** Face masks are optional  **

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!  

 The Midnight Library: A Novel

by Matt Haig

 The New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon
 

Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year
 

"A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits."—The Washington Post

The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book.
 
Somewhere  out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an  infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One  tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the  other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at  any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have  been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for  yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library,  Matt Haig's enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced  with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for  a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups,  realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within  herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is  truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first  place. 

 Image and Synopsis by Amazon 

 The Storyteller's Secret: A Novel 

by Sejal Badani 

 An Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller.

From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream.

Nothing  prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third  miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake.  Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to  uncover answers to her family’s past.

Intoxicated by the sights,  smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the  culture. But it is Ravi―her grandmother’s former servant and trusted  confidant―who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic  fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation.  Through her courageous grandmother’s arrestingly romantic and  heart-wrenching story, Jaya discovers the legacy bequeathed to her and a  strength that, until now, she never knew was possible.

 Image and Synopsis by Amazon 

 The  Wife Upstairs : A Novel 

by Rachel Hawkins  

  Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller

“Compulsively readable...a gothic thriller laced with arsenic.” ––EW

One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021: CNN • Newsweek • Vulture • PopSugar • Parade • BuzzFeed • E!Online • TimeOut • Woman's Day • Goodreads • She Reads • Good Housekeeping • CrimeReads • Frolic • Hello! • Mystery and Suspense

January 2021 Indie Next Pick and #1 LibraryReads Pick

A delicious twist on a Gothic classic, The Wife Upstairs pairs Southern charm with atmospheric domestic suspense, perfect for fans of B.A. Paris and Megan Miranda.

Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker  in Thornfield Estates – a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs,  and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if  Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.

But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester.  Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident.  His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend,  their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in  Eddie––not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer  her the kind of protection she’s always yearned for.

Yet as  Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the  legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story,  who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she,  plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her  past – or his – catches up to her?

With delicious suspense, incisive wit, and a fresh, feminist sensibility, The Wife Upstairs flips  the script on a timeless tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised  attraction, and a wife who just won’t stay buried. In this vivid  reimagining of one of literature’s most twisted love triangles, which  Mrs. Rochester will get her happy ending? 

 Image and Synopsis by Amazon 

 The  Witness : A Novel 

by Sandra Brown  

  After stumbling upon a chilling small-town secret in South Carolina, a  determined public defender must protect herself -- and her young son --  from those who want them dead.

Kendall Deaton pulls herself  and her baby out of a wrecked car, and a mixture of courage and fear  gets her to the top of a ravine, where she flags down help. But she  doesn't dare reveal her true identity to the authorities. Instead, she  plans her immediate escape, and her perilous flight begins.

 Kendall, the best public defender in Prosper, South Carolina, has  stumbled upon a chilling town secret, turning her marriage to one of  Prosper's most powerful men into a living hell. Now Kendall is a  terrified mother trying to save her child's life, a reluctant witness  who knows too much about an insidious evil . . . and a woman surrounded  by forces that will stop at nothing to protect what is "theirs." 

 Image and Synopsis by Amazon