Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell

HWPL Readers  Book Discussion

on Zoom

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

at 2:00 PM

 Click Here to Join in the Discussion

REQUEST THE BOOK

Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare's most enigmatic play, HAMNET is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.

Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.

Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.

THE VANISHING HALF, BY BRIT BENNETT

 

Book Discussion On The 

Long Island Reads 2021 

Award-Winning Novel

Wednesday April 28 

at 2:00 PM

LINK FOR ZOOM DISCUSSION

READING GUIDE

REQUEST THE BOOK

JOIN LIVE AUTHOR EVENT WITH

BRIT BENNETT

SUNDAY APRIL 11, 2021 AT 

For Free Eventbrite Tickets visit 

http://tiny.cc/LIRApril11Event

THE PULL OF THE STARS, BY EMMA DONOGHUE

 

Zoom Book Discussion on

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

at 2:00 PM

REQUEST BOOK

Access the Discussion

through the Events Calendar at www.hwpl.org

In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders -- Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police , and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.

In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other's lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.

In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue (Room) once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds. 

 

The Exiles, by Christina Baker Kline

HWPL READERS BOOK DISCUSSION 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2021 

AT 2:00 PM

JOIN US ON ZOOM

REQUEST THE BOOK 

 

 

 Christina Baker Kline (The Orphan Train) recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the nineteenth century story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom. Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.

---

• 
  

Monogamy, by Sue Miller

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

at 2:00 PM

Book Discussion on Zoom

Zoom Link for Discussion 

RESERVE THE BOOK

Graham and Annie have been married for almost thirty years, a loving, successful marriage. Graham is a bookseller, and a large man in every sense – big as a bear, gregarious, a lover of life and the host of frequent, lively parties at the home he shares with Annie. At the moment the narrative begins, Graham has had a short, impulsive affair, one he regrets almost instantly and is determined to end.

Annie is smaller, more reserved, maybe more unknowable, something her daughter Sarah has accused her of in her adolescence. She’s a photographer, about to have her first show in five years, anxious that her best years professionally may be behind her. 

Graham’s sudden death and Annie’s discovery of his infidelity propel the action of the book, which traces her in her pain and confusion; and follows also the others affected by Graham’s death – his first wife, Frieda, and Lucas, his son with her; as well as Sarah, Graham and Annie’s child together. 

This is a novel about marriage, then, and loss. About family, and the secrets they keep from one another. About the transformative power of memory, and the triumph of love over death itself. 

 

CIRCE, BY MADELINE MILLER

ZOOM BOOK DISCUSSION

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 16, 2020 

AT 2:00 PM

REQUEST THE BOOK

A retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch, whose  commanding  narrates Miller's  dazzling second novel. The writer returns to Homer, the wellspring that led her to an Orange Prize for The Song of Achilles (2012). This time, she dips into The Odyssey for the legend of Circe , a nymph who turns Odysseus' crew of men into pigs. The novel, with its distinctive feminist tang, starts with the sentence: "When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist." (from Kirkus)

THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE: A SAGA OF CHURCHILL, FAMILY, AND DEFIANCE DURING THE BLITZ, BY ERIK LARSON

JOIN OUR ONLINE DISCUSSION

REQUEST THE BOOK

LINK TO OUR ZOOM DISCUSSION FROM THE EVENTS CALENDAR

AT WWW.HWPL.ORG

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 18th

AT 2:00 PM

 

On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally--and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports--some released only recently--Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill's "Secret Circle," to whom he turns in the hardest moments.  (www.penguinrandomhouse.com)