Here you can find information on the many titles housed in the Millcreek Community Center Library's book club collection. We have summaries of each book, as well as links to our catalogue, and other resources for reading groups. All titles can be checked out singly or as a set to anyone with a Salt Lake County Library card.
For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and
compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope
that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.
After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night
shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping
busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her
eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget
Sound over thirty years ago.
Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific
octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can
imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his
human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son
disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old
invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's
too late.
Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking
a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt
impossible.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth
Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an
average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at
Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality.
Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize
nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind.
True chemistry results.
But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later
Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant
star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's
unusual approach to cooking ("combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a
pinch of sodium chloride") proves revolutionary. But as her following
grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott
isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the
status quo.
Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped
slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing
as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as "his" slave.
In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young,
enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest
feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and
slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made
their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the
open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in
Georgia to the free states of the North.
Along the way, they dodged slave traders, military officers, and even
friends of their enslavers, who might have revealed their true
identities. The tale of their adventure soon made them celebrities, and
generated headlines around the country. Americans could not get enough
of this charismatic young couple, who traveled another 1,000 miles
criss-crossing New England, drawing thunderous applause as they spoke
alongside some of the greatest abolitionist luminaries of the day—among
them Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.
But even then, they were not out of danger. With the passage of an
infamous new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans became
accountable for returning refugees like the Crafts to slavery. Then yet
another adventure began, as slave hunters came up from Georgia, forcing
the Crafts to flee once again—this time from the United States, their
lives and thousands more on the line and the stakes never higher.
With three epic journeys compressed into one monumental bid for freedom, Master Slave Husband Wife
is an American love story—one that would challenge the nation's core
precepts of life, liberty, and justice for all—one that challenges us
even now.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling
author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from
15th-century China - perfect for fans of See's classic Snow flower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.
According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman,"
but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death,
separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of
use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in
China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four
Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man
can never do with a female patient.
From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses, many of which
relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling.
The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the
prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes
in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing
in each other's joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell
themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.
But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law
forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in
the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot
slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and
stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of
Fragrant Delights.
How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to
treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of
such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries
later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these
efforts? Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a captivating story of
women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the
life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be
considered remarkable today.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars,
a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley,
with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over
fresh-made donuts.
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation,
she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for
success. She has already delivered six.
When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear
with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's
found her final candidate.
But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley,
Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee,
and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee
dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and
eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something
as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as
the California coastline.
As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a
story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth
crossing the universe for is found
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
In this beautifully written, vividly
detailed memoir, a young woman chronicles her adventures in an orange
van named Bertha traveling across the deserts of the American West and
reflects on an unconventional way of life
A woman
defined by motion, Brianna Madia bought a beat-up bright orange van,
filled it with her two dogs Bucket and Dagwood, and headed into the
canyons of Utah with her husband on a journey of discovery. Nowhere for Very Long
is her story of exploration--of the world outside and the spirit
within. From the backroads to the breakdowns, married to solo, lost to
found, it is the chronicle of a woman in the wild, learning and
unlearning.
Brianna knew her road would be the one less traveled
from an early age. Rejecting the competitive and capitalistic path set
out before her, she chose to seek a truer version of happiness, a road
scary, uncertain, and entirely her own. But pursing a life of intention
isn't always what it seems. In fact, at times it was downright boring,
exhausting, lonely, and even desperate----when the van overheated and
she was forced to pull over on a lonely stretch of Wyoming highway; when
the weather was bitterly cold and the water jugs froze beneath her we
she slept in the parking lot of her office; when she faced tough
choices, hard truths, and inevitable regrets; when she worried about
money, her marriage, and the looming question mark of her future. But
this life was a life of her choosing and that made all the difference.
Nowhere for Very Long
isn't about extreme minimalism or tiny house living or #VanLife. It's
about cherishing the moment and being a woman living a life true to
herself, come what may.
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
After their decision not to have a biological
child, Sarah Sentilles and her husband, Eric, decide to adopt via the
foster care system. Despite knowing that the system's goal is
reunification with the birth family, Sarah opens their home to a flurry
of social workers who question, evaluate, and ultimately prepare them to
welcome a child into their family--even if it means most likely having
to give them back. After years of starts and stops, and endless
navigation of the complexities and injustices of the foster care system,
a phone call finally comes: a three-day old baby girl, named Coco, in
immediate need of a foster family. Sarah and Eric bring this newborn
stranger home.
"You were never ours," Sarah tells Coco, "yet we belong to each other."
A love letter to Coco, and to the countless children like her, Stranger
Care chronicles Sarah's discovery of what it means to mother--in this
case, not just a vulnerable infant, but the birth mother who loves her,
too. Ultimately, Coco's story reminds us that we depend on family, and
that family can take different forms. With "fearless, stirring,
rhythmic" (Nick Flynn) prose, Sentilles lays bare an intimate, powerful
story, with universal concerns: How can we care for and protect each
other? How do we ensure a more hopeful future for life on this planet?
And if we're all related--tree, bird, star, person--how might we better
live?
To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's
home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for
the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library
card number to access this resource outside a county library.)
