Book Club Kits

 About the Kits

We know it can sometimes be difficult to choose a book for your next book group meeting and to find enough copies for all the members of your group. We’ve made it easier for you by providing several copies of books and putting them in a canvas bag which can be checked out to your book club. We’ve included discussion questions and information about each author in a folder for each collection.

Once your book discussion group has decided on a title, send a group member to the Bellevue Public Library, or call us at (402) 293-3157, to register your club and to reserve that title.  The kits will be checked out on the library card issued to your book club. Book clubs from Bellevue, La Vista, Plattsmouth and Papillion are eligible to participate.

The contact person for each club should be able to show identification and proof of current address when registering the book club. Registration allows the club to check out Book Club Kit books ONLY. No other library items can be checked out on a club’s card. Acceptance of the card is the club’s agreement to comply with the rules and regulations of the Library.

Book Club Kit Use Policies:

• The book club kits (four or more copies) check out for six weeks.  These cannot be renewed.
• Book discussion kits must be returned to the main desk in the Library. DO NOT place kits in any outdoor or indoor book-drops.
• Book clubs are encouraged to return the book club kit with all materials present. Damage to or loss of kit materials may result in a fine assessment.  The book club itself will determine how that amount will be resolved among its members.

 Newest Titles

Ackerman, Diane. The Zookeeper’s Wife. 368 pages (nonfiction.) When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw — and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages and hiding them in their villa.

Agee, Jonis. The River Wife. 408 pages. An earthquake brings Annie Lark’s Missouri house down on top of her. Rescued by French fur trapper Jacques Ducharme, Annie learns to love him and resolves to live out her days as his “River Wife.” More than a century later, in 1930, Hedie Rails comes to Jacques’ Landing to marry Clement Ducharme. A pregnant Hedie finds comfort in Annie’s leather-bound journals, but as she reads of the events that spelled out tragedy for the rescued bride, Hedie fears that her own life is paralleling Annie’s. (Donated by the Tattered Covers book club.)

Aldrich, Bess Streeter. A Lantern in Her Hand. 408 pages (2009 One Book One Nebraska Selection). In this classic story of a pioneer woman, Bess Streeter Aldrich modeled protagonist Abbie Deal on her own mother, who in 1854 had traveled by covered wagon to the Midwest. In the novel, Abbie accompanies her family to the soon-to-be-state of Nebraska. There, in 1865, she marries and settles into her own sod house. The novel describes Abbie's years of child-raising, of making a frontier home able to withstand every adversity.

Allende, Isabel. Ines of My Soul. 313 pages. Allende chronicles the brave deeds and passionate loves of Ines Surez, a spirited woman who journeys to the New World and helps establish the nation of Chile.

Atwood, Margaret. The Blind Assassin. 521 pages. A novel within a novel, this Booker Prize winner includes a story told by two unnamed lovers. Told in a style that captures the colloquialisms of the 1930s and 1940s, it unfolds layer by layer and concludes with a twist.

Bin Ladin, Carmen. Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia. 214 pages (nonfiction). Carmen Bin Ladin, the sister-in-law of Osama Bin Laden, provides a penetrating look inside the Bin Laden family, Saudi society and the treatment of Saudi women.

Bloom, Amy. Away. 247 pages. Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York's Lower East Side to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. 190 pages. Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper burns. Fahrenheit 451 is a short novel set in the (perhaps near) future when "firemen" burn books forbidden by the totalitarian "brave new world" regime.

Brooks, Geraldine. Year of Wonders. 308 pages. In 1666, a young woman comes of age during an extraordinary year of love and death. Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a “plague village”  in the hill country of England.

Brown, Dan. Angels and Demons. 572 pages. Robert Langdon goes to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist and uncovers a plot involving an ancient secret brotherhood and a new weapon of destruction.

Bryson, Bill. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir. 270 pages (nonfiction). Bryson pens a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the middle of the United States in the middle of the last century.

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Cather, Willa. My Antonia. 272 pages. Antonia Shimerda is the daughter of a Bohemian pioneer immigrant in Nebraska. Through the eyes of friend and narrator Jim Burden, the reader follows her life that includes many hardships but ultimately is one of inner triumph.

