January Book Discussions Offered at the Brookfield Library

From the The Brookfield Library: We love new members at our discussions! Copies of books are available at the Reference and Information Desk.

by Doug Most

• Tuesday, January 10, 2017
• 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew more congested, the streets became clogged with plodding, horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 crippled the entire northeast, a solution had to be found. Two brothers from one of the nation’s great families–Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York–pursued the dream of his city digging America’s first subway, and the great race was on. The competition between Boston and New York played out in an era of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America’s place in the world.

The Race Underground is peopled with the famous, like Boss Tweed, Grover Cleveland, and Thomas Edison, and the not-so-famous, from brilliant engineers to the countless “sandhogs” who shoveled, hoisted and blasted their way into the earth’s crust, sometimes losing their lives in the construction of the tunnels. Doug Most chronicles the science of the subway, and looks at the centuries of fears people overcame about traveling underground. The Race Underground is a great American saga of two rival American cities, their rich, powerful, and sometimes corrupt interests, and an invention that changed the lives of millions.

Brookfield Reads: Daytime and Evening Editions

The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee

• Tuesday, January 17
• 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. (Evening group led by Pam Perlman)

Janice Y. K. Lee’s New York Times bestselling debut, The Piano Teacher, was called “immensely satisfying” by People, “intensely readable” by O, The Oprah Magazine, and “a rare and exquisite story” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Now, in her long-awaited new novel, Lee explores with devastating poignancy the emotions, identities, and relationships of three very different American women living in the same small expat community in Hong Kong.

Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate, is adrift, undone by a terrible incident in her recent past. Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her struggle to have a child, something she believes could save her foundering marriage. Meanwhile, Margaret, once a happily married mother of three, questions her maternal identity in the wake of a shattering loss. As each woman struggles with her own demons, their lives collide in ways that have irreversible consequences for them all. Atmospheric, moving, and utterly compelling, The Expatriates confirms Lee as an exceptional talent and one of our keenest observers of women’s inner lives.

Book ‘Em Mystery Discussion

Missing Persons: A Kate Conway Mystery by Clare O'Donohue

• Monday, January 23
• 12:30 p.m.

The debut of an exciting new mystery series featuring a funny, but cynical television producer turned amateur sleuth.

The cause of death is "undetermined," but the cops peg Chicago television producer Kate Conway as the main suspect when her soon-to-be ex-husband, Frank, is found dead. To make matters worse-and weirder- Frank's new girlfriend suddenly wants to be friends.

Happy for the distraction, Kate throws herself into a new work assignment for the television program Missing Persons: the story of Theresa Moretti, a seemingly angelic young woman who disappeared a year earlier. All Kate wants is a cliché story and twenty-two minutes of footage, but when the two cases appear to overlap, Kate needs to work fast before another body turns up-her own.

Image via the Brookfield Library