Join us for these upcoming book discussions at Wilmette Public Library.
CLASSICS & CONTEMPORARY
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez Tuesday, October 11th, 10:30am
Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including—maybe especially—members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost? (Provided by the publisher)
Reserve a paper copy of the book. Ebook and downloadable audiobook copies are available through Digital Library of Illinois or the Libby app.
Registration will close two hours before the program begins and registrants will receive a link to join shortly thereafter.
NOVELS @ NIGHT - Horror Edition
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones Wednesday, October 19th, 7:00pm
From New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Jordan Peele and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way. (Provided by the publisher)
Place a hold on the book. Ebook and downloadable audiobook copies are available through Digital Library of Illinois or the Libby app.
Registration will close two hours before the program begins and registrants will receive a link to join shortly thereafter.
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS/WPL BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Gendered Citizenship by Rebecca DeWolf Wednesday, October 26th, 11:00am
By engaging deeply with American legal and political history as well as the increasingly rich material on gender history, Gendered Citizenship illuminates the ideological contours of the original struggle over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) from 1920 to 1963. As the first comprehensive, full-length history of that struggle, this study grapples not only with the battle over women’s constitutional status but also with the more than forty-year mission to articulate the boundaries of what it means to be an American citizen. (Provided by the publisher)
Reserve a paper copy of the book. Ebook copies are available through Digital Library of Illinois or the Libby app.
Registration will close two hours before the program begins and registrants will receive a link to join shortly thereafter.
MURDER WE READ
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips Wednesday, October 26th, 7:30pm
One August afternoon, two sisters—Sophia, eight, and Alyona, eleven—go missing from a beach on the far-flung Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia. Taking us through the year that follows, Disappearing Earth enters the lives of women and girls in this tightly knit community who are connected by the crime: a witness, a neighbor, a detective, a mother. We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty—open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes, dense forests, the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska—and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused. In a story as propulsive as it is emotionally engaging, Julia Phillips’s powerful novel brings us to a new understanding of the intricate bonds of family and community, in a Russia unlike any we have seen before. (Provided by the publisher)
Place a hold on a copy of the book. Ebook and downloadable audiobook copies are available through Digital Library of Illinois or the Libby app. Ebook and downloadable audiobook copies are available through Hoopla or the Hoopla app.
Registration will close two hours before the program begins and registrants will receive a link to join shortly thereafter.