Cleave, Chris. Little Bee. 271 pages. Cleave creates a haunting novel about the tenuous friendship that blooms between two disparate strangers -- one an illegal Nigerian refugee, the other a recent widow from suburban London.

Conroy, Pat. South of Broad. 524 pages. Leopold Bloom King has been raised in a family shattered -- and shadowed -- by tragedy. Lonely and adift, he searches for something to sustain him and finds it among a tightly knit group of high school outsiders. Their friendship is tested by marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, as well as Charleston, South Carolina's dark legacy of racism and class divisions.

Cunningham, Michael. The Hours. 226 pages. This Pulitzer Prize winter draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair.

Dalby, Robert. Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly. 309 pages. The Piggly Wiggly has been the hub of the community of Second Creek, Miss., but now it may be forced to shut down. Determined to keep her favorite market open, Laurie Lepanto enlists the help of her fellow "Nitwitts," influential widows who love to socialize. With the help of handsome widower and former ballroom dancer Powell Hampton, they have the ladies of Second Creek fox-trotting back into the market. It's become the town's most festive event: waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly.

Dallas, Sandra. Tallgrass. 305 pages. During World War II, a family finds life turned upside down when the government opens a Japanese internment camp in their small Colorado town.

Dean, Debra. The Madonnas of Leningrad. 231 pages. Moving back and forth in time between the Siege of Leningrad and modern-day America, this novel is a searing portrait of war and remembrance, of the power of love, memory, and art to offer beauty, grace, and hope in the face of overwhelming despair.

Diamant, Anita. The Red Tent. 321 pages. In the Book of Genesis, Dinah’s tale is a short, horrific detour in the narrative of Jacob and Joseph. In the Biblical tale Dinah is given no voice; here, she is the narrator of the novel, revealing the life of ancient womanhood.

Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. 227 pages (nonfiction). Didion chronicles the experience of losing her husband to a massive coronary just weeks after the two of them watched as their only daughter was put into an induced coma to save her life.

Doig, Ivan. The Whistling Season. 345 pages.This is the saga of how a widow from Minneapolis and her brother -- soon to become the new teacher in a tiny Montana community in 1909 -- change lives in unexpected ways.

Dubus III, Andre. The House of Sand and Fog. 365 pages. Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, three people converge in an explosive collision course.

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Edwards, Kim. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. 401 pages. In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own.

Egan, Timothy. The Worst Hard Time: the Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. 340 pages (nonfiction). Pulitzer Prize-winning Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains during the Depression.

Ellis, Joseph. His Excellency: George Washington. 320 pages (nonfiction). Ellis paints a full portrait of George Washington's life and career -- from his military years through his two terms as president. He richly details Washington's private life and illustrates the ways in which it influenced his public persona.

Enger, Leif. Peace Like a River. 312 pages. Reuben Land, 11, an asthmatic boy, has reason to believe in miracles. Along with his sister and father, he finds himself on a cross-country search for his outlaw older brother who has been controversially charged with murder.

Erdrich, Louise. The Master Butcher’s Singing Club. 388 pages. What happens when a trained killer discovers that his true vocation is love? Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns home to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend who was killed in action.

Flagg, Fannie. Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven. 365 pages. Flagg takes readers back to Elmwood Springs, MO, where the most unlikely and surprising experiences of a high-spirited octogenarian inspire a town to ponder the age-old question: Why are we here?

Ford, Jamie. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. 301 pages. The Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown, has been boarded up for decades. Now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. Henry Lee, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese American girl from his childhood in the 1940s and their special friendship.

Franklin, Ariana. Mistress of the Art of Death. 420 pages. In medieval Cambridge, England, four children have been murdered. The crimes are immediately blamed on the town's Jewish community. King Henry I places the Cambridge Jews under his protection and appeals to his cousin, the King of Sicily, to send him his finest "master of the art of death." Her name is Adelia.

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Genova, Lisa. Still Alice. 293 pages. Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. She receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer's disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away.

