Here goes:

When the Killing’s Done by T.C. Boyle – March 14th

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart – April 11th

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht – May 9th

The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee – June 13th

Cheers!

Bonnie Jo Campbell has created an unforgettable heroine in sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, a beauty whose unflinching gaze and uncanny ability with a rifle have not made her life any easier. After the violent death of her father, in which she is complicit, Margo takes to the Stark River in her boat, with only a few supplies and a biography of Annie Oakley, in search of her vanished mother. But the river, Margo’s childhood paradise, is a dangerous place for a young woman traveling alone, and she must be strong to survive, using her knowledge of the natural world and her ability to look unsparingly into the hearts of those around her. Her river odyssey through rural Michigan becomes a defining journey, one that leads her beyond self-preservation and to the decision of what price she is willing to pay for her choices.

Come discuss Once Upon a River on February 8th. We meet at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.

Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction. His new book In the Garden of the Beasts is a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power.

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming–yet wholly sinister–Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity.

Come discuss In the Garden of Beasts on January 11th. We meet at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.

Please bring suggestions for titles to read in the spring when we meet to discuss State of Wonder on December 14.

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Leave your suggestions in the comments section. Feel free to write a little about why you want to read a particular title.

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Email me your suggestions at bryan.n.jones at nashville.gov.

I will likely submit Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and The Cove by Ron Rash into the fray.

Sometimes being on the vanguard of scientific progress thrusts you into the teeth of danger. For Minnesota pharmaceutical researcher Dr. Marina Singh, that means being sent into the remotest region of the Amazon jungle to track down her former mentor. Finding Dr. Annick Swenson promises to be perilous: the last scientist assigned to find her has disappeared too. What follows is the most ambitious novel yet by Nashville native Ann Patchett as its adventure story opens into a penetrating study of personalities, loyalties, and ethics.

Come discuss State of Wonder on December 14th. We meet at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.

John McPhee is the 2011 Nashville Public Library Literary Award Winner. He is  a trailblazer of literary journalism and considered by many the greatest living non-fiction writer. His narrative approach to a multitude of common and uncommon topics has earned him a Pulitzer Prize and legions of fans who accompany him on his carefully constructed literary journeys.

McPhee’s works often concern ecology, geography and conservation. These themes are central to Encounters with the Archdruid, a portrait of influential environmentalist David Brower. McPhee contrasts Brower with three other men whose views of the natural world differ greatly with Brower’s. Each man has had his encounter with the “archdruid.”

Come discuss Encounters with the Archdruid on November 9th. We meet at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.

The Optimist’s Daughter is a compact and inward-looking little novel, a Pulitzer Prize winner that’s slight of page yet big of heart. The optimist in question is a 71-year-old Judge complaining of a “disturbance” in his vision. His daughter Laurel immediately flies to be by his side. The subsequent operation on the judge’s eye goes well, but the recovery does not. This partially autobiographical story explores the subtle bonds between parent and child and the complexities of love and grief.

Come discuss this Southern classic on October 12th. We meet at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.

Your votes are in:

Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee – November 9th 2011

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett – December 14th 2011

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson – January 11th 2012

Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell – February 8th 2012

Want to help choose the books for Spring? Come on down to Main Library and join the group! We meet on the second Wednesday of each month in the 3rd Floor Program Room at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.

With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

We’ll be discussing Born to Run by Christopher McDougall on September 14th. We meet at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough…not for her or for him. Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

We’ll be discussing Room by Emma Donoghue on August 10th. We meet at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.