Portsmouth Public Library

After a brief summer break the Adult Book Discussion group resumes in September. All discussions are held in the MacLeod Board room on Mondays at 7PM and Tuesdays at 1PM. The same book is discussed at each monthly meeting.

On September 10th and 11th, we will discuss Brooklyn Follies (2006) by Brooklyn native and best-selling author, Paul Auster (The Book of Illusions, Oracle Night and Timbuktu). After a diagnosis of cancer, Nathan Glass moves to Brooklyn to die. To his surprise he regains his health and finds himself entangled in the mundane intrigues of his small circle of friends and the decidedly not mundane activities of his nephew Tom Wood and book store owner Harry Brightman, aka, Harry Dunkel. These characters plus his ex-wife, estranged daughter and the B.P.M., the beautiful perfect mother, clash and combine in unforeseen, poignant and comical ways.

We will discuss Fahrenheit 451 , Ray Bradbury’s 1967 futurist novel, on October 15th and 16th, as part of the state-wide ‘Big Read: New Hampshire Reads Fahrenheit 451’. The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library, in partnership with the New Hampshire Humanities Council, the New Hampshire Department of Cultural Resources and over 60 libraries, schools and bookstores have all cooperated to bring The Big Read to New Hampshire. The Big Read is a national initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Arts Midwest that encourages citizens to join together as a community to read and discuss a single book for pleasure and enlightenment.

In Fahrenheit 451, fireman, Guy Montag, burns books and arrests citizens for reading in true militant fashion. An encounter with Clarisse, his neighbor, on a train intrigues him enough that begins reading and secretly hiding books at home from his vacuous wife. Fortunately, there is a hidden community where the written word is venerated and passed from generation to generation. What book would you save?

On November 5th & 15th , we return to present-time America with Talk, Talk (2006) by T.C. Boyle (Tortilla Curtain, Drop City, and Road to Wellville). Dana Halter, PhD, is a deaf woman, a teacher at the San Roque School for the Deaf, young, respected, and in love with her boyfriend Bridger. So why is she being arrested for passing bad checks, auto theft, possession of a controlled substance and assault with a deadly weapon? In this suspenseful novel about language, love and identity we read with horror of the havoc that can be wreaked by the insidious crime of identity theft. When Dana is unable to convince the authorities that she is the victim not the criminal, she and Bridger chase the man who has assumed her identity, Dana Halter, M.D., aka, William Wilson, across the country.

We conclude the 2007 discussions on December 10th & 11th with a discussion of March (2005) by Geraldine Brooks (Year of Wonders). In a story inspired by the father character in "Little Women" and drawn from the journals and letters of Louisa May Alcott's father, a man leaves behind his family to serve in the Civil War and finds his beliefs challenged by his experiences. An idealistic Concord cleric, March becomes a Union chaplain and later finds himself assigned to be a teacher on a cotton plantation that employs freed slaves, or "contraband."

Copies of all titles are available for library members. Discussions are open to the public. For more information please call 427-1540 or visit our web site at: www.cityofportsmouth.com/library.
The library is located at 175 Parrott Avenue, next to the Middle School.

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