At our March 28th book group, we discussed Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.  This was a great discussion because some members loved the book and others did not.  It also was helpful to look at the author's book club kit.  We had cream puff dessert.

Our next bookgroup meeting with be Monday, April 25th at 3:30pm in the Turner Room. We will be reading Dead Wake: the Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson. Copies of the book are available at the LME Library desk. Regular print, large print, ebook, eaudio, and audio book formats are available.  The discussion sheets can be picked up or are available online.
Summary:
The #1 New York Times best-selling author of In the Garden of Beasts presents a 100th-anniversary chronicle of the sinking of the Lusitania that discusses the factors that led to the tragedy and the contributions of such figures as President Wilson, bookseller Charles Lauriat and architect Theodate Pope Riddle.

We just wrapped up Fredrik Backman's My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry for our February pick.  We had chocolates and Auntie Carlene's cinnamon coffee loaf since I cannot make a decent cinnamon roll.  For most members, the book started off slowly, but once you got past the learning curve about the Land-of-Almost-Awake, the author really drew you into the story.  Overall, it was very favorably reviewed by the group, and we'd love to continue to read more by this author. (We read A Man Called Ove in 2015.)  Backman's particular sense of humor and pathos is endearing but still touches on things that really matter.  Here's a quote I feel conveys this well:

"It's difficult ending a fairy tale.  All tales have to end sometime, of course.  Some can't finish soon enough.  This one, for example, could feasibly have been rounded off and packed away long ago.  The problem is this whole issue of heroes at the ends of fairy tales, and how they are supposed to 'live happily to the end of their days.'  This gets tricky, from a narrative perspective, because the people who reach the end of their days must leave others who have to live out their days without them."

Our next book group will meet on March 28th at 3pm in the Turner Room. This is the Monday after Easter.  We will be discussing the novel, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.  Copies of the book are available at the library desk and the discussion sheets are available for pickup or online here.