George, Anne. Murder on a Bad Hair Day. 246 pages. It's hard to believe practical, petite ex-schoolteacher Patricia Anne and amiable, ample-bodied, and outrageous Mary Alice are sisters. A common interest in local art leads to a gallery opening. A few hours later and the gallery owner is dead. Now the sisters are once again combing for clues to catch a killer with a bizarre style in art -- and murder. (Donated by the Eagle Crest Book Club.)

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. 334 pages (nonfiction). Leaving behind all the trappings of modern American success, Gilbert sets out for a year to explore three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures: the art of pleasure in Italy; the art of devotion in India; and then a balance between the two in Indonesia.

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. 916 pages (nonfiction). Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius as she chronicles the rise of the one-term congressman/prairie lawyer from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president and then persuade them to join his cabinet.

Goolrick, Robert. A Reliable Wife. 218 pages. Rural Wisconsin, 1907. Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for a reliable wife. But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the simple, honest woman that he is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow.

Grogan, John. Marley & Me. 305 pages (nonfiction). The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life.

Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants. 350 pages. In 1932 Jacob Jankowski jumps onto a passing train and joins a second-rate circus. There that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.

Gunning, Sally. Bound. 307 pages. Alice Cole travels with her family from 1756 London to the New World, dreaming of a big house in Philadelphia and a new life. Her mother and brothers die on board and are buried at sea; the ship docks in Boston rather than Philadelphia; there, her father indentures her for 11 years without a backward glance. Later Alice flees an abusive household to Cape Cod where she finds friends but also discovers she is pregnant. (Donated by the Bellevue Bookies book club.)

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Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. 226 pages. Christopher Boone is 15 and has Asperger’s, a form of autism. When he finds his neighbor’s dog murdered, he sets out on a journey which will turn his world upside down.

Haigh, Jennifer. Baker Towers. 334 pages. Baker Towers is an intimate exploration of love and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II. For the five Novak children, the Forties are a decade of tragedy, excitement and stunning change.

Hamill, Pete. North River. 341 pages. In 1934 Dr. James Delaney tends to his hurt, sick, and poor neighbors in New York. In his own life, Delaney is emotionally numb, haunted by the slaughters of the Great War. His only daughter has left for Mexico, and his wife Molly vanished. One snowy New Year's Day, the doctor returns home to find his 3-year-old grandson on his doorstep. Coping with this unexpected arrival, Delaney hires Rose, a tough, decent Sicilian woman with a secret in her past. Slowly, as Rose and the boy begin to care for the good doctor, the numbness in Delaney begins to melt.

Hannah, Kristin. Firefly Lane. 479 pages. They were known as the Firefly Lane girls -- a single, inseparable unit. On the surface, they were as opposite as two people could be. Kate, doomed to be uncool, had a loving family. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, had a secret home life that was destroying her. The best friends promise to be there for each other forever -- and for 30 years, that promise holds strong. Then events and choices make that promise impossible.

Hansen, Ron. Isn’t It Romantic? 198 pages. Mistaken identity, botched schemes and hilarious misunderstandings all play a part when Nebraskan common sense and Parisian sophistication collide in this romantic comedy by National Book Award finalist Ron Hansen.

Haruf, Kent. Plainsong. 301 pages. Set in a small town in the plains of Colorado, this novel tells the interrelated stories of 8 characters whose lives undergo radical change during the course of one year.

Hicks, Robert. Widow of the South. 436 pages. This debut novel is based on the true story of Carrie McGavock. During the Civil War's Battle of Franklin, a five-hour bloodbath with 9,200 casualties, McGavock's home was turned into a field hospital where four generals died. For 40 years she tended the private cemetery on her property where more than 1,000 were laid to rest.

Hosseini, Khaled. Kite Runner. 371 pages. Narrator Amir comes of age during the last peaceful days of the Afghanistan monarchy, then must endure revolution, invasion and a country’s struggle to triumph over violent forces.

Hosseni, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. 420 pages. Born a generation apart, Mariam and Laila are two Afghani women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. (Donated by the Hot Totties book club.)

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Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. 586 pages (nonfiction). This portrait of Benjamin Franklin’s public and private life also examines American and European political history of the time.

