The Kilbourn Public Library book club selection for July is Anna Quindlen's Blessings. This novel begins late one evening when a baby is left at the estate of Lydia Blessing. The caretaker of the estate decides he wants to keep the child and Lydia agrees to help him. This is a powerful novel of love, redemption and personal change. In Blessings, readers are drawn into the world of Lydia Blessing as she deals with family demons and the skeletons in her own closet. Anna Quindlen has masterfully woven an unpredictable plot and created characters with amazing depth.

The Washington Post has said of Anna Quindlen's work, "Quindlen knows that all the things we ever will be can be found in some forgotten fragment of family." Family seems to be connected to many of the fundamental and important themes of the novel. How might this tribute be applied to Blessings? In a society and a world that is constantly changing, is there such a thing as a "normal" family? What makes the "family" of Blessings--Skip, Lydia, and Faith--either normal or unusual and what allows them to function as a family unit? Post a comment and let us know what you think.

We are not keeping it a secret! Our book club selection for June is Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. With the same wicked humor, bouyant charm and optimism that have made her Shopaholic novels beloved international bestsellers, Sophie Kinsella delivers a hilarious novel and an unforgettable character. Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets!

After a run-of-the-mill business presentation runs amok, account executive Emma Corrigan finds herself on an unusually turbulent plane ride next to a handsome stranger. As she contemplates the business meeting she fears will end her career and the plane ride she fears will end her life, she aimlessly spews her deepest and darkest secrets to the man by her side. When the plane lands safely and Emma is adoringly welcomed by her long-time boyfriend Connor, she revels in the possibility that her bad luck has come to an end, but, unfortunately, her sense of relief is short-lived.

This is just a good old entertaining read! Did you laugh out loud? What did you like or dislike about the book? Let us know what you think.

I swear it's a good book! This month the library book club will be reading Testimony by Anita Shreve. According to the publisher this novel is a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. This novel takes place at a New England boarding school where a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. Through the scandal we see the ways in which lives can be destroyed in one foolish moment and how our best intentions can lead to our worst transgressions.

The story of Testimony is told from many different perspectives. Why do think Anita Shreve chose this narrative style for the novel? Can you see any connection between this style and some of the novel's themes? Several characters comment that if the sexual incident at Avery had occurred at a local public school, it would have drawn little or no attention. Do you agree with this assessment? Is it fair that this elite institution be held to a different standard? What do you think will happen to the students in the future? How will they be affected by the incident and its aftermath? Let us know what you think!

Truck along with the book club! The book we have chosen for April is Truck, A Love Story by New Auburn, Wisconsin author Michael Perry. On the surface, Perry's tale of restoring his 1951 pickup truck is both hilarious and heartfelt as we encounter the quirky yet endearing folks of New Auburn, Wisconsin. This book delivers a truckload of humor, heart and ...gardening tips? Perry lovingly portrays the people and places of his daily life, paying homage to small town America and to love found unexpectedly and all it brings.

This memoir is filled with eccentric characters, keen observations, and humorous storytelling. What aspect of Perry's book appealed to you: the truck repair, the romance, the gardening? Did you like the structure of the three story threads? Perry likes to showcase the ways that small town people are not all cut from the same cloth. Who are some of the locals in this book that are most memorable to you? Some readers think a dictionary beside them is a must while reading Perry. Does his expansive vocabulary impress or infuriate? Or did you even notice it? Let us know what you think!

The Library Book Club selection for March is Sail: a Novel by James Patterson. This book will captivate the reader from beginning to end. Since her husband died, Anne Dunne has struggled to bring her three children together for a family vacation, so she plans a summer sailing trip on her late husband’s sailboat. The Dunne family soon find themselves trapped in paradise and fighting for their lives. Lost at sea, injured and dysfunctional, the Dunne family’s struggles will pull most thriller readers through to the end in a single sitting or two.
This novel seeks to explore family dynamics in a thriller setting. Is the author able to create a family drama within the setting of the thriller genre? Did the book indeed keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end?
James Patterson is one America's bestselling authors and also one of the most prolific. If you have read other books by James Patterson do you feel he is able to keep his writing fresh?
Post a comment and let us know what you think.

You will LOVE the book club selection for February! In the Land of No Right Angles introduces the fiction of Daphne Beal. Beal is originally from Wisconsin.

Alex, a twenty-year-old American student, is spending the year in Nepal, backpacking and photographing. As a favor to Will--her American friend--she uses one of her Himalayan treks to seek out Maya, a young Nepali woman desperate to flee her traditional family to find work in Kathmandu. But helping Maya has unforeseen implications. Alex is soon embroiled in a strange triangle with Maya and Will, where the lines between friendship, love, and lust grow more tangled every day.

Over the course of the next eight years, Alex returns to Nepal: first to visit and to photograph, then in an attempt to help the troubled Maya. Moving between Kathmandu, New York, and the grim houses of prostitution along Falkland Road in Bombay, Alex begins to understand the pitfalls of trying to be both adventurer and savior in an unfamiliar world.

What specific themes did the author emphasize thoughout the novel? Do the characters seem real and believable? Did you like the book? Why or why not? Let us know what you think.

The Kilbourn Public Library Book Club is starting out 2009 with a book that focuses on the Midwest. This book is author Wendy Bilen’s search into her family history. In Finding Josie, Bilen gives us an illuminating history of her Grandmother, first growing up in North Dakota and later as a farm wife on a dairy farm outside of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. According to the Wisconsin Historical Press this book is more than a memoir or family history but instead a dual story that “illuminates the surprising ways our lives intersect with our ancestors”.
In Chapter 1 the author tells us "I am not looking for my grandmother because she is lost, but because I am." What is the author really after in her search through her grandmother's past? In what ways do the author's life and our lives intersect with our ancestors?