OWL has both Fiction and Non-Fiction Book Discussion Groups that are open to all! Come to one or all meetings. Books are available for check out at OWL.
Non-Fiction Discussion Group
When: Second Thursday of each month from 2:00 – 3:15 p.m.
Where: Meeting will be held In the Library’s Jamie Gagarin Community Room.
Staff Contact: Olivia DeFiore
Selection List for 2024–25
September 12
A Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
This is the way wars are fought now: by children (13 and younger) traumatized and wielding AK-47's.
In 50+ conflicts worldwide there are 300,000+ child soldiers. What does war look like through the eyes
of a child soldier? How does one become a soldier? How does one stop? Ishmael Beah, 26 years old
when he wrote this in 2007, was at heart a gentle boy but at 13 he was in the government army and
capable of horrible acts. How he learned to be a human being again gives us some hope. Moderated by Dick
October 10
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to flow? Do we exist
in time or does time exist in us? These questions about the nature of time continue to puzzle physicists
and philosophers alike. We may think of time as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future,
measured by clocks, but the author tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe
where at the most fundamental level time disappears. Moderated by Tom
November 14
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
In this story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a singer,
songwriter, and guitarist. She tells of growing up as an Asian-American kid at her school; of struggling
with her mother's expectations of her; of a painful adolescence. As an adult her Korean-ness began to
feel more distant until her mother’s illness forced a reckoning with her identity. Moderated by Nancy
Fiction Discussion Group
When: Second Thursday of each month from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Where: Meeting will be held In the Library’s Jamie Gagarin Community Room.
Staff Contact: Olivia DeFiore
Selection List for 2024–25
September 12
Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres - Movie to be discussed as well
This mixture of history and romance is set on a Greek island. During World War II, the Italian
army occupies the island. Caught in the occupation are a young woman and her two suitors:
a fisherman turned guerilla, and the mandolin-playing Captain Corelli, a reluctant Italian officer
on the island. Louis de Bernieres Loyalties and betrayals are featured, and the use of duplicity
and disinformation to sway events and thus history resonates with events today. Moderated by Audrey
October 10
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
A lonely young woman works in a boys' prison outside Boston in the early 1960s while also caring
for an alcoholic father. Decades later she narrates the events of her last week in her home town,
where she had stagnated. She has an unusual personality, and she also has an unusual relationship
with her workplace, where she is pulled into a very strange crime. Moderated by Tricia
November 14
The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan
One family’s tale becomes the story of a nation. A Syrian mother, a Lebanese father, and three
American children: all have lived a life of migration. They’ve always had their ancestral home in
Beirut as a constant touchstone, but a family patriarch decides to sell. That man’s decision brings
the family to Beirut in a fight to save the house. Their own secrets ignite in a city smoldering with
the legacy of war, refugees, religious tension, and political protest. Moderated by Corinne