September's Selection: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

From Reading Group Guides:

About this book:

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.

Please join us to discuss this book on September 9 at 11:30 in the Beecher Room of the Auburn Library. If you cannot join us there, start a discussion here.

Questions for discussion: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/curious_incident_dog1.asp

July Selection: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

From Reading Group Guides:

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate -- a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister -- and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.

Join us at the Auburn Library to discuss My Sister's Keeper on July 15 at 11:30 in the Beecher Room. If you cannot join us, please add your thoughts here in the comments section of this blog. Here are some questions to help your reading but, beware, there are spoilers in these questions: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/my_sisters_keeper1.asp

Books & Lunch June Selection:

The Soloist by Steve Lopez:

From Publishers Weekly:
Starred Review. Scurrying back to his office one day, Lopez, a columnist for the L.A. Times, is stopped short by the ethereal strains of a violin. Searching for the sound, he spots a homeless man coaxing those beautiful sounds from a battered two-string violin. When the man finishes, Lopez compliments him briefly and rushes off to write about his newfound subject, Nathaniel Ayers, the homeless violinist. Over the next few days, Lopez discovers that Nathaniel was once a promising classical bass student at Juilliard, but that various pressures—including being one of a few African-American students and mounting schizophrenia—caused him to drop out. Enlisting the help of doctors, mental health professionals and professional musicians, Lopez attempts to help Nathaniel move off Skid Row, regain his dignity, develop his musical talent and free himself of the demons induced by the schizophrenia (at one point, Lopez arranges to have Ayers take cello lessons with a cellist from the L.A. Symphony). Throughout, Lopez endures disappointments and setbacks with Nathaniel's case, questions his own motives for helping his friend and acknowledges that Nathaniel has taught him about courage and humanity. With self-effacing humor, fast-paced yet elegant prose and unsparing honesty, Lopez tells an inspiring story of heartbreak and hope.

Please link here for more information about this true story, the author and Nathaniel Ayers. Included are some discussion question. http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/soloist.html

Come back here and offer your comments and questions. Let's get a good online discussion going!

Note: this blog has not been updated in a few months

Last update was for the February selection.

February Selection: Justice by Faye Kellerman

From Booklist: Kellerman's latest Pete Decker/Rina Lazarus novel begins with a teen prom queen who has been found dead in a fleabag motel, apparently strangled after a night of drink, drugs, and kinky sex. Handsome, clean-cut Chris Whitman has confessed to the killing, but LAPD detective Decker is uncomfortable with the easy resolution of the case and the way things just don't add up. Chris, the son of Mob boss Joe Donatti, is way too cool, too smooth, and too sure of himself. Evidence taken from the dead prom queen's body shows she had sex with at least one other person besides Whitman on the night she died. And sweet, innocent Teresa McLaughlin is in love with Whitman, but there's more to the romance than the usual teen hormonal attraction. So, despite his superiors' objections, Pete digs into the case more deeply and finds, to his horror, what really happened. --review by Emily Melton

Join us at the Auburn Library for a discussion of this book on February 11 at noon until 1 P.M. Bring your lunch for Books & Lunch at the Auburn Library. If you cannot make it at this time, discuss it here by adding your comments. Here are some discussion questions to get you started (spoilers ahead so stop reading if you haven't finished the book):

1. By the end of the book what did you think of Chris Whitman? Did he really do it or is he an innocent with a not so innocent family?
2. Did you like the book? Would you recommend it to a friend?
3. If you were to cast a movie of this book, who would you cast as Peter Decker; as Rina; as Chris Whitman; as Cindy?
4. Add your own discussion question...