Staff Picks to Pick Up
Stumped for a book to read and no time to browse? Stop by the lobby display of Bernardsville Library Staff Picks loaded with items for all kinds of readers, including children. There are many biographies, cookbooks, movies, music cds, audiobooks, fiction, nonfiction, and picture books from which to chose. See what the staff recommends and share your suggestions, too. It’s one-stop shopping, library style!
September Library Book Groups To Meet
Bernardsville Library’s two book groups will meet in September. Saturday Samplers will discuss Elizabeth Cunningham’s novel, The Passion of Mary Magdalen, this Saturday, September 10, at 3:30 p.m. in the library. Memoirs and Coffee will discuss Townie: a memoir by Andre Dubus III on Tuesday, September 27 at 10:30 a.m. Members of this book group are invited to read an additional novel or short story collection by the same author. Copies of these September books are available at the circulation … Continue reading
New "50 Book Challenge" Suggestions
Bernardsville Library “50 Book Challenge” for 2011 has reached the half-way mark, and participants recently shared some of their reading suggestions. Ape House by Sara Gruen is a standout among the 50 Book members. One reader proclaimed Ape House to be the best book she’s read this year and found it “astonishing, gripping, upsetting and triumphant.” She notes that the author “explores the colorful eccentricities of humans and animals through their interactions with each other, leaving us questioning which is the more humane.” Another book, Ransom, by Australian … Continue reading
Scientific and Literary Versions of Immortality
Memoirs and Coffee, one of Bernardsville Public Library’s book groups, will discuss Rebecca Skloot’s narrative nonfiction bestseller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, at its next meeting, Tuesday, July 26, at 10:30 a.m. Pat Kennedy-Grant will lead the discussion which is open to the public. Please meet in the library Community Room. Shown above in one of only a few extant photographs, Henrietta Lacks was a poor tobacco farmer who died in 1951 of a virulent form of cervical cancer … Continue reading
Keeping the Feast – Keeping the Marriage
Paula Butturini, author of Keeping the Feast: One Couple’s Story of Love, Food, and Healing in Italy, will make an appearance at Bernardsville Public Library on Thursday, July 14, at 7 p.m. for a book signing. Please come to this free program to meet the author and discuss her book. Copies of Keeping the Feast will be made available at the library for purchase and signing by the author. Keeping the Feast recounts the grave gunshot injury to her husband, New York Times … Continue reading
Hmmm…Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Amy Chua’s controversial biography, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, will be discussed on Tuesday, June 28th, at 10:30 a.m. by Bernardsville Library’s book group, Memoirs and Coffee. How do you think children should be reared – by nurturing or strict training? See what the author believes and whether she was able to live up to her own standards for herself as a Chinese-American mother. Attempting to raise her children in the Chinese way while living in a Western country just … Continue reading
Library Group to Discuss Year of Wonders
Year of Wonders: a novel of the plague (2001) will be discussed this Saturday, June 4th, at the Saturday Samplers book group meeting to be held at 3:30 p.m. Saturday Samplers is a Bernardsville Library open-invitation book group led by staff member Evelyn Fischel. Please feel welcome to attend. Geraldine Brooks, author of Year of Wonders, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist. Brooks grew up outside of Sydney, Australia, and resides there today with her family. She is a graduate of the … Continue reading
Summer Reading: Literary Novels Served Up With Werewolves And Robots
Better stockpile some silver bullets and wolfsbane; this summer could get hairy! Supernatural fiction has elbowed its way to the forefront, but this year you’ll find an even greater intermixing of genres such as science fiction or occult with literary fiction according to The Wall Street Journal article of today entitled “The Season of the Supernatural.” Novelists are taking a stab at writing crossover books which bridge literary fiction with the popular genres of fantasy and the supernatural. Successful publications such … Continue reading
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
Elephants and Crocs, as Seen by the Doc
Tales of an African Vet by Dr. Roy Aronson brings the reader up close and quite personal with the kinds of wild animals that tourists dream about but may never see on safari. Each of the 19 stories chronicles an interesting medical case handled by this highly-skilled South African veterinarian. Some of the casesseemed hopeless at the time; others appeared almost impossible to treat. How do you track and treat in the wild a lionness with entropion of the eyelid, a condition which could eventually blind her? How safe … Continue reading
