Decorah Public Library staff will host five book discussions in December. The groups are open to the public and newcomers are encouraged to attend.
Anyone interested should call the library at 382-3717 to learn more or to reserve a book. Email ktorresdal@decorahlibrary.org to be added to any of the groups’ email distribution lists. Funds for multiple copy sets are provided by Friends of Decorah Public Library.
The Happy Hour Book Group will meet at Pulpit Rock Brewing Company in Decorah on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 5:15 p.m. to discuss Amor Towles’ “Table for Two.” Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.
The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, “Table for Two” is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.
The Speculative Fiction Book Group will meet via Zoom Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. to discuss short fiction selections from Uncanny magazine issue 60, available online for free. The group will focus on pieces listed under “More Fiction,” including all-new pieces by Natalia Theodoridou, Eddie Robson, Angela Liu, Tananarive Due, M. M. Olivas, Jo Miles, and Marissa Lingen. A seven-time Hugo Award winner, 2024 Locus Award winner, and 2024 World Fantasy Award winner (among others), Uncanny Magazine is an online Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine containing new and classic speculative fiction, podcasts, poetry, essays, art, and interviews. Uncanny‘s contributors range from the award-winning leading voices of the field to exciting, emerging talents.
The group will then discuss John Scalzi’s “Starter Villain” beginning at approximately 6:30 p.m. Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place. Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital. It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good. The Zoom link is the same for both meetings and is available on the library website.
The History Book Group will meet on the 2nd floor of the library Thursday, Dec. 19 at 3 p.m. to discuss Edward Steers’ “Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.” In this book Steers, a noted Lincoln authority, introduces the cast of characters who participated in this ill-fated drama, explores why they were so willing to help pull the trigger, and corrects the many misconceptions surrounding this defining moment that changed American history (including the idea that the assassination resulted from actions of a lone deranged actor who struck from a twisted lust for revenge).
The Friday Book Group will meet on the 2nd floor of the library Friday, Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. to discuss Kate Quinn’s “The Briar Club.” New York Times bestselling author of “The Diamond Eye” and “The Rose Code” returns with a haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse during the McCarthy era. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst? Capturing the paranoia of the McCarthy era and evoking the changing roles for women in postwar America, The Briar Club is an intimate and thrilling novel of secrets and loyalty put to the test.
For more information, contact Tricia Crary (Friday Book Group) or Kristin Torresdal (Happy Hour, History, and Speculative Fiction Book Groups) at 563-382-3717.
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