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Book Discussion Groups
January—March 2008
Best-sellers, classics, comedies,histories, memoirs, mysteries,romances and thrillers– whatever your favorite genre, library book discussion groups are a fun and thought-provoking way to share reading. Our regular book groups last one hour and are designed to let you participate at the level you wish. Ask questions, share your opinions or just listen to the conversation. Groups are hosted in all Chesterfield County public libraries and at a variety of times. One of the groups is sure to fit your schedule. Book discussion groups are a great way to turn reading into a social activity. Please join us in exploring a wide range of authors and styles. This guide lists all the books that will be discussed. Annotations are taken from “Books in Print.”
Annotations are taken from “Books in Print.“
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January |
| Russell, Mary Doria | FIC RUS |
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A Thread of Grace |
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It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum is learning Italian with a suitcase in her hand. She and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they hope to be safe at last, now that the Italians have broken with Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy is anything but peaceful, as it becomes overnight an open battleground among the Nazis, the Allies, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italian civilians trying to survive. |
| Wednesday Jan. 2 10:30 a.m. Chester Choices |
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| Brooks, Geraldine | FIC BRO |
| March |
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From the author of the international best-seller “Year of Wonders” comes a powerful love story set against the catastrophe of the Civil War. From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic “Little Women,” Brooks has taken the character of the absent father, March, and adds adult resonance to portray the moral complexity of war and a marriage tested by the demands of extreme idealism. |
| Monday Jan. 7 7 p.m. Meadowdale |
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| Mosley, Walter | FIC MOS |
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Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned |
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In each of the stories that comprise this richly brooding
novel, Socrates Fortlow, like his namesake, explores philosophical questions of morality in a world beset with crime, poverty, and racism. He is an unforgettable presence and his perceptions cast a glow of somber lyricism upon an often harsh world. Socrates is a creation of stunning originality; the book he inhabits is Walter Mosley’s most powerful and eloquent to date. |
| Wednesday Jan. 9 2 p.m. Ettrick-Matoaca |
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| Krakauer, Jon | 917.9804 K |
| Into the Wild |
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In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to a charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet and invented a life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. Jon Krakauer brings Chris McCandless’s uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows and illuminates it with meaning in this mesmerizing and heartbreaking tour de force. |
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Thursday Jan. 10 10:30 a.m. LaPrade Books and Bites |
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| Atkinson, Kate | FIC ATK |
| Behind the Scenes at the Museum |
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Moving with stark contrast between the coronation year celebrations and life in the trenches during the First World War, this debut novel tells the story of a family observed by one of its members. |
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Tuesday Jan. 15 7 p.m. Bon Air Book Talks |
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| Knowles, John | FIC KNO |
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A Separate Peace |
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Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, “A Separate Peace” is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world. |
| Wednesday Jan. 16 10:30 a.m. Midlothian Classics and Award Winners |
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| Fuller, Alexandra | 968.9104 F |
| Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood |
| In “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,” Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with visceral authenticity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. |
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Monday Jan. 21 7 p.m. Enon |
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| Krakauer, Jon | 917.9804 K |
| Into the Wild |
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In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to a charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet and invented a life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. Jon Krakauer brings Chris McCandless’s uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows and illuminates it with meaning in this mesmerizing and heartbreaking tour de force. |
| Wednesday Jan. 23 7:30 p.m. Midlothian
| | Powell, Julie | 641.5092 P884 |
| Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living |
| With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie Powell recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and saved her soul. |
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Thursday Jan. 24 11 a.m. Clover Hill |
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| Messud, Claire | FIC MES |
| The Emperor’s Children |
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This critically acclaimed comedy of manners sets three young college graduates adrift in the intellectual elite of NYC. Not finding the world quite what they expected upon graduation from Brown University, the three struggle to find traction in their lives. Messud’s witty and cutting look at post-911 Manhattan will delight readers looking for character-centered novels with elegant plotting and cultural observations. |
| Monday Jan. 28 1 p.m. Central Brown Bag Page Turners |
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| Kozak, Harley Jane | FIC KOZ |
| Dating Dead Men |
