The Riverdale Public Library book discussion group's selection for the October 26 meeting is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

 Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Derpression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them hope.

Refreshments will be served, and all are welcome to attend!

Meetings are held on the last Monday of the month. All meetings begin at 6:30  p.m. and end at 8 p.m.

All are welcome to attend meetings - even if you have not read the book! You can still help pick future selections and get a sense of how the book discussion works!

Upcoming Discussions

November 30 - The Photograph by Penelope Lively

December 28  - The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Previous Selections

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thorton Wilder

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde

Justify the Means by Robert Giordano

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Pere Goriot by Honore Balzac

Meet the Poets Night

The Sweet Potato Queens' first big-ass novel: stuff we didn't actually do, but could have, and may yet by Jill Browne

Cage of Stars  by Jacquelyn Mitchard

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons by Lorna Landvik

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fford

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie Dai

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Pride and Loyalty, Kenneth Del Vecchio

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt

My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult

Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros

Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi

Kim, Rudyard Kipling

Gilead, Marilynne Robinson

Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde

The Ditchdigger's Daughter: A Black Family's Astonishing Success Story, Yvonne Thronton

Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich

Bee Season, Myla Goldberg

Beach Music, Pat Conroy

tuesdays with Morrie and the five people you meet in heaven, by Mitch Albom

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant

Good in Bed, Jennifer Weiner

The Rescue, Nicholas Sparks

The Hot Zone, Robert Preston

Deep End of the Ocean, Jacquelyn Mitchard

One Thousand White Women, by Jim Fergus

Broken for You, by Stephanie Kallos

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, by James W. Loewen

Stones from the River, by Ursula Hegi

A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry.

The Second Mark by Joy Goodwin

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim: Essays by David Sedaris

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden  

Patriot James by Robert Palmer

Selected Poems by Robert Frost

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley

Hope to see you there!