Canton Seniors Book Discussion: January - December 2016

The Canton Seniors Book Group meets on the fourth Thursday of the every month (except December) from 2:00-3:00 PM in Group Study Room A.  Librarians Elaine Skrzynski and Joyce Simowski alternately lead the discussion. No registration required.

January 28

The sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Also available in: audiobook

The Sparrow is a novel about a remarkable man, a living saint, a life-long celibate and Jesuit priest, who undergoes an experience so harrowing and profound that it makes him question the existence of God. This experience--the first contact between human beings and intelligent extraterrestrial life--begins with a small mistake and ends in a horrible catastrophe.

February 25

Also available in: e-book | audiobook | large print

For ten summers, the extended Seton family met at their country home in New Hampshire, but during the eleventh summer everything changed.

March 25

The inner circle by Brad Meltzer
Also available in: audiobook | e-audiobook | large print

Beecher White, a young archivist, spends his days working with the most important documents of the U.S. government. He has always been the keeper of other people's stories, never a part of the story himself... Until now. When Clementine Kaye, Beecher's first childhood crush, shows up at the National Archives asking for his help tracking down her long-lost father, Beecher tries to impress her by showing her the secret vault where the President of the United States privately reviews classified documents. After they accidentally happen upon a priceless artifact - a 200 hundred-year-old dictionary that once belonged to George Washington, hidden underneath a desk chair, Beecher and Clementine find themselves suddenly entangled in a web of deception, conspiracy, and murder. 

April 28 The Great Michigan Read 2015-2016

One title, one state and thousands engaged in literary discussion.

Station eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Also available in: e-book | audiobook | e-audiobook

One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time-from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains-this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the cross-hairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.  

 

May 26

Also available in: e-book | audiobook

General George S. Patton, Jr. died under mysterious circumstances in the months following the end of World War II. For almost seventy years, there has been suspicion that his death was not an accident--and may very well have been an act of assassination. Killing Patton takes readers inside the final year of the war and recounts the events surrounding Patton's tragic demise, naming names of the many powerful individuals who wanted him silenced.
 

June 23

Shelter : a novel by Frances Greenslade

For sisters Maggie and Jenny, growing up in the Pacific mountains in the early 1970s is nearly perfect until their father dies in a logging accident and their mother drops them off at a neighbors, never to return.

July 28

Also available in: audiobook | e-audiobook | large print

A transformational journey through Italy, India, and Bali searching for pleasure and devotion--the massive bestseller from the author of Big Magic, on sale now! This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. 

August 25

Also available in: audiobook

"A single woman considers her life, the life of the bold single ladies who have gone before her, and the long arc of slowly changing attitudes towards women"--.

September 22

The girl on the train by Paula Hawkins
Also available in: e-book | audiobook | e-audiobook | large print

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She's even started to feel like she knows them. "Jess and Jason," she calls them. Their life-as she sees it-is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Now everything's changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good? 

October 27

Elizabeth is missing by Emma Healey
Also available in: e-book | audiobook

In this darkly riveting debut novel, a sophisticated psychological mystery, one woman will stop at nothing to find her best friend, who seems to have gone missing. . . .  Despite Maud's growing anxiety about Elizabeth's welfare, no one takes her concerns seriously--not her frustrated daughter, not her caretakers, not the police, and especially not Elizabeth's mercurial son--because Maud suffers from dementia. But even as her memory disintegrates and she becomes increasingly dependent on the trail of handwritten notes she leaves for herself in her pockets and around her house, Maud cannot forget her best friend. Armed with only an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth needs her help, Maud resolves to discover the truth--no matter what it takes. As this singular obsession forms a cornerstone of Maud's rapidly dissolving present, the clues she uncovers lead her deeper into her past, to another unsolved disappearance: that of her sister, Sukey, who vanished shortly after World War II. As vivid memories of a tragedy that occurred more than fifty years ago come flooding back, Maud's search for Elizabeth develops a frantic momentum. Whom can she trust? Can she trust herself? A page-turning novel of suspense, Elizabeth Is Missing also hauntingly reminds us that we are all at the mercy of our memory. Always compelling, often poignant, and at times even blackly witty, this is an absolutely unforgettable novel.

November 17

Suffocated by her unexceptional life, Carrie Bell longs for a chance to begin again, and is granted that chance, terribly, when her fiancé is injured in an accident. This is a riveting novel about self-knowledge and the conflict between who we want to be to others and who we must be for ourselves.