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WETHERSFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARY’S
TUESDAY EVENING BOOK DISCUSSIONS
January-June 2009
January 2009 – The Library will be closed from January 4 through February 1 due to the final stage of renovation. Because of this closing there are no January programs. On February 2, 2009 the Library will re-open in the renovated space. Join us then!
February 3, 2009— The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein. This fictionalized life of Chinese artist Pan Yuliang (1899—1977) illustrates just how political art can be. Orphaned as a child, Yuliang was sold into prostitution at the age of 14 and rescued three years later by Pan Zanhua, who bought her freedom, married her, and supported her study of art. She went on to study in Europe yet her past and her paintings made her too provocative at home, causing her to leave her husband and spend the last half of her life in France. A luminous rendering of a woman whose work was her life.
March 3, 2009—Greater Hartford Reads To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is the rare American novel that can be discovered in adolescence and reread in adulthood without fear of disappointment. Few novels so appealingly evoke the daily world of childhood in a way that seems convincing whether you are sixteen or sixty-six. Lee tells two deftly paired stories set in a small Southern town: one focused on lawyer Atticus Finch's defense of an unjustly accused black man, the other on his bright daughter Scout’s gradual discovery of her own goodness. For many young people this novel becomes their first big read, the grown-up story that all later books will be measured against.
April 7, 2009— A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini. Two women born a generation apart and married to the same man witness the destruction of their home and family in war-torn Kabul. Losses incurred over the course of thirty years test the limits of their strength and courage. Despite all the pain and heartbreak, the novel is never depressing; Hosseini barrels through each grim development unflinchingly, seeking illumination.
May 5, 2009— Sorrows of An American by Siri Hustvedt. Psychiatrist Erik Davidson struggles for equilibrium in the wake of his divorce and his father's death. Immersed in his father's memoir Erik pursues a family mystery. His sister not only mourns their father but also her late husband, a famous novelist. Hustvedt combines riveting storytelling with philosophy as she dramatizes the legacy of sorrows born of the struggles of immigrants and the psychic wounds of war, betrayal, and unrequited love.
June 2, 2009—The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin. Toobinsurveys the Court from the Reagan administration onward, as the justices wrestle with abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, gay rights and church-state separation. In some of The Nine's best moments, Toobin links the justices' backgrounds to their views. Noted author Doris Kearns Goodwin has said "This is a remarkable, riveting book. So great are Toobin's narrative skills that both the justices and their inner world are brought vividly to life."
Meets at 7:00 p.m. All sessions are free and open to the public. Wethersfield Library is at
515 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield CT 06109.
860-529-BOOK (529-2665) and www.wethersfieldlibrary.org
| As part of the Wethersfield Library's policy of providing information services to our community, we are pleased to have a presence on the Internet.. The Internet is a network of networks that spans most of our known world. The library does not have control over the contents of these networks and patrons should be aware that there is no guarantee of accuracy, completeness, or currency with materials found on the Internet. |
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