What we're reading right now

by Lori Lansens

Sutton Book Club's choice for September. Read The Girls then come tell us what you thought of it at our next meeting: Tuesday, September 26th 7:30pm Peter Gzowski Library, Sutton. Did I mention you could win a prize for signing out The Girls?

The girls are Rose and Ruby Darlen, the oldest surviving craniopagus twins (joined at the head) who are jointly writing the story of their lives as a brain aneurysm threatens to cut their lives short. From a near-idyllic upbringing on a small Ontario farm with the loving couple who adopted them, to a near-normal childhood and a young adulthood working in the local library (Rose shelves books and Ruby reads to children), they have been accepted as their community mascots. Told with warmth and humour, this rich story should find its way into the hearts of all readers.


















Keswick Book Club's Choice for October. Have you read this fascinating book? Have an opinion you'd like to share? Come out to the Keswick Library on Tuesday, October 31st at 7pm and have your say!

Amir and Hassan are childhood friends in the alleys and orchards of Kabul in the sunny days before the invasion of the Soviet army and Afghanistan’s decent into fanaticism. Both motherless, they grow up as close as brothers, but their fates, they know, are to be different. Amir’s father is a wealthy merchant; Hassan’s father is his manservant. Amir belongs to the ruling caste of Pashtuns, Hassan to the despised Hazaras.This fragile idyll is broken by the mounting ethnic, religious, and political tensions that begin to tear Afghanistan apart. An unspeakable assault on Hassan by a gang of local boys tears the friends apart; Amir has witnessed his friend’s torment, but is too afraid to intercede. Plunged into self-loathing, Amir conspires to have Hassan and his father turned out of the household.When the Soviets invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father flee to San Francisco, leaving Hassan and his father to a pitiless fate. Only years later will Amir have an opportunity to redeem himself by returning to Afghanistan to begin to repay the debt long owed to the man who should have been his brother.Compelling, heartrending, and etched with details of a history never before told in fiction, The Kite Runner is a story of the ways in which we’re damned by our moral failures, and of the extravagant cost of redemption.


Pefferlaw Book Club is reading The Alchemist. A fantastic story of struggle and romance. Come discuss The Alchemist at our October meeting!

Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired millions of delighted readers around the world. This story, dazzling in its simplicity and wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who ventures from his homeland in Spain to North Africa in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a beautiful, young gypsy woman, a man who calls himself a king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is or if Santiago can surmount the obstacles along the way through the desert. But what starts out as a boyish adventure to discover exotic places and worldly wealth turns into a quest for the treasures only found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, Santiago's story is an eternal testament to following our dreams and listening to our hearts.