It was great to see everyone for Bring Your Own Book Club at Lakeshore Cafe in June during our renovations at the library. It was a great discussion, and we even had a young person joining in with their own selection.
Do you have a favourite contributor?
Click on the titles to request your copy through the library today!
Meghan - It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.
With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. Combining a captivating romance with a cast of all-too-human characters, It Ends With Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.
https://www.colleenhoover.com/product/it-ends-with-us/
Betty - The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michelle Richardson
Lorraine - The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked-room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense. (This title also goes by The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.)
Terry -The Very Best of the Daily Telegraph Books of Obituaries
This is a compilation of the very best of the five best-selling volumes of Daily Telegraph obituaries. The foibles and eccentricities of the dead are evoked as a labour of love, while the reader is introduced to alluring strangers and and a world of elegance and romance.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1326796.The_Very_Best_of_the_Daily_Telegraph_Books_of_Obituaries
Dorothy - Always Looking Up by Micheal J Fox
There are many words to describe Michael J. Fox: Actor. Husband. Father. Activist. But readers of Always Looking Up will soon add another to the list: Optimist.
Michael writes about the
hard-won perspective that helped him see challenges as opportunities.
Instead of building walls around himself, he developed a personal policy
of engagement and discovery: an emotional, psychological, intellectual,
and spiritual outlook that has served him throughout his struggle with
Parkinson’s disease. Michael’s exit from a very demanding, very public
arena offered him the time-and the inspiration-to open up new doors
leading to unexpected places.
One door even led him to the center of his
own family, the greatest destination of all.The last ten years,
which is really the stuff of this book, began with such a loss: my
retirement from Spin City. I found myself struggling with a strange new
dynamic: the shifting of public and private personas. I had been Mike
the actor, then Mike the actor with PD. Now was I just Mike with PD
Parkinson’s had consumed my career and, in a sense, had become my
career. But where did all of this leave Me? I had to build a new life
when I was already pretty happy with the old one…
Always Looking Up
is a memoir of this last decade, told through the critical themes of
Michael’s life: work, politics, faith, and family. The book is a journey
of self-discovery and reinvention, and a testament to the consolations
that protect him from the ravages of Parkinson’s. With the humor and wit
that captivated fans of his first book, Lucky Man, Michael describes how he became a happier, more satisfied person by recognizing the gifts of everyday life.
Corrie - People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins
People kill people. Guns just make it easier.
A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for needed protection. But which was it? Each has the incentive to pick up a gun, to fire it. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race, who possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything after a devastating accident, and has sunk quietly into depression?
One tense week brings all six people into close contact in a town wrought with political and personal tensions. Someone will fire. And someone will die. But who?
Emily - Dragon Girl: Naomi the Rainbow Glitter Dragon by Maddy Mara
We are Dragon Girls, hear us roar!Naomi loves being a Glitter Dragon Girl. She can fly above treetops and roar glittery bursts of magic. Best of all, she and the other Glitter Dragons are keeping their beloved Magic Forest safe from the Shadow Sprites.But all is not as it seems in this special place. The Shadow Sprites' power is growing. . . and they may not be alone. Naomi must harness all the dragon magic she's learned to lead the Glitter Dragon Girls against this new threat.
Beth - Stealing Home by Sherryl Woods
Maddie Townsend might live in a town called Serenity and have the best friends a woman could ask for, but her life is overturned when her husband leaves her for a younger woman. With her three children heartbroken from the change, Maddie has a lot to contend with. On top of it all, after years outside the workforce, she must dust off her business skills to take charge of her best friends’ newest project—planning the town’s only fitness spa for women.
When her son’s developing anger issues begin to affect his passion for baseball, Maddie knows she must step in to help. She didn’t expect to develop feelings for her son’s coach, the handsome Cal Maddox, and to learn he has feelings for her, too. But gossip travels quickly in a small town, and Maddie and Cal’s relationship may threaten both their reputations and careers.
Then again, he could be the one man in all of South Carolina who can help her find serenity after all.
Some of the other books discussed were:
Lorraine - The World's Greatest Speeches edited by Lewis Copeland
This outstanding compendium of 292 great
speeches contains addresses from nearly every historical era and nation,
from the formal orations of ancient Greece and the speeches of Julius
Caesar, to modern-day addresses by Nelson Mandela, Ronald Regan and
Václav Havel.
Among the memorable speeches included here are Pericles' funeral oration, St. Bernard's advocacy of the Second Crusade, William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech, Winston Churchill's "Blood, Sweat and Tears" address, Richard Nixon's speech to the astronauts on the moon, Malcolm X's address on the Black Revolution, and many more. Readers will also find time-honored declamations by St. Francis, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Napoleon, Victor Hugo, Leon Trotzky, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Dylan Thomas, Fulton J. Sheen, Adlai Stevenson, Walter Reuther, and many others−over 240 speakers in all.
For this newly updated edition, Stephen J. McKenna, Assistant Professor of English at The Catholic University of America, has added 14 important speeches delivered between 1974 and 1997. These new selections include Barbara Jordan's Opening Statement to the House Judiciary Committee for the Nixon Impeachment Proceedings (1974); Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Commencement Address (1978); Ronald Regan's First Inaugural Address (1981): Nelson Mandela's Address to a Rally in Cape Town on His Release from Prison (1990); Václav Havel's Address to a Joint Session of Congress (1990); the Earl of Spencer's Tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales (1997); and more.
Rich with drama of history, the speeches in this volume will serve you time and time again by suggesting provocative themes and historical parallels, and by providing apt quotations, important reference passages, and a wide range of other valuable material.
Betty - The Last Green Valley by Mark T. Sullivan
In
late March 1944, as Stalin’s forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and
Adeline Martel must make a terrible decision: Do they wait for the
Soviet bear’s intrusion and risk being sent to Siberia? Or do they
reluctantly follow the wolves—murderous Nazi officers who have pledged
to protect “pure-blood” Germans?
The Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed in Ukraine for more than a century. But after already living under Stalin’s horrifying regime, Emil and Adeline decide they must run in retreat from their land with the wolves they despise to escape the Soviets and go in search of freedom.
Caught between two warring forces and overcoming horrific trials to pursue their hope of emigrating to the West, the Martels’ story is a brutal, complex, and ultimately triumphant tale that illuminates the extraordinary power of love, faith, and one family’s incredible will to survive and see their dreams realized.
Meghan - The Paris Apartment by Kelly Bowen
London, 2017:
When Aurelia Leclaire inherits an opulent Paris apartment, she is
shocked to discover her grandmother’s hidden secrets—including a
treasure trove of famous art and couture gowns. One obscure painting
leads her to Gabriel Seymour, a highly respected art restorer with his
own mysterious past. Together they attempt to uncover the truths
concealed within the apartment’s walls.
Paris, 1942: The Germans may occupy the City of Lights, but glamorous Estelle Allard flourishes in a world separate from the hardships of war. Yet when the Nazis come for her dearest friends, Estelle doesn’t hesitate to help them, no matter the cost. As she works against the forces intent on destroying those she holds dear, she can’t know that her actions will have ramifications for generations to come.
Set seventy-five years apart, against a perilous and a prosperous Paris, both Estelle and Lia must unearth hidden courage as they navigate the dangers of a changing world, altering history—and their family’s futures—forever.
https://kellybowen.net/the-paris-apartmentCheck out July's discussion of Bring Your Own Book Club - coming soon!