Jackson, Joshilyn. Gods in Alabama. 284 pages. Upon leaving home, Arlene makes a bargain with God, promising to forgo sex, lies and a return home if he keeps “the body” hidden. After 9 years, an unexpected visitor from home leads her to believe that God is slipping on his end of the deal. (Books donated by Ellen Hargus in honor of the Women Educators of Bellevue Book Club.)

Jacobs, Kate. The Friday Night Knitting Club. 372 pages. Walker & Daughter is Georgia Walker's little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Friday Night Knitting Club was started by some of Georgia's regulars, who gather once a week to work on their latest projects and tell their stories of love, life and everything in between.

Kalish, Mildred Armstrong. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression. 292 pages (nonfiction). Kalish's memoir of her Iowa childhood, set against the backdrop of the Depression, captures a vanished way of traditional living and a specific moment in American history.

Kava, Alex. One False Move. 384 pages. Mother-and-son-con-artists Melanie and Charlie Starks team up with an ex-con who has recently gotten away with murder to pull off the ultimate heist. But during the robbery, everything goes wrong.

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Mermaid Chair. 335 pages. Jessie Sullivan returns home to South Carolina after a traumatic family incident and gets to know a monk named Brother Thomas, becoming involved in the world of the monastery where the "mermaid" chair is part of a shrine. (Books donated by the Tattered Covers book club.)

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. 302 pages. Set in South Carolina in 1964, this novel tells the story of Lily Owens who’s trying to discover the secret of her dead mother’s past. When her “stand-in mother” Rosaleen insults the town’s fiercest racists, they escape and are taken in by three black beekeeping sisters.

Kingsolver, Barbara. Prodigal Summer. 444 pages. This novel is a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself.  It weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives amid the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia.

Kloefkorn, William. Restoring the Burning Child. 172 pages (2008 One Book One Nebraska Selection; nonfiction). The second volume in Kloefkorn's four-part memoir, Restoring the Burnt Child describes with humor and lyrical prose the unsentimental education he received growing up in a small town in Kansas at the time of World War II.

Kooser, Ted. Local Wonders. 153 pages (nonfiction). Kooser describes with exquisite detail and humor the place he calls home in the rolling hills of southeastern Nebraska where nothing is too big or too small for his attention.

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Landvik, Lorna. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. 404 pages. This novel describes four decades of laughter, heartache, and friendship in the lives of five small-town women--members of AHEB (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons), an unofficial "club" that becomes much more.

Maguire, Gregory. Wicked. 406 pages. The Wizard of Oz is one of the most watched, best-loved movies of all time. Here's a twist in the tale -- a richly comic, highly literary, and entertaining excursion into the life and times of the infamous Wicked Witch of the West.

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. 319 pages. Winner of the Booker Award, this novel tells of a metaphysical adventure as Pi, the son of a zookeeper, is marooned aboard a lifeboat with four wild animals.

Messud, Claire. The Emperor’s Children. 478 pages. A novel of fate and fortune--of love and friendship, family and secrets, of striving and glamour, disaster and promise--this post 9/11 novel brings to life a city, a generation, and the idea of living in the moment for three friends.

McBride, James. The Color of Water. 291 pages (nonfiction). This memoir tells of McBride’s childhood in a mixed-race family. He was an adult before he discovered the truth about his mother:  the daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, she had run away to Harlem, married a black man, and founded an all-black Baptist church.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. 287 pages. A searing, post-apocalyptic novel, The Road boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which a father and his son are each other's world entire. It is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best of which we are capable.

McNeal, Tom. Goodnight, Nebraska. 314 pages. Randall Hunsacker is only 17, but he already has two strikes against him: his father’s death when he was 13 led to a succession of “stepfathers” moving through his life and the last one, Lenny, Randall has shot.  The shooting, a suicide attempt, and a stint in juvenile hall bring him to the small town of Goodnight, Neb.

Mortenson, Greg. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations – One School at a Time. 349 pages (nonfiction). This is an account of one man’s campaign to build schools (especially for girls) in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia

Morton, Kate. The Forgotten Garden. 560 pages. A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913 and arrives alone with nothing but a small suitcase and a single book, a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife. On her 21st birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family.

