New Book Club!
Revolutionary Reads Sponsored by the FOL’s Ruth D. Bogen Memorial Fund: A new bimonthly book club celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation.
This new book club will explore the people, places, and events of the Revolutionary War era.
1776 by David McCullough
Tuesday May 5th at 1:30 pm.
Join fellow readers at the library for an engaging discussion of 1776 by David McCullough on Tuesday April 7th at 1:30 pm.
In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence—when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.
Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color; farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King’s men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.
Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough’s 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history.
Copies will be available at the Information Desk or on Libby.
CLICK HERE to register.
Nonfiction Book Club:
The Great Miscalculation: the Race to Save New York City’s Citicorp Tower by Michael M. Greenburg
Thursday May 14th at 1p.m.
Join fellow readers at the library for an engaging discussion of The Great Miscalculation: the Race to Save New York City’s Citicorp Tower by Michael M. Greenburg on Thursday May 14th at 1p.m.
The Citicorp Center, a fifty-nine-story skyscraper built in 1977, immediately became one of the most recognizable features on the New York City skyline with its distinctive inclined roof and oddly placed support columns. Designed by one of the top structural engineers in the field, William LeMessurier, the tower would become the crown jewel of his professional career; In essence, he created a skyscraper on stilts. The building was a modern marvel – until it was revealed that it had a 1 in 16 chance of collapse.
The Great Miscalculation tells the riveting story of LeMessurier’s discovery of a fatal flaw in his building’s design and his decision to blow the whistle on himself, putting his reputation on the line in a race to save this iconic skyscraper. With hurricane season rapidly approaching, the structural design flaws of the Citicorp Tower posed a menacing danger. Meanwhile, the economic hardships and political turmoil of 1970s New York only compounded the obstacles to a massively expensive, never-before-seen structural redesign in the heart of downtown Manhattan.
A fascinating piece of overlooked New York City history, The Great Miscalculation tells the gripping narrative of a catastrophe averted in the nick of time.
Copies of the book are available on Libby and may also be picked up at the Information Desk.
CLICK HERE to register.
Adventures in Classic Readings Sponsored by the FOL’s Ruth D. Bogen Memorial Fund:
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
This reading group, facilitated by Dr. Laury Magnus, Professor of English, will feature great classic works — ancient to contemporary — as well as participatory reading out loud of selected passages.
The selection for May, June and July is The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Completed only a few months before the author’s death, The Brothers Karamazov is Dostoyevsky’s largest, most expansive, most life-embracing work. Filled with human passions ― lust, greed, love, jealousy, sorrow, and humor ― the book is also infused with moral issues and the issue of collective guilt.
As in many of Dostoyevsky’s novels, the plot centers on a murder. Three brothers, different in character but bound by their ancestry, are drawn into the crime’s vortex: Dmitri, a young officer utterly unrestrained in love, hatred, jealousy, and generosity; Ivan, an intellectual capable of delivering impromptu disquisitions about good and evil, God, and the devil; and Alyosha, the youngest brother, preternaturally patient, kind, and loving. Part mystery, part profound philosophical and theological debate, The Brothers Karamazov represents the culmination of Dostoyevsky’s life’s work and ranks among the greatest novels of all time.
Copies of the book will be available at the Information Desk. All registrants will receive a complimentary copy of the book provided by the Friends of the Library’s Ruth D. Bogen Memorial Fund (while supplies last).
CLICK HERE to register.
Fiction Book Club:
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
Tuesday, May 26th at 7:30 p.m.
Join fellow readers at the Library for an engaging discussion of The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali on Tuesday, May 26th at 7:30 p.m.
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams for a friend to alleviate her isolation.
Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions of becoming “lion women.”
But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.
Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.
Reminiscent of The Kite Runner and My Brilliant Friend, The Lion Women of Tehran is a mesmerizing tale of love and courage, and a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young.
Copies will be available at the Information Desk or on Libby.
CLICK HERE to register.
Poetry Readers Circle Sponsored by the FOL’s Ruth D. Bogen Memorial Fund:
The Best Poems of the English Language: from Chaucer to Frost edited by Harold Bloom.
Thursday May 28th at 1:30 p.m.
Join fellow readers for a poetry discussion led by Nassau County Poet Laureate Paula Curci.
Paula Curci is the Nassau County Poet Laureate emeritus. As both the producer of Calliope’s Corner and What’s The Buzz, on Radio Hofstra University, and as a Poet Correspondent for The Scene.Life, Paula meets and interviews poets about their work. She is the co-founder the Shore Poets and co-editor of the micro- memoir anthology Poetry: “It’s a ‘Shore’ Thing! In an Unsure World. Through her Acoustic Poets Network Visitation Project, she facilitates introspective poetry workshops, open mics, and performs her poetry.
The group will read selections from The Best Poems of the English Language.
Copies of the selected text are available at the Information Desk. This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Library’s Ruth D. Bogen Memorial Fund.
CLICK HERE to register.