Imagine the Library you want! Join the
discussion from May 15 to June 15, 2013. Book Club Kits Pt. 1
Annotation:An elegant portrait of desire and betrayal in Old New York. In the highest circle of New York social life during the 1870's, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, prepares to marry the docile May Welland. Before their engagement is announced, he meets May's cousin, the mysterious, nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned to New York after a long absence. 304p.
Annotation:Marrying quickly during World War II after falling in love at first sight, a mismatched couple discovers that their different personalities and approaches to life are taking a toll on their relationship and their family. 342p.
Annotation:Susan and her engineer husband live rough lives in mining camps during the late 19th century, and their marriage cannot survive. 592p.
Annotation:Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver. 336p.
Annotation:Rick Bragg brings his astonishing gift for storytelling to the tale of his grandfather, a man who kept his family one step ahead of poverty and starvation in Depression-era Appalachia. Charlie Bundrum was a man who took giant steps in rundown boots, a true hero whom history would otherwise have overlooked. 272p.
Annotation:During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, two boys are sent to the country for reeducation, where their lives take an unexpected turn when they meet the beautiful daughter of a local tailor and stumble upon a forbidden stash of Western literature. 192p.
Annotation:When terrorists seize hostages at an embassy party, an unlikely assortment of people is thrown together, including American opera star Roxanne Coss, and Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese CEO and her biggest fan. 318p.
Annotation:Draws on a range of case studies to explore the process by which people make decisions, explaining how the difference between good and bad decision making is directly related to the details on which people focus, and counseling readers on how to become better decision makers in every aspect of life. 296p.
Annotation:An international phenomenon translated into 17 languages, "The Bookseller of Kabul" has become not only the bestselling nonfiction book ever published in the author's native Norway, but also a tremendous success throughout Europe and around the world. 320p.
Annotation:James McBride grew up one of twelve siblings in the all-black housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, the son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white. The object of McBride's constant embarrassment, and his continuous fear for her safety, his mother was an inspiring figure, who through sheer force of will saw her dozen children through college, and many through graduate school. 291p.
Annotation:Transported through time into Regency England, heartbroken Austen fan Courtney Stone is forced to live the discouragingly difficult life of a nineteenth-century woman and finds herself experiencing memories that are not her own. 293p.
Annotation:The idyllic world of the Greek island of Cephallonia is forever changed by the inexorable changes of World War II, as the inhabitants struggle to cope with the Axis invasion and occupation. 448p.
Annotation:Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. 240p.
Annotation:Raised in the British colony of Valparaiso, Chile, after being abandoned as a baby, a pregnant Eliza follows her lover, Joaquin Andieta, to California at the height of the Gold Rush and finds adventure and adversity on her road to independence and love. 416p.
Annotation:In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson takes readers into a richly complex moment in American history, a moment that would draw together the best and worst of the Gilded Age, the grandeur and triumph of the human imagination, and the poverty, violence, and depravity that surrounded it. 464p.
Annotation:Experiencing a seemingly idyllic childhood in pre-World War II Shanghai, Anna flees to California with her mother when the Japanese occupation begins, believing her charismatic millionaire father's connections will keep him safe. Funded by a donation from Book Expo. 400p.
Annotation:Traces the author's decision to quit her job and travel the world for a year after suffering a midlife crisis and divorce, a journey that took her to three places in her quest to explore her own nature and learn the art of spiritual balance. 352p.
Annotation:A memoir of the Chinese American immigrant experience and the relationship between a mother and son, in which the mother makes eight promises to her mother before she leaves China, and instills the final one, to live with compassion toward all, into her son. 315p.
Annotation:A veteran of years of simulated war games, Ender believes he is engaged in one more computer war game when in truth he is commanding the last fleet of Earth against an alien race seeking the complete destruction of Earth. 226p.
Annotation:The Civil War Era was one of the most divisive and heart-rending in our nation's history. For 18-year-old Adair Colley it brought about intense personal change as well. Although the Colley family was neutral on the issues of secession and slavery, many men from their area in Missouri Ozarks had joined the Confederate army. One day in November 1864 the Union Militia swept in on their mission to rout Confederate sympathizers. 321p.
Annotation:In one of literature's most haunting denunciations of censorship, Ray Bradbury uses the materials of science fiction to tell the story of Guy Montag, a fireman forced to burn books. 192p.
Annotation:In mid-1990s Bombay, Nariman Vakeel lives in a crumbling apartment with his two middle-aged stepchildren--the mild-mannered Jal and his domineering sister, Coomy, who plots to turn over the care of her stepfather to her younger sister, Roxana. 448p.
Annotation:Gathering for their weekly knitting club at a small yarn shop on Manhattan's upper west side, a group of friends shares such challenges as raising children, navigating the ups and downs of their education and careers, and pursuing uncertain relationships. 372p.
Annotation:An Indian girl left orphaned after soldiers raid and destroy her village is adopted by a well-meaning American family, but she cannot forget her past and accept the white traditions and education they expect her to embrace. 480p.
Annotation:Forty years after the disappearance of Harriet Vanger from the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family, her octogenarian uncle hires journalist Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, an unconventional young hacker, to investigate. 608p.
Annotation:The experiences of two women provide the framework for an intense literary study of liberated womanhood, in a new edition, which includes an author biography and publication history, of a novel originally published in 1962. 672p.
Annotation:In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation. 290p.
Annotation:Offred, a Handmaid, describes life in what was once the United States, now the Republic of Gilead, a shockingly repressive and intolerant monotheocracy, in a satirical tour de force set in the near future. 320p.
Annotation:A novel set in the world of thoroughbred racing follows a group of trainers, jockeys, and "track brats" on a two-year journey through the racing cycle. 640p.
Annotation:When artifacts from Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War II are uncovered during renovations at a Seattle hotel, Henry Lee embarks on a quest that leads to memories of growing up Chinese in a city rife with anti-Japanese sentiment. 301p.
Annotation:From the author of the bestselling "The Omnivores Dilemma" comes this bracing and eloquent manifesto that shows readers how they might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich their lives and enlarge their sense of what it means to be healthy. 244p.
A Shared List by SCCLD LIBRARIANS FOR ADULTS 
Member of Santa Clara County Library
Send SCCLD LIBRARIANS FOR ADULTS a Message
Follow 
Ignore Report This List Description
Tired of having to track down multiple copies of a book for your next book group meeting? The library now has convenient kits that you can check out for free! Each book kit includes 12 copies of the book and a handy Discussion Guide. You must place a hold to get a kit.
English
Other