Nonfiction Book Club:
Sinkable: Obsession, the Deep Sea, and the Shipwreck of the Titanic by Daniel Stone
Thursday December 8th at 1:30 p.m.
Please join us for a discussion of Sinkable: Obsession, the Deep Sea, and the Shipwreck of the Titanic by Daniel Stone on Thursday December 8th at 1:30 p.m.
In Sinkable, Daniel Stone spins a fascinating tale of history, science, and obsession, uncovering the untold story of the Titanic not as a ship but as a shipwreck. He explores generations of eccentrics, like American Charles Smith, whose 1914 recovery plan using a synchronized armada of ships bearing electromagnets was complex, convincing, and utterly impossible; Jack Grimm, a Texas oil magnate who fruitlessly dropped a fortune to find the wreck after failing to find Noah’s Ark; and the British Doug Woolley, a former pantyhose factory worker who has claimed, since the 1960s, to be the true owner of the Titanic wreckage. Along the way, Sinkable takes readers through the two miles of ocean water in which the Titanic sank, showing how the ship broke apart and why, and delves into the odd history of our understanding of such depths. He even journeys over the Atlantic, during a global pandemic, to track down the elusive Doug Woolley. And Stone turns inward, looking at his own dark obsession with both the Titanic and shipwrecks in general, and why he spends hours watching ships sink on YouTube. Brimming with humor, curiosity, and wit, Sinkable offers up a page-turning work of personal journalism and an immensely entertaining romp through the deep sea and the nature of obsession.
Copies of the book are available on Libby and may also be reserved for pickup at the library.
Click HERE to register.
Adventures in Classic Readings Sponsored by the FOL’s Ruth D. Bogen Memorial Fund:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Monday December 12th at 1:30 p.m.
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.
Our next selection will be The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel of the Roaring Twenties is beloved by generations of readers and stands as his crowning work. Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner-turned-New-York-bond salesman rents a small house next door to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby. There, he has a firsthand view of Gatsby’s lavish West Egg parties’ and of his undying love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. After meeting and losing Daisy during the war, Gatsby has made himself fabulously wealthy. Now, he believes that his only way to true happiness is to find his way back into Daisy’s life, and he uses Nick to try to reach her. What happens when the characters’ fantasies are confronted with reality makes for a startling conclusion to this iconic masterpiece.
This deceptively simple work, Fitzgerald’s best known, was hailed by critics as capturing the spirit of the generation. In Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald embodies some of America’s strongest obsessions: wealth, power, greed, and the promise of new beginnings.
Copies of the book will be available at the Information Desk. All participants 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:
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
Tuesday November 22th at 7:30 p.m.
Please join our librarians for a discussion of Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge on Tuesday November 22th at 7:30 p.m.
Coming of age in a free Black community in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her purposeful mother, practicing physician, has a vision for their future together Libertie is to go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie, drawn more to music than science, feels stifled by her mother’s choices and is hungry for something else. And she is constantly reminded that, unlike her light-skinned mother, Libertie will not be able to pass for white. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be his equal on the island, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it for herself and for generations to come.
Copies of the book are available on Libby and may also be reserved for pickup at the library.
Click HERE to register.