Historical Fiction

Canton Seniors Book Group September 2021

Beginning in September, the Senior Book Group will once again be meeting in person in the Friends' Activity Room. Join us on Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 2:00PM as we discuss: 

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Also available in: e-book | audiobook | e-audiobook | large print

Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan. So begins a sweeping saga of an exceptional family in exile from its homeland and caught in the indifferent arc of history. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, its members are bound together by deep roots as they face enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.

Upcoming sessions

There are no upcoming sessions available.

I know the secret identity of Lady Whistledown! Do you? Are you a Bridgerton fan wanting something to do until season 2 of the wildly popular show (based on the books by Julia Quinn) begins on Netflix? Hopefully, some of these fun reads can help get you through until the return of Bridgerton! Enjoy!

A lady's formula for love by Elizabeth Everett

What is a lady's formula for love? Bring together one brilliant noblewoman and an enigmatic bodyguard. Mix in a measure of danger and attraction. Heat over the warmth of humor and friendship, and the result is more than simple chemistry--it's elemental. Lady Violet Hughes is keeping secrets. First, she founded London's first social club for ladies to provide sanctuary for England's most brilliant female scientists. Second, she is using her genius on a clandestine mission for the Crown. But the biggest secret of all? Her feelings for protection officer Arthur Kneland. The most guarded of men, Kneland learned the hard way to put duty first. But the more time spent in the company of Violet and the eccentric club members, the more his best intentions go up in flames. Literally. When a shadowy threat infiltrates Violet's laboratories, endangering her life and her work, scientist and bodyguard will find all their theories put to the test--and learn that the most important discoveries are those of the hear.

With 2020 being the year that it has been, we have probably all dreamed of another time before all this bit of crazy that has invaded our lives. Here are some fun ways to immerse yourself in some different times and different places.

Fun to Read

From Ancient China to California in the 1990s, step back in time with these fantastic historical fiction titles. 

The black kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
Also available in: e-audiobook

With the Rodney King riots closing in on high school senior Ashley and her family, the privileged bubble she has enjoyed, protecting her from the difficult realities most black people face, begins to crumble.

Also available in: audiobook

After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.

Also available in: print | audiobook

 

In this enchanting sequel to the number one bestseller The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom tells the story of Eddie's heavenly reunion with Annie--the little girl he saved on earth--in an unforgettable novel of how our lives and losses intersect. Fifteen years ago, in Mitch Albom's beloved novel, The Five People You Meet inHeaven, the world fell in love with Eddie, a grizzled war veteran- turned-amusement park mechanic who died saving the life of a young girl named Annie. Eddie's journey to heaven taught him that every life matters. Now, inthis magical sequel, Mitch Albom reveals Annie's story. The accident that killed Eddie left an indelible mark on Annie. It took her left hand, which needed to be surgically reattached. Injured, scarred, and unable to remember why, Annie's life is forever changed by a guilt-ravaged mother who whisks her away from the world she knew. Bullied by her peers and haunted by something she cannot recall, Annie struggles to find acceptance as she grows. When, as a young woman, she reconnects with Paulo, her childhood love, she believes she has finally found happiness. As the novel opens, Annie is marrying Paulo. But when her wedding night day ends in an unimaginable accident, Annie finds herself on her own heavenly journey--and an inevitable reunion with Eddie, one of the five people who will show her how her life mattered in ways she could not have fathomed. Poignant and beautiful, filled with unexpected twists, The Next Person You Meet in Heaven reminds us that not only does every life matter,but that every ending is also a beginning--we only need to open our eyes to see it.

Also available in: print | audiobook

 

Married couple Noah and Emily have decided to call it quits, and Noah is leaving in the morning. Emily's friend Kari prays for a miracle. But deep inside, Kari knows she needs a miracle herself.

Also available in: print | audiobook

 

A love affair and a mysterious murder cast their shadows across generations, set in England from the 1860s until the present day.

Canton Seniors Book Discussion: November 29, 2018

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

After disgracing themselves at a high society New Year's Eve party in Philadelphia in 1944, Madeline Hyde and her husband, Ellis, are cut off financially by his father, a former army colonel who is already ashamed of his son's inability to serve in the war. When Ellis and his best friend, Hank, decide that the only way to regain the Colonel's favor is to succeed where the Colonel very publicly failed--by hunting down the famous Loch Ness monster--Maddie reluctantly follows them across the Atlantic, leaving her sheltered world behind.
 
The trio find themselves in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands, where the locals have nothing but contempt for the privileged interlopers. Maddie is left on her own at the isolated inn, where food is rationed, fuel is scarce, and a knock from the postman can bring tragic news. Yet she finds herself falling in love with the stark beauty and subtle magic of the Scottish countryside. Gradually she comes to know the villagers, and the friendships she forms with two young women open her up to a larger world than she knew existed. Maddie begins to see that nothing is as it first appears: the values she holds dear prove unsustainable, and monsters lurk where they are least expected.
 
As she embraces a fuller sense of who she might be, Maddie becomes aware not only of the dark forces around her, but of life's beauty and surprising possibilities

Upcoming sessions

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Also available in: e-book

As a child, Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump was encouraged to live a life hidden away from the public. Instead, she reached out to the immortal impresario P. T. Barnum, married the tiny superstar General Tom Thumb in the wedding of the century, and transformed into the world's most unexpected celebrity.
 

Woman enters left by Jessica Brockmole

In the 1950s, movie star Louise Wilde is caught between an unfulfilling acting career and a shaky marriage when she receives an out-of-the-blue phone call: She has inherited the estate of Florence "Florrie" Daniels, a Hollywood screenwriter she barely recalls meeting. Among Florrie's possessions are several unproduced screenplays, personal journals, and--inexplicably--old photographs of Louise's mother, Ethel. On an impulse, Louise leaves a film shoot in Las Vegas and sets off for her father's house on the East Coast, hoping for answers about the curious inheritance and, perhaps, about her own troubled marriage.

Also available in: e-book

An ambitious novel that spans decades and continents, The Things We Cherished tells the story of Charlotte Gold and Jack Harrington, two fiercely independent attor­neys who find themselves slowly falling for one another while working to defend the brother of a Holocaust hero against allegations of World War II-era war crimes.
 

Canton Seniors Book Discussion : June 28, 2018

Also available in: print

Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.

After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books, showing that the literary world can take the human soul on a journey to heal itself.
 

Upcoming sessions

There are no upcoming sessions available.

The Canton Seniors Book Group meets on the fourth Thursday of every month (except December) from 2:00-3:00 PM. No registration required.  The December meeting is used to share favorite titles and make suggestions for the coming year. Join us in this open, no-registration-required conversation.

January 25, 2018

The red tent by Anita Diamant
Also available in: audiobook | video

The story of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, is told from her point of view, beginning with the story of her mothers, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah. These wives of Jacob give her the gifts that are to sustain her through a damaged youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land.

Canton Seniors Book Discussion: May 24, 2018

In the mid 1930's, when their family is on the verge of bankruptcy, two well-educated sisters from Shanghai go to Los Angeles to become brides of the "Gold Mountain Men". When they get there, they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months. When one of the sisters becomes pregnant, they vow that no one will ever know.

Upcoming sessions

There are no upcoming sessions available.

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