Join an informal, facilitated discussion of noteworthy works of fiction and nonfiction. All are welcome to join us on the first Wednesday of the month at 11:30 am. Bring a lunch and share your thoughts on the current reading selection. Extra copies of each sessions’ books can be picked up at the upstairs service desk.
The group has established two annual traditions. In August, the group will discuss the book that has been selected for the Carolina Summer Reading Program. And in September, in recognition of Banned Books Week, the group will discuss a book that has been challenged or banned.
Meeting Room C.
- Popular: Finding Happiness and Success by Mitch Prinstein
August 1, 2018
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- Popular: Finding Happiness and Success in a World That Cares Too Much About the Wrong Kinds of Relationships, Mitch Prinstein.
The 2018 selection for the Carolina Summer Reading Program examines why popularity plays such a key role in our development and, ultimately, how it still influences our happiness and success today. In many ways—some even beyond our conscious awareness—those old dynamics of our youth continue to play out in every business meeting, every social gathering, in our personal relationships, and even how we raise our children.
Please note that the author will join us for this discussion. We'll be in Meeting Room B
Mitch Prinstein is a husband, a father, board certified in clinical child and adolescent psychology, and serves as the John Van Seters Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, and the Director of Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His Lab has been conducting research on popularity and peer relations for almost 20 years, and has published more than 100 scientific works, including many scientific journal articles, book chapters, a set of encyclopedias on adolescent development, and even a textbook on the field of clinical psychology. - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
September 5, 2018
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- The title is in our catalog.
Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbor's dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favorite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. - Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
October 3, 2018
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- The title is in our catalog.
Geobiologist Hope Jahren has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist. - News of the World by Paulette Jiles
November 7, 2018
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- The title is in our catalog.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust. - Longitude by Dana Sobel
December 5, 2018
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- Longitude: The story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time, Dana Sobel The title is in our catalog.
A dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and John Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clock-making, and opens a new window on our world. - Fever by Mary Beth Keane
February 6, 2019
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- Fever manages to make you hope against hope, just like the real Mary must have, that the doctors are wrong; that the dozens of typhoid cases linked to her aren’t really her fault.
The title is in our catalog. - West with the Night by Beryl Markham
March 6, 2019
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- Beryl Markham’s life story is a true epic. Not only did she set records and break barriers as a pilot, she shattered societal expectations, threw herself into torrid love affairs, survived desperate crash landings—and chronicled everything. A contemporary of Karen Blixen (better known as Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa), Markham left an enduring memoir that soars with astounding candor and shimmering insights.
The title is in our catalog. - Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
April 3, 2019
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- Drawing on Morrison and Faulkner, The Odyssey and the Old Testament, Ward gives us an epochal story, a journey through Mississippi's past and present that is both an intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle.
The title is in our catalog. - The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
May 1, 2019
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- A forester's fascinating stories, supported by the latest scientific research, reveal the extraordinary world of forests and illustrate how trees communicate and care for each other.
The title is in our catalog. - The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
June 5, 2019
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- An epic love story and family drama set at the dawn of World War II. Viann and Isabelle have always been close despite their differences. Younger, bolder sister Isabelle lives in Paris while Viann lives a quiet and content life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. When World War II strikes and Antoine is sent off to fight, Viann and Isabelle's father sends Isabelle to help her older sister cope. As the war progresses, it's not only the sisters' relationship that is tested, but also their strength and their individual senses of right and wrong.
The title is in our catalog.