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“Dating Dead Men” will keep readers guessing until the final bullet is shot – and cheering for the irresistible Wollie as she makes her way out of confusion and into the welcoming embrace of Mr. Right. |
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Monday Jan. 28 7 p.m. LaPrade Chick Lit |
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February |
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| | Zusak, Markus | FIC ZUS |
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The Book Thief |
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Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s ground breaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist – books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. |
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Monday Feb. 4 7 p.m. Meadowdale |
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| Lahiri, Jhumpa | FIC LAH |
| The Namesake |
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“The Namesake” is a finely wrought deeply moving family drama that illuminates this acclaimed author’s signature themes: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the tangled ties between generations. “The Namesake” takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. |
| Wednesday Feb. 6 10:30 a.m. Chester Choices |
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| McEwan, Ian | FIC MCE |
| Saturday |
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From the pen of a master – the #1 bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of “Atonement” – comes an astonishing novel that captures the fine balance of happiness and the unforeseen threats that can destroy it. A brilliant, thrilling page-turner that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. “Saturday” is a masterful novel set within a single day in February 2003. |
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Wednesday Feb. 13 2 p.m. Ettrick-Matoaca |
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| Ishiguro, Kazuo | FIC ISH |
| Never Let Me Go |
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“Never Let Me Go” breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date. |
| Thursday Feb. 14 10:30 a.m. LaPrade Books and Bites |
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| Haddon, Mark | FIC HAD |
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A Spot of Bother |
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“A Spot of Bother” is Mark Haddon’s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved best-seller “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.” Here the madness literally of family life proves rich comic fodder for Haddon’s crackling prose and bittersweet insights into misdirected love. |
Monday Feb. 18 7 p.m. Enon
| Landvik, Lorna | FIC LAN |
| Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons |
| Sometimes life is like a bad waiter – it serves you exactly what you don’t want. The women of Freesia Court have come together at life’s table, fully convinced that there is nothing good coffee, delectable desserts, and a strong shoulder can’t fix. Laughter is the glue that holds them together –the foundation of a book group they call AWEB – Angry Wives Eating Bon Bons – an unofficial “club” that becomes much more. It becomes a lifeline. (Bring a copy of your favorite recipe and participate in our recipe exchange.) |
| Monday Feb. 18 7 p.m. LaPrade Chick Lit |
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| Faulkner, William | FIC FAU |
| The Sound and the Fury |
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First published in 1929, Faulkner created his “heart’s darling,” the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothers – the idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin and the monstrous Jason. |
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FIC FAU |
| As I Lay Dying |
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“As I Lay Dying” is the harrowing, darkly comic tale of the Bundren family’s trek across Mississippi to bury Addie, their wife and mother, as told by each of the family members – including Adie herself. |
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Tuesday Feb. 19 7 p.m. Bon Air Book Talks |
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| Richard, Russo | FIC RUS |
| Empire Falls |
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With “Empire Falls” Richard Russo cements his reputation as one of America’s most compelling and compassionate storytellers. Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles’ soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town – and seems to believe that “everything” includes Miles himself. In “Empire Falls” Richard Russo delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace. |
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Wednesday Feb. 20 10:30 a.m. Midlothian Classics and Award Winners |
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| Hornby, Nick | FIC HOR |
| About a Boy |
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If the fact that they were single mothers meant that gorgeous women (who would not ordinarily look twice at Will) were willing to date him, then Will had it made. Inventing a son got him into a single parents support group, but rather than a fabulous new sex life, he found someone else’s very real
son – a twelve-year-old with a lot to teach Will about being a grown up. |
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Monday Feb. 25 1 p.m. Central Brown Bag Page Turners |
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| Krauss, Nicole | FIC KRA |
| History of Love |
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Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he’s still alive. But life wasn’t always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn’t know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love. |
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Wednesday Feb. 27 7:30 p.m. Midlothian |
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| Gerritson, Tess | FIC GER |
| The Mephisto Club |
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Gerritson’s sixth thriller opens up with a cold case of satanic- tinged murder that quickly morphs into a modern-day serial killing spree. (Annotation by library staff.) |
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Thursday Feb. 28 11 a.m. Clover Hill |
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March |