Nemirovsky, Irene. Suite Francaise. 431 pages. An extraordinary novel of French life under Nazi occupation -- discovered and published 62 years after the author's tragic death at Auschwitz.

Niffenegger, Audrey. The Time Traveler’s Wife. 546 pages. This debut novel depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view.

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Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father. 453 pages (nonfiction). Obama (now the 44^th U.S. President), the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American.

O'Flynn, Catherine. What Was Lost. 246 pages. Set in Birmingham, England, in the mid-1980s, adolescent loner Kate aspires to be a great detective, spending days on stakeout at her local shopping center. The narrative then jumps 20 years, when the ghost of a little girl starts appearing in service corridors of the mall. The solution may have much to do with the unsettling history of the shopping center and the effects of loneliness and loss.

Paulsen, Gary. Winterdance. 272 pages (nonfiction). Fueled by an all-consuming passion for running dogs, author Gary Paulsen entered the grueling 1,180-mile Iditarod race across Alaska in dangerous ignorance and with fierce determination. For 17 days, Paulson and his team of 15 dogs ran through breathtaking and treacherous Arctic terrain. (Donated by the First Presbyterian Church Book Club)

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War. 463 pages (nonfiction). The startling story of the Plymouth Colony -- from the flight to religious freedom to the war that ravaged New England.

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper. 423 pages. Written with grace, wisdom and sensitivity, this novel is about a teen who was conceived as a bone marrow match for her sister Kate, and what happens when she begins to question who she really is.

Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes. 455 pages. Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens -- until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy.

Powell, Julie. Julie & Julia. 307 pages (nonfiction). Julie Powell, nearing 30 and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, resolves to reclaim her life by cooking in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life lived with gusto.

Powers, Richard. The Echo Maker. 451 pages. On a remote Nebraska road, 27-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near-fatal accident. When he emerges from a protracted coma, Mark believes that his sister is really an identical impostor.

Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping. 219 pages. Ruth and her younger sister Lucille grow up haphazardly in the small town of Fingerbone in the Far West, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother.

Rosnay, Tatiana de. Sarah's Key. 293 pages. Paris, May 2002: On Vel d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv, to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to re-evaluate her marriage and her life.

Roth, Philip. The Plot Against America. 416 pages. In this alternate history, Pulitzer Prize winner Roth considers what it could be like for his Newark family during the menacing years of a Charles Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews would have every reason to expect the worst.

Ryan, Trish. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. 305 pages (nonfiction). Ryan was the quintessential successful 30-something woman — she had a career as an attorney, a nice car, and a succession of men clamoring for her affection. Despite her accomplishments, the things by which she defined her life continually left her disappointed, especially dating. Then, she decided to give God a try. Ryan’s story of how her search for the right guy turned into the search for the right God and how she wound up with her own fairy-tale ending. (Donated by the Wednesday Women book club.)

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Sandoz, Mari. Crazy Horse. 428 pages (nonfiction). Sandoz unfurls the story of the noted Oglala Sioux warrior who fought many battles for his people's independence, culminating with wiping out Custer's troops at the Little Bighorn. Despite his apparent standoffishness, Crazy Horse was a charismatic leader and clever strategist.

Schaffert, Timothy. The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God. 230 pages. Newly divorced, Hud Smith channels his regret into writing country-western songs, contemplating life on the lam with his 8-year-old daughter, and searching cryptic postcards for news of his teenage son who has run off with the Daughters of God, an alternative Gospel-punk band.

Schlink, Bernhard. The Reader. 218 pages. When he falls ill on his way home from school, 15-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. They become lovers -- then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, he gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder. (Donated by the First Presbyterian Church book club.)

Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. 328 pages. This is a tale of family, memory, love and living as told by 14-year-old Susie Salmon from her vantage point in Heaven. She recounts her rape and murder and watches her family as they cope with their grief.

See, Lisa. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. 269 pages. In 19th-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote county developed their own secret code, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

Setterfield, Diane. The Thirteenth Tale. 404 pages. Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of 12 enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept hidden for so long to young biographer Margaret Lea.

