Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Join the Friends of the High Library Book Club as they delve into Doris Kearns Goodwin's exploration of Lincoln's political genius. They meet on Wednesday, Sept. 24th at 7 pm in the Library Conference Room on the entrance level of the library.

Historian Goodwin took ten years to complete this work. She examines the leadership style of Lincoln as he worked with William H. Seward as secretary of state, Salmon P. Chase as secretary of the treasury and Edward Bates as attorney general. Each of these men were Lincoln's opponents for the Republican nomination in 1860. Lincoln turned personal and political competitors into allies for the sake of the greater good.

Come join the Friends and share your insights.

Suspension by Richard Crabbe

The Friends Book Club's newest reading selection is Suspension. This historical thriller centers around the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Here's a synopsis from Publishers Weekly.
"The saboteurs, led by former Civil War Capt. Thaddeus Sangree, view the bridge as a symbol of the North's moral corruption and misguided desire for unity. Sangree's own secret motivation is personal: his brother, Franklin, was killed at Gettysburg, and Sangree holds former Union Col. Washington Roebling responsible for his brother's death. Roebling's father designed the Brooklyn Bridge and the younger Roebling is its chief engineer. The scheme has been meticulously planned for years, with saboteurs obtaining jobs working on the bridge so they can understand its weak points. However, when they kill a bridge mason who has caught on to their plan, the murder attracts the attention of bulldog police detective Tom Braddock. Braddock sniffs out the plot through a combination of dogged pursuit, investigative cunning and the brute force that was common practice in 19th-century law enforcement."
(Nov.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Join the Friends on Wednesday, March 26th at 7pm in the High Library conference room for a lively discussion!

The Summer of a Dormouse by John Mortimer

The Friends Book Club continues to meet.

Next meeting is Wednesday, Feb. 27th in the High Library Conference Room at 7pm. The Friends meet on the 4th Wednesday of the month. They select books from Bestsellers, National Book Award winners, Classics and the lighter side.

This month's selection is written by John Mortimer who is a retired barrister and is the creator of Rumpole. The Friends have characterized this book as "how not to grow old graciously." This witty book is filled with entertaining tales about Mortimer's childhood years in England during World War I, travels in Morocco, travel filmmaking with Franco Zeffirelli, panhandlers in New York as well as serous concerns such as prison reform.

Enjoy the book, then enjoy the company of other readers. See you there.

Isabel Allende's House of Spirits

The Friends Book Club meets on the 4th Wednesday of the month in the High Library Conference Room. Join them on Sept. 26th at 7pm as they discuss Isabel Allende's "House of the Spirits."

Here's a quick book review from Amazon. "In it, she chronicles the life of a family, as the patriarch grows from a child to an elder, with the world changing all around him while he tries to keep it the same. Through the lenses of the Trueba family, we follow the portion of Chilean history that eventually leads to the 1973 coup. Of course, the author is niece of Salvador Allende, the socialist president democratically elected that was removed from power and killed by Pinochet."

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch

Library Journal describes this book as "farce, philosophy, madness, melodrama. " Originally published in 1978 by Iris Murdoch, who has been described as one of the best British woman novelists, The Sea, The Sea displays much inventive writing, tortuous plots and tangled relationships between a number of characters.

Meet at 7pm on Feb 28th in the Library Director's Conference room on the entrance level of the High Library.

Tell us at the meeting or on the blog, what you're ideas were about this book.

Questions? Contact John Bacon at 717-367-2689.