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Join the Club: Shelter in a Good Book!
Book clubs you can do from home
Tea and Sensibility
Tea and Sensibility
Project Gutenberg eBook Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/161
Read-Aloud Group (Monday-Thursday at 3 p.m.): https://facebook.com/groups/SDPLtea
Activities: Tune in Monday-Thursday at 3 p.m. to stream a read-aloud from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. The videos will be also be available for later viewing. Drinking tea while listening to this romantic classic is encouraged but not required.
Book Description: Sense and Sensibility (1811) was Jane Austen’s first published novel, although it was either the second or third novel that she completed. Sense and Sensibility tells the story of the impoverished Dashwood family, focusing on the sisters Elinor and Marianne, personifications of good sense (common sense) and sensibility (emotionality), respectively. Despite Austen’s reputation as a romantic author a major theme of the novel is the danger of excessive sensibility, when the emotional and sentimental nature of people is emphasized over their rational endowments.
Author Bio: Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English writer who first gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. She published four novels during her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). In these and in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (published together posthumously, in 1817), she vividly depicted English middle-class life during the early 19th century. Her novels defined the era’s novel of manners, but they also became timeless classics that have remained critical and popular successes two centuries after her death.
Previous Readings: Visit the Library's YouTube channel to watch previous readings by clicking on the different playlists below.
Adventure and Mystery Book Club
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Project Gutenberg eBook
Read-Aloud Book Group (Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4 p.m.): https://facebook.com/groups/SDPLadventure
Here’s the Deal: Tune in to Facebook Live on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4pm to hear chapters of a great classic adventure or mystery book read aloud. Our current selection is: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.
Author Bio: William Wilkie Collins (Jan. 8, 1824 – Sept. 23, 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known for The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868). The last has been called the first modern English detective novel. On publishing his first novel, Antonina, in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became a friend and mentor. Some Collins works appeared first in Dickens's journals Household Words and All the Year Round. The two also collaborated on drama and fiction.
Book Description: Colonel Herncastle, an unpleasant former soldier, brings the Moonstone back with him from India where he acquired it by theft and murder during the Siege of Seringapatam. Angry at his family, who shun him, he leaves it in his will as a birthday gift to his niece Rachel, thus exposing her to attack by the stone's hereditary guardians, who will stop at nothing to retrieve it.
Previous Readings: Visit the Library's YouTube channel to watch previous readings by clicking on the different playlists below.
The Bucketlist Book Club
Welcome to the Bucketlist Book Club! This is a virtual forum to discuss longer/harder books or books that many of us have wished to read, but just never got around to it!
Title: Anna Karenina | Author: Leo Tolstoy
Available via Gutenberg Project: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1399
Discussion Group: https://facebook.com/groups/SDPLbucketlist
Author Bio: Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.[ He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909.
Book Description: A complex novel in eight parts, with more than a dozen major characters, it is spread over more than 800 pages (depending on the translation and publisher), typically contained in two volumes. It deals with themes of betrayal, faith, family, marriage, Imperial Russian society, desire, and rural vs. city life.
Discussion questions forthcoming! Join the Bucketlist Book Club and be a part of the conversation!
Short Classics Book Club
Welcome to the Short Classics Book Club! This is a live discussion group held each month on Zoom to discuss the shortest of the greatest books of all time.
Current Selection
Title: Rip Van Winkle | Author: Washington Irving
Project Gutenberg eBook | Librivox Audio Book
Short Classics Book Club Facebook Group
Tuesday, June 29th at 4:30 p.m. | Link to Zoom Discussion Group
Author Bio: Washington Irving was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
Book Description: Rip Van Winkle is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their liquor and falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution.
Study/Discussion Questions:
- How would you describe Rip Van Winkle as a character? What do you like and dislike about him? How does he change over the course of the story and why do these changes occur?
- What do you think about Dame Van Winkle? What stereotypes are invoked in her portrayal? Explain whether or not you sympathize with her and why.
- What is surprising to you about Rip and Dame Van Winkle's relationship to each other? What seems predictable to you about their marriage?
- How are Rip Van Winkle's children important to the story, especially at the end?
- Describe the Ninepin Bowlers. What is your initial reaction to them? What do you learn about them as the story unfolds? What do you think they represent and how do they influence Rip Van Winkle's life?
Check out our Short Classics Book Club on Facebook to enjoy a short video introduction to Rip Van Winkle and learn more about our virtual discussion group on Zoom.
Modern Classics Book Club
Welcome to our virtual book club! We will be discussing a wide variety of books ranging from classic selections to modern literature.
Current Selection
Title: Poisonwood Bible | Author: Barbara Kingsolver
eBook available via cloudLibrary
Printed books and CD audiobook via our catalog
Discussion Group: https://facebook.com/groups/CMRbookclub
Schedule: Chapters posted Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:00 a.m.
Author Bio: Barbara Kingsolver (1955-) grew up in rural Kentucky. She was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the most important writers of the 20th century. She has received numerous awards including the National Humanities Medal in 2000 for her service to the arts. The Poisonwood Bible was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Orange Prize. It won the national book award for South Africa and was an Oprah Book Club selection. Her other novels have won numerous awards including the prestigious Orange Prize in 2010 for Lacuna. In 2011, Kingsolver won the Daytona Peace Prize for her complete works.
Book Description: Poisonwood Bible is told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a Baptist evangelical minister who takes his family on a mission to the Congo in 1959. This suspenseful tale is set over the course of 3 decades as it highlights the family’s tragic undoing and reconstruction. It is set in the dramatic backdrop of the Congo’s fight for independence from Belgium, highlighting the difficulties of the fledgling African nation. It is told in alternating voices of the wife, Orleanna Price and her four daughters: Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May. Having been uprooted from their home in Georgia, the group arrives with 1950s ideals. Each character handles this move and the events that happen to them in different ways. The story intertwines dark humor with the possibilities of human hope. This novel, with it’s lush prose, promises to captivate the imagination.
The Jane Austen Book Club
Welcome to the Jane Austen Book Club! Our book club will be an open forum conversation in which group members will be discussing the literary works of Jane Austen. Many Janeite advocates consider Jane Austen England's most popular author.
April Selection
Title: Pride and Prejudice | Author: Jane Austen
Project Gutenberg eBook Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342
Librivox Audiobook Link: https://librivox.org/pride-and-prejudice-by-jane-austen
Discussion Group: https://facebook.com/groups/RBlibrarybookclub
Author bio: Jane Austen, (born December 16, 1775, Steventon, Hampshire, England—died July 18, 1817, Winchester, Hampshire), English writer who first gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. She published four novels during her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). In these and in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (published together posthumously, 1817), she vividly depicted English middle-class life during the early 19th century. Her novels defined the era’s novel of manners, but they also became timeless classics that remained critical and popular successes two centuries after her death.
Book Description: The story revolves are the Bennet girls and the search for a successful marriage contract. Primary story plot revolves around our proud aristocratic, Mr. Darcy and his evolving feelings toward Elizabeth Bennet, The couple's relationship must overcome many social and cultural challenges to find true love. Any Janeite will tell you the story is worth reading due to the wit and charm of Jane Austen's characters.
Discussion questions:
Our questions will added once per week on every Friday throughout the month of April 2020.