facilities … Continue reading
A Freudian Slip of the Strap?
Saturday Samplers, a Bernardsville Library book group, will discuss Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis on Saturday, November 6, at 3:30 p.m. in the library. Strapless tells the fascinating story behind John Singer Sargent’s famous portrait of Mme. Gautreau. This life-size oil painting caused an absolute sensation at the Paris Salon of 1884. Exhibited alongside hundreds of paintings by renowned and aspiring artists, Portrait de Mme ***, as Madame X singularly attracted the disdain of both … Continue reading
From Russia With Love…To America
Bernardsville Public Library’s book group, Memoirs and Coffee, will discuss Elena Gorokhova’s book, A Mountain of Crumbs, at its next meeting on Tuesday, September 28th at 10:30 a.m. Born in Russia in the second half of the 20th century, Elena recounts her family’s life under Soviet rule. Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee writes, “Elena Gorokhova conveys all the ugliness of daily life in Soviet Russia, as well as its humiliations, but is awake to its strangled, submerged poetry too.” Elena’s love … Continue reading
Memoirs Book Group To Discuss Infidel
Memoirs and Coffee book group will discuss Infidel at its next meeting, Tuesday, November 17th, at 10:30 a.m. in the library. Written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel is an autobiography which recounts her traditional Islamic upbringing in Somalia and her escape from its strict circumscriptions. Fleeing an arranged marriage, the author sought asylum in the Netherlands and eventually served within its government. In addition, she assisted filmmaker Theo van Gogh with his film, Submission, before he was assassinated. Infidel is an examination of her faith and … Continue reading
Histories You Can Love
Bernardsville Public Library’s Saturday Samplers book group loved discussing Case Histories by Kate Atkinson at our July 11, 2009, meeting. We enjoyed the way the author tweaked the normal detective genre, giving us a sympathetic detective (lacking in the normal star quality) who must contend as much with issues in his own life as with the oddball cases that come his way. Set in modern-day England, there is no pretense of class or airs, and everybody is found to have … Continue reading
It’s A Great Idea From Every Angle
photo source: Bernardsville Public Library photo source: Bernardsville Public Library photo source: Bernardsville Public Library Is it your turn to come up with a book suggestion for your book group? Save yourself a lot of work; we’ve already done it for you at Bernardsville Public Library where you will find a large assortment of book group bags stocked with popular titles just waiting for you. These sturdy canvas zip-up bags contain ten paperback copies each of a title selected from … Continue reading
Don’t Blink Or You’ll Miss It…It Happens Tomorrow
Saturday Samplers book group will meet tomorrow afternoon, 3:30 p.m., at Bernardsville Public Library to discuss Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink. Author of The Tipping Point and Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has made decision making the focus of Blink. He specifically investigates whether instantaneous judgments might be more reliable than well-reasoned decisions in some cases, but not in others.Why is it that some people can instantly read a situation accurately while others are taken in by extraneous details which divert them from … Continue reading
Memoirs and Coffee Group Has Animal, Vegetable, Miracle On Its Plate For Next Book Meeting
Bernardsville Public Library’s book group Memoirs and Coffee will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, May 26th, at 10:30 in the Community Room. Led by Pat Kennedy-Grant, the group will discuss Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Two contributors to the book are Steven L. Hopp, who tackled the food science and environmental issues, and Camille Kingsolver, Barbara’s daughter. The book is based on the decision of the author and her family to eat only locally … Continue reading
