The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today: 60 of the World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half Century

Here is a compilation of brief essays written by some of the finest minds in the current national and international arenas, in fields ranging from the sciences, to medicine, to religion, to economics, to politics and more. Many of these forecasts lean towards the optimistic, albeit with warnings to Earth’s present inhabitants that we need to clean up our act. Some of the predictions are quite believable while others verge on the fantastic. Nonagenarian Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes fame is the editor of this book and the de facto interviewer of the essayists.

Do Dead People Watch You Shower?: And Other Questions You've Been All But Dying To Ask A Medium

This handbook to life after death is authored by Concetta Bertoldi, a medium from New Jersey. The book is written in question and answer format, in a down-to-earth, humorous style; each chapter being one to two pages in length. Ms. Bertoldi discusses such topics as whether the dead are with us all the time, their activities, their physical appearance, and how we all cycle between visits to heaven and reincarnating into new lives. Whether or not you believe in the topic of life after death, you may enjoy this lighthearted read.

Everything Is Illuminated

In Everything is Illuminated, written by Jonathan Safran Foer, the novel’s author travels to the Ukraine in search of the woman that saved his family during the Holocaust. The author’s journey is narrated through the eyes of Alex, the Ukrainian man who is hired to assist Jonathan in his search. The novel is broken down into two separate story lines. The first part is the history of Jonathan’s family, written by Jonathan himself. The second is the travel log of Alex, who recounts his, Jonathan, and Alex’s grandfather’s journey through the Ukraine. This complex novel is both amusing and disturbing, with twists and turns that may leave the most astute reader questioning full comprehension.

Read -A-Likes: My Darling Elia by Eugenie Melnyk, Gotz and Meyer by David Albahari, Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Afternoon Book Discussions

Join us once a month, on a Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, to discuss a fiction or non-fiction book selection. Coffee, tea and cookies are served. Books are available at the Circulation Desk three weeks before the discussion date. Our schedule is:

Wednesday, July 16th
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Wednesday, August 20th
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
Wednesday, September 17th
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Wednesday, October 15th
Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Wednesday, November 19th
Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan
Wednesday, December 17th
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

Where Are You Now?

Mary Higgins Clark’s most recent light mystery is set in New York City where Charles MacKenzie Jr. disappeared ten years ago, just before his graduation from Columbia University. Since then, “Mack” phones his mother and younger sister Carolyn once a year, on Mother’s Day, to tell them that he is alright and that they should not try to find him. Carolyn, now a practicing lawyer, finally decides to bring closure for her mother and herself; she will investigate his disappearance on her own since the police and a private detective were not able to solve the case previously. Then, whether or not she does locate him, she and her mother will move on with their lives.
Carolyn becomes entangled with other missing person situations that might be connected to Mack’s circumstances. Does someone close to Carolyn know what happened to Mack? Is Mack’s former college roommate a potential romantic interest for Carolyn or is he Mack's kidnapper? Read this book and find out.

Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries

If you like your mysteries with a lot of supernatural flair, give Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse mysteries a try. Harris has created an interesting and amusing world, set in a small Louisiana town after Vampires have revealed they really are among us. The series heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, is a psychic, with a flair for getting in and out of trouble with a cast of various supernatural beings. These novels are fun and light, good beach reads. There are currently 8 novels in the Southern Vampire series, the first being "Dead Until Dark".

From Baghdad, With Love

From Baghdad, With Love, by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman with Melinda Roth, is the story of a marine who will stop at nothing to save "man's best friend" from war-torn Iraq. Lt. Col. Kopelman first met Lava, a stray puppy, in an abandoned house in Fallujah. Despite strict rules the U.S. military have against soldiers adopting pets or mascots, Lava is kept safe by Kopelman and a battalion of Marines. As his tour of duty nears an end, Kopelman attempts to transport Lava back to the U.S. A slew of accomplices are recruited to take on this challenge, including a U.S. news reporter, an Iraqi soldier and the pet food giant, Iams.
This story is both engaging and emotional. It is not only a tale of a man and his dog, but also an eye-opening account of the soldiers stationed in Iraq and the conditions under which they endure.