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| | Chevalier, Tracy | FIC CHE |
| The Lady and the Unicorn |
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An extraordinary story exquisitely told, Chevalier’s “The Lady and the Unicorn” weaves history and fiction into a beautiful, timeless, and intriguing literary tapestry that rivals in grace and grandeur the masterpiece that inspired it. A tour de force of history and imagination, “The Lady and the Unicorn” is Tracy Chevalier’s answer to the mystery behind one of the art world’s great masterpieces, a set of bewitching medieval tapestries that hangs today in the Cluny Museum in Paris. They appear to portray the seduction of a unicorn, but the story behind their making is unknown until now. |
| Monday March 3 7 p.m. Meadowdale |
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| Smith, Zadie | FIC SMI |
| On Beauty |
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“On Beauty” is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture war, on both sides of the Atlantic, serve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith’s reputation as a major literary talent. |
| Wednesday March 5 10:30 a.m. Chester Choices |
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| Weiner, Jennifer | FIC WEI |
| Goodnight, Nobody |
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When a fellow mother is murdered, Kate finds that the unsolved mystery is one of the most interesting things to happen in Upchurch since her neighbors broke ground for a guest house and cracked their septic tank. Even though Kate’s husband and the police chief warn her that crime-fighting’s a job best left to professionals, she can’t let it go. So Kate launches an unofficial investigation – from 8:45 to 11:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, when her kids are in nursery school – with the help of her hilarious best friend, carpet heiress Janie Segal, and Evan McKenna, a former flame she thought she’d left behind in New York City. |
| Wednesday March 12 2 p.m. Ettrick-Matoaca |
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| Haddon, Mark | FIC HAD |
| A Spot of Bother |
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“A Spot of Bother” is Mark Haddon’s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved best-seller “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.” Here the madness literally of family life proves rich comic fodder for Haddon’s crackling prose and bittersweet insights into misdirected love. |
| Thursday March 13 10:30 a.m. LaPrade Books and Bites |
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| Smith, Lee | FIC SMI |
| On Agate Hill |
| Spanning half a century, “On Agate Hill” tells the story of a woman who risks everything to remain true to herself. It’s a novel of obsessive love, unexpected adventures, and luck – both good and bad. Like a ballad of the Old South, Molly Petree’s tale resonates with passion, humor, and drama. Lee Smith, a virtuoso of voice and vision, creates flesh-and-blood characters tempered with equal doses of comedy and tragedy. Like her popular and beloved novels “Oral History” and “Fair and Tender Ladies,” “On Agate Hill” is storytelling at its very best. |
| Monday March 17 7 p.m. Enon |
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| Weiner, Jennifer | FIC WEI |
| Good in Bed |
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For twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie Shapiro. Sure, her mother has come charging out of the closet, and her father has long since dropped out of her world. But she loves her friends, her rat terrier, Nifkin, and her job as pop culture reporter for The Philadelphia Examiner. She’s even made a tenuous peace with her plus-size body. But the day she opens up a national women’s magazine and sees the words “Loving a Larger Woman” above her ex-boyfriend’s byline, Cannie is plunged into misery ... and the most amazing year of her life. |
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Monday March 17 7 p.m. LaPrade Chick Lit |
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| Perez-Reverte, Arturo | FIC PER |
| The Nautical Chart |
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Coy is a sailor without a ship. Tanger Soto is a woman with an obsession to find the Dei Gloria, a ship sunk during the seventeenth century, and El Piloto is an old man with the sailboat
on which all three set out to seek their fortune together. Or
do they? |
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Tuesday March 18 7 p.m. Bon Air Book Talks |
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| Bradbury, Ray | FIC BRA |
| Fahrenheit 451 |
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Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper burns. “Fahrenheit 451” is a novel set in the (perhaps near) future when “firemen” burn books forbidden by a totalitarian “brave new world” regime. The hero, according to Ray Bradbury, is “a book burner who suddenly discovers that books are flesh-and-blood ideas and cry out silently when put to the torch.” Today, when libraries and schools in this country and all over the world are still “burning” certain books, “Fahrenheit 451” remains a brilliantly readable and suspenseful work of even greater impact and timeliness. |
| Wednesday March 19 10:30 a.m. Midlothian Classics and Award Winners |
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| Barrett, Andrea | FIC BAR |
| The Voyage of the Narwhal |
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Delving into the history of Arctic exploration, this book follows the crew and commander of a ship searching for the open polar sea, as seen through the eyes of a scholar-naturalist. |
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Monday March 24 1 p.m. Central Brown Bag Page Turners |
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| Coehlo, Paulo | FIC COE |
| The Alchemist: A Fable about Following Your Dream |
| This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the pyramids. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasures found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts. |
| Wednesday March 26 7:30 p.m. Midlothian |
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| Grisham, John | 345.02523 G |
| The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town |
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If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you. |
| Thursday March 27 11 a.m. Clover Hill |
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