The Second Tuesday of the Month at 7:00 pm Alton  Book Chat, established in 1999, is a library-sponsored book discussion  group that meets monthly in the Agnes Thompson Meeting Room (lower level  entrance), Gilman Library, 100 Main St., Alton, NH 03809 Unless  otherwise noted, meetings are held on the second Tuesday each month,  beginning at 7:00 pm.  Call the library at 875-2550 to reserve your copy  of the next book discussion title and get in on the fun!  

Where the Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owens

 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING PHENOMENON
More than 10 million copies sold worldwide
A Reese’s Book Club Pick
A Business Insider Defining Book of the Decade 

"I can't even express how much I love this book! I didn't want this story to end!"--Reese Witherspoon

"Painfully beautiful."--The New York Times Book Review

For  years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet  town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase  Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the  so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and  intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she  calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then  the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young  men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a  new life--until the unthinkable happens.

Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking  coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens  reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and  that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature  keeps. 

 Image and Synopsis by Amazon 

The Book of Longings

by Sue Monk Kidd

 “An extraordinary novel . . . a triumph of insight and storytelling.” —Associated Press

“A true masterpiece.” —Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed

An  extraordinary story set in the first century about a woman who finds  her voice and her destiny, from the celebrated number one New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings

In  her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an  audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts  to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy  family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and  ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in  furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and  silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect  that horrifies her. An encounter with eighteen-year-old Jesus changes  everything.

Their marriage evolves with love and conflict, humor  and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his  brothers, and their mother, Mary. Ana's pent-up longings intensify amid  the turbulent resistance to Rome's occupation of Israel, partially led  by her brother, Judas. She is sustained by her fearless aunt Yaltha, who  harbors a compelling secret. When Ana commits a brazen act that puts  her in peril, she flees to Alexandria, where startling revelations and  greater dangers unfold, and she finds refuge in unexpected surroundings.  Ana determines her fate during a stunning convergence of events  considered among the most impactful in human history.

Grounded in meticulous research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus's life that focuses on his humanity, The Book of Longings is  an inspiring, unforgettable account of one woman's bold struggle to  realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time,  place and culture devised to silence her. It is a triumph of  storytelling both timely and timeless, from a masterful writer at the  height of her powers. 

Image and Synopsis by Amazon

American Dirt

by Jeanine Cummins

 #1 New York Times Bestseller
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK

“Extraordinary.”
―Stephen King

“This book is not simply the great American novel; it’s the great novel of las Americas. It’s the great world novel! This is the international story of our times. Masterful.”
―Sandra Cisneros

También de este lado hay sueños. On this side, too, there are dreams.

Lydia  Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a  bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful  husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to  show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large,  fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they’ll never sell,  Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then  one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register  with a few books he would like to buy―two of them her favorites. Javier  is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When  Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of  their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and  eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from  their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into  migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia―trains that make their  way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier’s  reach doesn’t extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?

American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed. It is a literary achievement filled  with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page. It is one of the  most important books for our times.

Already being hailed as "a Grapes of Wrath for our times" and "a new American classic," Jeanine Cummins's American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope. 

 Image and Synopsis by Amazon 

We Must Be Brave

by Frances Liardet

 THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"A powerful story that proves how love itself requires courage." --Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing

Spanning World War II and the sweep of the twentieth century, We Must Be Brave explores the fierce love that we feel for our children and the power of  that love to endure. Beyond distance, beyond time, beyond life itself.

A woman. A war. The child who changed everything.

December  1940. As German bombs fall on Southampton, England during World War II,  the city's residents flee to the surrounding villages. In Upton  village, amid the chaos, newly married Ellen Parr finds a girl asleep,  unclaimed at the back of an empty bus. Little Pamela, it seems, is  entirely alone.

Ellen has always believed she does not want  children, but when she takes Pamela into her home, the child cracks open  the past Ellen thought she had escaped and the future she and her  husband Selwyn had dreamed for themselves. As the war rages on, love  grows where it was least expected, surprising them all. But with the end  of the fighting comes the realization that Pamela was never theirs to  keep. Spanning the sweep of the twentieth century, We Must Be Brave explores  the fierce love that we feel for our children and the power of that  love to endure. Beyond distance, beyond time, beyond life itself. 

 Image and Synopsis by Amazon 

Mrs.  Sherlock Holmes: 

The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female  Detective and 

the 1917 Missing Girl Case 

That Captivated a Nation

by Brad Ricca

Nominated for a 2018 Edgar Award in Best Fact Crime
Recipient of the ★ Kirkus Star, Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit
A 2017 True Crime Book for Summer, The New York Times Sunday Book Review

"An express train of a story." -Kirkus Reviews
"Heroic...her inspiring story demands a hearing." -The New York Times Sunday Book Review

Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells  the true story of Mrs. Grace Humiston, the detective and lawyer who  turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation's  greatest crime fighters during an era when women weren't even allowed to  vote. After graduating from N.Y.U. law school, Grace opened a legal  clinic in the city for low-income immigrant clients, and quickly  established a reputation as a fierce, but fair lawyer who was always on  the side of the disenfranchised.

Grace's  motto "Justice for those of limited means" led her to strange cases all  over the city, and eventually the world. From defending an innocent  giant on death row to investigating an island in Arkansas with a  terrible secret about slavery; from the warring halls of Congress to a  crumbling medieval tower in Italy, Grace solved crimes in-between  shopping at Bergdorf Goodman and being marked for death by the sinister  Black Hand. She defended a young wife who shot her would-be rapist and  fought the framing of a Baltimore black man at the mercy of a corrupt  police department. Known for dressing only in black, Grace was appointed  the first woman U.S. district attorney in history. And when a pretty  18-year-old girl named Ruth Cruger went missing on Valentine's Day in  New York, Grace took the case after  the police gave up. Grace  and her partner, the hard-boiled Hungarian detective Julius J. Kron,  navigated a dangerous mystery of secret boyfriends, two-faced  cops,underground tunnels, rumors of white slavery, and a mysterious pale  man-- in a desperate race against time to save Ruth. When she solved  the crime, she was made the first female consulting detective to the  NYPD.

But despite her many  successes in social and criminal justice, Grace began to see chilling  connections in the cases she had solved, leading to a final showdown  with her most fearsome adversary of all and one of the most powerful men  of the twentieth century.

This  is the first-ever literary biography of the singular woman the press  nicknamed after fiction's greatest detective. In the narrative tradition  of In Cold Blood and The Devil in the White City, her  poignant story unmasks unmistakable connections between missing  girls,the role of the media, and the real truth of crime stories. The  great mystery of Mrs. Sherlock Holmes -- and its haunting twist ending -- is how could one woman with so much power disappear so completely?

 Image and Synopsis by Amazon