Shaffer, Mary Ann and Barrows, Annie. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. 304 pages. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society -- born out of necessity when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans during their island's occupation during World War II -- boasts a charming, funny and deeply human cast of characters. Juliet Ashton begins corresponding with the group and then makes a trip to the island that changes her forever. (Donated by the Tattered Covers book club.)

Shaffner, George. In the Land of Second Chances. 314 pages. The folks of Ebb, Nebraska, are revitalized when a handsome stranger comes to town selling games of chance. Wherever he is from and whoever he is, he leaves behind a town where second chances not only happen -- they transform.

Shreve, Anita. Sea Glass. 376 pages.Set in 1929 at a decaying beach house on the Atlantic Coast, "Sea Glass" unfolds a richly engaging tale of marriage, money, and troubled times. (Books donated by the Tattered Covers book club.)

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Sittenfeld, Curtis. American Wife. 568 pages. On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband's presidency, alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House -- and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, almost in opposition to itself. Sittenfeld's fictional protaganist is based loosely upon former First Lady Laura Bush.

Smith, Alexander McCall. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. 235 pages. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency consists of one woman, the engaging and sassy Precious Ramotswe, who sets up shop in Gaborone, Botswana.

Sparks, Nicholas. The Wedding. 289 pages. Attorney Wilson Lewis has been married to Jane for 30 years. After forgetting his anniversary, Wilson realizes that the passion and romance have gone out of his marriage and fears his wife no longer loves him. He decides to embark on a yearlong program to renew his romantic ties to his wife. The upcoming wedding of his daughter Anna provides him with the opportunity to bring his elaborate plan to fruition. (Donated by the myomahamommies.com book club.)

Stein, Garth. The Art of Racing in the Rain. 321 pages. Meet Enzo, the unforgettable canine narrator of this bittersweet and transformative story of family, love, loyalty, and hope. Enzo is a philosopher with a nearly human soul, and he's gained a wealth of knowledge from hours spent in front of the TV and from listening to the words of his owner, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.

Strout, Elizabeth. Olive Kitteridge. 286 pages. At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life (2009 Pulitzer winner).

Tan, Amy. The Bonesetter’s Daughter. 403 pages. As a child, Ruth was subjected to her mother's notions about curses and ghosts and her repeated threats to kill herself. But now LuLing Young seems happy. LuLing begins to write all that she can remember of her life as a girl in China. When Ruth discovers the papers, she finds each page reveals secrets about her mother's heart.

Trigiani, Adriana. Big Stone Gap. 304 pages. Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the tiny town of Big Stone Gap is home to some of the most charming eccentrics in the state. Ave Maria Mulligan is the town's self-proclaimed spinster, a 35-year-old pharmacist. She lives an amiable life with good friends and lots of hobbies until the fateful day in 1978 when she suddenly discovers that she's not who she always thought she was. (Donated by the HotToTies Book Club.)

Tyler, Anne. Digging to America. 227 pages. Two families, who would otherwise never have come together, meet by chance at the Baltimore airport, each awaiting the arrival of an adopted infant daughter from Korea. Their lives become intertwined in this novel that explores what it is to be an American, and "outsiderness."

Walls, Jeannette. Glass Castle: A Memoir. 288 pages (nonfiction). Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns. Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to a dismal West Virginia mining town. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her siblings had to fend for themselves as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

Ward, Liza. Outside Valentine. 301 pages. Based on the Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate murders in Nebraska in the 1950s, Liza Ward’s spellbinding first novel is told from the very different points of view of three narrators mysteriously linked by a shocking crime and their efforts to heal the past.

Young, William Paul. The Shack. 252 pages. Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, Mack receives a suspcious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. He decides to go, and what he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

Zaslow, Jeffrey. The Girls from Ames. 330 pages (nonfiction). Meet the Ames girls: 11 childhood friends who formed a special bond while growing up in Ames, Iowa. As young women, they moved to eight different states, yet managed to maintain an enduring friendship that has carried them through college and careers, marriage and more.

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