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.
The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P.
Morgan's personal librarian--who became one of the most powerful women
in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her
dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.
In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P.
Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork
for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on
the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the
art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd
negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class
collection.
But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born
not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter
of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known
advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her
alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white--her complexion
is dark because she is African American.
The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman,
famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to
which she must go--for the protection of her family and her legacy--to
preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in
which she lives.
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.)
Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature
with the tools of science. She brings these frameworks of understanding
together in original ways, taking "us on a journey that is every bit as
mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as
it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert).
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman,
Kimmerer shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod,
strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us
gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In
reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces
that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central
argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the
acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the
rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of
other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the
earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
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.)
Urgent, propulsive, and sharp as a knife, The Other Black Girl
is an electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young
Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City
book publishing.
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is
tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the
isolation and microaggressions, she's thrilled when Harlem-born and bred
Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They've only just
started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of
uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left
in the dust.
Then the notes begin to appear on Nella's desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.
It's hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as
Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she
soon realizes that there's a lot more at stake than just her career.
A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is
perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or
overlooked in the workplace, The Other Black Girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.
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 thrilling, cinematic story of a community shattered by
disaster—and the extraordinary woman who helped pull it back together.
In the spring of 1964, Anchorage, Alaska, was a
modern-day frontier town yearning to be a metropolis—the largest,
proudest city in a state that was still brand-new. But just before
sundown on Good Friday, the community was jolted by the most powerful
earthquake in American history, a catastrophic 9.2 on the Richter Scale.
For four and a half minutes, the ground lurched and rolled. Streets
cracked open and swallowed buildings whole. And once the shaking
stopped, night fell and Anchorage went dark. The city was in disarray
and sealed off from the outside world.
Slowly, people switched on their transistor radios and heard a
familiar woman’s voice explaining what had just happened and what to do
next. Genie Chance was a part-time radio reporter and working mother who
would play an unlikely role in the wake of the disaster, helping to put
her fractured community back together. Her tireless broadcasts over the
next three days would transform her into a legendary figure in Alaska
and bring her fame worldwide—but only briefly. That Easter weekend in
Anchorage, Genie and a cast of endearingly eccentric characters—from a
mountaineering psychologist to the local community theater group staging
Our Town—were thrown into a jumbled world they could not recognize. Together, they would make a home in it again.
Drawing on thousands of pages of unpublished documents, interviews with survivors, and original broadcast recordings, This Is Chance! is
the hopeful, gorgeously told story of a single catastrophic weekend and
proof of our collective strength in a turbulent world.
There are moments when reality instantly changes—when the life we assume is stable gets upended by pure chance. This Is Chance! is
an electrifying and lavishly empathetic portrayal of one community
rising above the randomness, a real-life fable of human connection
withstanding chaos.
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.)
A haunted, surreal debut novel about an otherworldly young woman,
her father, and her lover that culminates in a shocking moment of
betrayal - one that upends our understanding of power, predation, and
agency.
Ada and her father, touched by the power to heal
illness, live on the edge of a village where they help sick locals—or
"Cures"—by cracking open their damaged bodies or temporarily burying
them in the reviving, dangerous Ground nearby. Ada, a being both more
and less than human, is mostly uninterested in the Cures, until she
meets a man named Samson. When they strike up an affair, to the
displeasure of her father and Samson's widowed, pregnant sister, Ada is
torn between her old way of life and new possibilities with her
lover—and eventually comes to a decision that will forever change
Samson, the town, and the Ground itself.
Follow Me to Ground is
fascinating and frightening, urgent and propulsive. In Ada,
award-winning author Sue Rainsford has created an utterly bewitching
heroine, one who challenges conventional ideas of womanhood and the
secrets of the body. Slim but authoritative, Follow Me to Ground
lingers long after its final page, pulling the reader into a dream
between fairy tale and nightmare, desire and delusion, folktale and
warning.
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.)
A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world
were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was
discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles,
built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an
Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were
shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more
members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.
In this last remnant of the Wild West - where oilmen like J. P. Getty
made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the "Phantom
Terror," roamed - many of those who dared to investigate the killings
were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than
twenty-four, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization's
first major homicide investigations and the bureau badly bungled the
case. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a
former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put
together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian
agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to
adopt the latest techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they
began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American
history.
In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking
series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood.
Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a
masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation
reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that,
it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward
American Indians that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for
so long. Killers of the Flower Moon is utterly compelling, but also emotionally devastating.
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.)
David Grann talks about Killers of the Flower Moon (from HEC Books):
This title is available for download as an eBook here and here; as well as an eAudioBook here and here. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.
The critically acclaimed, bestselling author of News of the World and Enemy Women
returns to Texas in this atmospheric story, set at the end of the Civil
War, about an itinerant fiddle player, a ragtag band of musicians with
whom he travels trying to make a living, and the charming young Irish
lass who steals his heart.
In March 1865, the long and bitter War between the States is
winding down. Till now, twenty-three-year-old Simon Boudlin has evaded
military duty thanks to his slight stature, youthful appearance, and
utter lack of compunction about bending the truth. But following a
barroom brawl in Victoria, Texas, Simon finds himself conscripted,
however belatedly, into the Confederate Army. Luckily his talent with a
fiddle gets him a comparatively easy position in a regimental band.
Weeks
later, on the eve of the Confederate surrender, Simon and his bandmates
are called to play for officers and their families from both sides of
the conflict. There the quick-thinking, audacious fiddler can't help but
notice the lovely Doris Mary Aherne, an indentured girl from Ireland,
who is governess to a Union colonel's daughter.
After the
surrender, Simon and Doris go their separate ways. He will travel around
Texas seeking fame and fortune as a musician. She must accompany the
colonel's family to finish her three years of service. But Simon cannot
forget the fair Irish maiden, and vows that someday he will find her
again.
Incandescent in its beauty, told in Paulette Jiles's trademark spare yet lilting style, Simon the Fiddler
is a captivating, bittersweet tale of the chances a devoted man will
take, and the lengths he will go to fulfill his heart's yearning.
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.)
Quirk and charm give way to a serious exploration of the dangers of
complacency in this delightful, thought-provoking Orwellian fantasy…. By
turns zany and heartfelt, this tale of found family is hopeful to its
core. Readers will revel in Klune’s wit and ingenuity.
Linus Baker is a by-the-book case worker in the Department in Charge of
Magical Youth. He's tasked with determining whether six dangerous
magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world.
Arthur
Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep
the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets
will come to light.
The House in the Cerulean Sea is an
enchanting love story, masterfully told, about the profound experience
of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing
that family is yours.
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.)
