Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass

By Lewis Carroll

Monday, March 29, 6 PM

Wonderland: not just for children anymore!  Most of us know the story of Alice, who falls down a rabbit hole and ends up in Wonderland, a place with strange talking animals, nonsensical rhymes, and characters including the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, and the White Rabbit. Less familiar, perhaps, is Lewis Carroll’s sequel, where young Alice goes through the looking glass in her Victorian parlor to find a strange new world where she meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty, the Jabberwock, the Red Queen and more. Join BookTalkers to discuss Carroll’s classics and his life and times.

Links to discussion guides:

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/alice_in_wonderland.html

http://www.d.umn.edu/~csigler/carrollquestions.html

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The Yiddish Policeman’s Union

By Michael Chabon

Monday, May 3, 6 PM

How things might have been….This “alternative history” novel is the story of a world in which Alaska has become the temporary home for displaced Jews following World War II (a premise drawn on the obscure historical fact that FDR once proposed that Alaska, not Israel, become the Jewish homeland). In Chabon's telling, that's exactly what happened, except, inevitably, it hasn't gone as planned. Throw in washed-up police detective Meyer Landsman, the death of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy, Orthodox black-hat gangs and crime-lord rabbis, and you have a “page-turning noir, with a twist of Yiddish”, that satisfies on many levels.

Links to discussion guides:

http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?isbn13=9780007149827&displayType=readingGuide

http://www.litlovers.com/guide_yiddishpol.html

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The Help

By Kathryn Stockett

Monday, June 14, 6 PM

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women: In Jackson, Miss., 1962, there are lines--lines that are not crossed. Black maids raise white children, but no one trusts them not to steal the silver. Black maids clean the toilets, but they have their own out back. Black maids cook the food, but they eat theirs in the kitchen. Everyone knows there are lines, and everyone stays within the lines. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. Join BookTalkers to discuss a book that has spent months on the New York Times’ Bestseller list, and a book that Everybody is talking about!

Link to Discussion guide:

http://readinggroupguides.com/guides_H/the_help1.asp

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BookTalkers discussions begin at 6:00 pm in the Armstrong Conference Room

For information about the book discussions,
contact the Information Services Desk: 237-7340.
Discussion guides for all featured books are available at the
Information Services Desk.

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