Check out Portage District Library’s new Book Discussion in a Bag kits. In each bag you will find ten copies of a book title, an author bio, book reviews, discussion questions, and further reading all ready for you to sign them out to book group members and dig into a rousing discussion.
Book Discussion in a Bag kits may be checked out at the Adult Information Desk for two months. Book selections include:
Poisonwood Bible (fiction) by Barbara Kingsolver
When Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?
Devil in the White City (nonfiction) Larson
Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor.
The Sparrow (science fiction) by Russell
In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being "human."
The Faith Club (nonfiction) (by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, & Priscilla Warner)
After September 11th, Ranya Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, faced constant questions about Islam, God, and death from her children, the only Muslims in their classrooms. Inspired by a story about Muhammad, Ranya reached out to two other mothers -- a Christian and a Jew -- to try to understand and answer these questions for her children. The Faith Club is memoirs of spiritual reflections in three voices that will make readers feel as if they are eavesdropping on the authors' private conversations, provocative discussions, and often controversial opinions and conclusions.
One Oar (poetry) Marie Bahlke (local poet)
Marie Bahlke has created a powerfully graceful collection of reminiscence as she describes caring for her husband as he slips deeper into Alzheimer’s disease. Marie shares with us her moving journey into the heart of grief, loss and unrelenting love.
Shadow in the Wind (mystery) by Carlos Zafon Ruiz
Ruiz Zafón's novel, a bestseller in his native Spain, takes the satanic touches from Angel Heart and stirs them into a bookish intrigue a la Foucault's Pendulum. The time is the 1950s; the place, Barcelona. Daniel Sempere, the son of a widowed bookstore owner, is 10 when he discovers a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax. The novel is rare, the author obscure, and rumors tell of a horribly disfigured man who has been burning every copy he can find of Carax's novels.
Solace of Leaving Early (fiction) by Haven Kimmel
A romance evolves in the wake of a domestic shooting in Kimmel's intelligent and compassionate debut novel, which brings two friends of one of the victims together in a small Indiana town. Amos Townsend is the male protagonist, a 40-ish preacher who counseled the late Alice Baker-Maloney as her frayed marriage degenerated into a fatal confrontation with her controlling husband, Jack.
The Transit of Venus (fiction) by Shirley Hazzard
National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Hazzard here tells of two sisters, Grace and Caroline Bell. Born in Australia and orphaned at an early age, the two make their way to England. There Grace opts for marriage and its securities; Caroline reaches for more and loves not always wisely but well. A strong, deep, poetic, vibrant novel.
All But My Life (memoir) by Gerta Weissman Klein
This book is a remarkable slice of time and life, written by a spirited young Jewish woman's survival of the Holocaust including her imprisonment in slave labor camps and a three month forced march from Germany to Czechoslovakia. As she wades through the atrocities of a Nazi occupation, concentration camps, and a death march amidst freezing temperatures, to be liberated by her one true love, she is true to her mother's request to be strong. This is an amazing story of courage, endurance and faith.
Personal History(biography) by Katherine Meyer Graham
Katharine Meyer Graham was a woman born into a world of wealth and privilege that raised four children, was an active volunteer, and ended as the head of a powerful newspaper. Graham's father, a wealthy entrepreneur, bought the struggling Washington Post in 1933. This is the story of a newspaper's rise to power, the rise and fall of a marriage and of Graham’s rise as a powerful woman in her own right. Graham writes about her personal life and the lives of others, ranging from presidents to household help, with insight and grace.
Founding Mothers (history) by Cokie Roberts
Drawing on personal correspondence, diary entries and even recipes, Roberts wrote a collection of stories of some of the women who had significant but often unrecorded roles in Revolutionary War America. While the men went off to war or politics, the women ran the family farms, managed businesses, wrote political pamphlets, and defended their families and homes making it all possible for the men to muster the armies and political clout to defeat the English.
Quite a Year for Plums (fiction) by Bailey White
Bailey White introduces us to the peculiar yet lovable people who inhabit a small town in South Georgia. Serious, studious Roger is a peanut pathologist and unlikely love object of half the town's women. Roger's ex-mother-in-law, Louise, who teams up with an ardent typographer in an attempt to attract outer-space invaders with specific combinations of letters and number. Della, the bird artist captivates Roger with the sensible but enigmatic notes she leaves on things she throws away at the Dumpster. A regular commentator on National Public Radio, White is also the author of Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Sleeping at the Starlite Motel
