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
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
Tom Rob Smith
London-born writer Tom Rob Smith just may be the go-to author for people who are ready to move on from Stieg Larsson’s Millenium series. Smith’s first book, Child 44, bears all the hallmarks of a great crime thriller – enduring suspense, characters who grow with the well-plotted storyline, and a relevant setting of historical authenticity, in this case, post-Stalinist Russia. His subsequent novel, The Secret Speech, and an upcoming publication, Agent 6, carry forward the story of Leo Stepanovich Demidov, … Continue reading
Child 44
Bernardsville Library book group, Saturday Samplers, will be discussing Tom Rob Smith’s exciting crime thriller Child 44 at its next meeting this Saturday, April 2, at 3:30 p.m. Look here for a new posting coming shortly about the author and the book. Saturday Samplers is an open-invitation book group which reads a varied selection of works, including nonfiction, fiction, short fiction and teen novels. Library staff member Evelyn Fischel leads the group and writes a blog, Saturday Samplers, on which you can access more information … 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
Madame X in Literature and X-Rays
As a follow-up to the Saturday Samplers book group discussion of Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis, here are a few points of interest that we learned. The original version of the painting, Portrait de Mme ***, which caused such a stir at the Paris Salon of 1884, was captured in only one black and white photograph, seen above. The pose of Madame Gautreau with her jeweled strap seductively slipping off her shoulder brought notoriety … 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
Interpreter of Maladies To Be Discussed
Bernardsville Library’s book discussion group, Saturday Samplers, will meet Saturday, October 2 at 3:30 pm to discuss Interpreter of Maladies: Stories (1999) by Jhumpa Lahiri. This debut collection of short stories published in 1999 won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000 as well as the PEN/Hemingway Award and several other writing prizes. Jhumpa Lahiri has continued to make a literary name for herself with subsequent publications of The Namesake (2003) and Unaccustomed Earth (2008.) Read more about Jhumpa Lahiri on the Saturday Samplers … Continue reading
Stieg Larsson and the Millenium Series
Bernardsville Public Library finds the published works of Stieg Larsson to be wildly popular beginning with his first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In fact, Larsson’s books are international sensations. By one estimation of worldwide sales in 2008, Larsson ranked only second behind Kahled Hosseini (The Kite Runner.) The library book group, Saturday Samplers, will discuss The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at its meeting this Saturday, March 6th, 3:30 p.m., and I initially wrote the following author profile for them, but I think others … 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
