Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger

The book club selection for August is Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger (the first of his mystery series) . Book Club will meet in the library on August 11 at 7pm.

Part Irish, part Anishinaabe Indian, Corcoran “Cork” O’Connor is the former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota (population 3,752). Embittered over losing his job as a cop and over the marital meltdown that has separated him from his wife and children, Cork gets by on heavy doses of caffeine, nicotine, and guilt.

Book Club Now On Mondays

Book club has changed days from the second Tuesday of each month to the second Monday. We meet at 7pm in the Zion Library / Chapel.

Our summer schedule is as follows:

• June 9: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• July 14: Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
• Aug 11: Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger (the first of his mystery series)

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz July 8

The book club selection for July is Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz . Book Club will meet on July 14 at 7pm.

Odd Thomas is just that. He works as a fry cook in the fictional California town of Pico Mundo. Should he ever leave that position, he sees a future in selling tires or shoes. What he lacks in ambition, he makes up for with a special gift. He communes with and sees the dead, some of whom enlist his help in avenging their deaths from foul play. His gift is a secret from everyone except his beautiful girlfriend and the Chief of Police, who never questions Odd’s tips, advice, or presence at a murder scene.

School Library Journal

Read more of this review on Amazon.com, and a very unique introduction by the animated main character on the author’s web site. School Library Journal recommends this book for high school and adults.

The August book will be Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger (the first of his mystery series) on August 11.

Two New Book Clubs

Starting Soon:

• Stay-at-home Mom’s & Dad’s Book Club
• Middle School Mothers & Daughters Summer Book Club

Please contact Beth Keller at 684.2477 or email bxpwychor (at) gmail (dot) com by May 30 if you are interested in either group.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak June 9

The book club selection for June is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Book Club will meet on June 10 Monday June 9 at 7pm (date changed).

Death meets the book thief, a 9-year-old girl named Liesel Meminger, when he comes to take her little brother, and she becomes an enduring force in his life, despite his efforts to resist her. “I traveled the globe . . . handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity,” Death writes. “I warned myself that I should keep a good distance from the burial of Liesel Meminger’s brother. I did not heed my advice.” As Death lingers at the burial

Blue Shoes and Happiness May 13

The Book Club selection for Tuesday May 13 (7pm)  is “Blue Shoes and Happiness” (from the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series) by Alexander McCall Smith.

Here is a review, and another one

Summer picks will be made at the April 8 meeting.

The Horizontal World: Growing up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere April 8

The book club selection for April is The Horizontal World: Growing up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere by Debra Marquart. Book Club will meet on April 8 at 7pm in the library.

“From the first word, Marquart (The Hunger Bone) makes clear that she’s got some reckoning to do with her home place, damning horny farmboys and the “seeds” they plant in the first paragraph of this rich memoir of growing up on a North Dakota farm.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles March 11

The book club selection for March is A Separate Peace by John Knowles. There are copies available in the library to borrow.

“The novel begins with the adult Gene Forrester returning to Devon, an exclusive New Hampshire prep school, which Gene had attended in his youth. The sights of Devon, and in particular a large tree and a marble staircase, evoke memories and emotions within Gene. The book then travels back to Gene’s past, immediately introducing a number of characters, including Phineas. Despite their polar personalities, Gene and Phineas made fast friends at Devon: Gene’s quiet, introverted intellectual personality matches Finny’s more extroverted, carefree, athletic demeanor.” (Wikipedia)

A reading guide for this book is available online.

In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien February 12

The book club selection for February is In the Lake of the Woods by Minnesota native, Tim O’Brien. The Chicago Tribune called this book “A risky, ambitious, perceptive, engaging, and troubling novel…a major attempt to come to grips with the causes and consequences of the late 20th century’s unquenchable appetite for violence, both domestic and foreign.”

A reading guide for this book is available online.

Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza January 8

The next choice for book club, January 8, is Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza, the story of a woman who had to hide during the Rwanda genocide.

Book Club meets on the 2nd Tuesday of each month in the Zion Library.

There is more information on the Left to Tell website and a description & reviews of the book on the Amazon website.

Past Book Club Selections

Click here for the Archive