Adult

The Third-Thursday Book Discussion Group meets the third Thursday of each month. Join us for spirited discussions of novels and non-fiction titles on the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm in Meeting Rooms C-D at the library. Books are provided upon registration for each session. For further information, please contact Rosemary Mirsky at (248) 246-3715 or rosemary@ropl.org.


Pachinko

January 17, 2019
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. (2017) FICTION L
A rich multi-generational saga that follows a Korean family transplanted to Japan.

Addario

February 21, 2019
It's What I Do: a Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario. (2015) BIO ADDARIO
A memoir by war photographer Addario, who aims to pursue the truth in any theatre of war. She was kidnapped by pro-Qaddafi forces during Libya’s civil war, photographed Arab people before and after the Taliban’s rise, and captured violence against women in the Congo.

Lab Girl

March 21, 2019
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. (2016) BIO JAHREN
The account of a girl who grew up in rural Minnesota and found sanctuary in science. Jahren is a geochemist and geobiologist who specializes in plants. A professor at the University of Hawaii, Jahren details her rise as a woman scientist, the labs she helped build, her scientific excursions, and the important relationships she’s made along the way.

Moscow

April 18, 2019
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. (2016) FICTION T
Set in 1920s Moscow, the novel focuses on Count Alexander Rostov, who is forced into house arrest in a tiny attic room of the glamorous Metropol hotel opposite the Kremlin.

The Salter Center Book Discussion Group meets the third Monday of the month at 10:00 AM in the Senior Room of the Jack and Patti Salter Community Center, 1545 E. Lincoln. Join us for engaging book discussions of the titles below. Books are provided upon registration for each session. For further information, please contact librarian Matthew Day at (248) 246-3732 or matthew@ropl.org. The selection of titles is subject to change. Salter Center is closed Monday, January 21.

Arsenal

January 28, 2019
Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit and an Epic Quest to Arm America at War by A.J. Baime. (2014) 940.531 B
The story of the dramatic transformation of Detroit from "motortown" to the "arsenal of democracy," featuring Edsel Ford, who rebelled against his pacifist father, Henry Ford, to build the industrial miracle Willow Run, a manufacturing complex capable of producing B-24 Liberator bombers at a rate of one per hour—a crucial component in winning the war.

Burial Rites

February 18, 2019
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. (2013) FICTION K
A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829. Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Hillbilly

March 18, 2019
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. (2016) 305.6 V
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class.

Varina

April 15, 2019
Varina by Charles Frazier. (2018) FICTION F 
With her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the mucholder widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects a life of security as a Mississippi landowner. He instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history—culpable regardless of her intentions.

Thunderstruck

May 20, 2019
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson. (2006) LG PR 364.1523 L
Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two menHawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.