The author signings, in-house book clubs and other events shown below are free and open to the public.
The Bookworm offers in-house book clubs that you can attend when the featured books fit your interests and schedule. Readers receive a 20% book club discount on the books selected for discussion. The Bookworm provides facilitators to help lead the discussions for many of the in-house book clubs. If you have suggestions for groups, or are willing to facilitate discussions, please let us know.
Why buy books in your local independent bookstore?
- You may be about to make a purchase you'll value for the rest of your life
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- You'll be helping create local jobs
- You might just find a book you never knew existed
- You'll find great gifts for friends and family
- You can talk to real people about books they know and love
- You'll be part of your local book-loving community
Wednesday, September 19 / 2 p.m. | A Read Around the World Pop Up Group will meet for three months. The September book for discussion is Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Grand Central, $15.99). In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant-and that her lover is married-she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.
Thursday, September 20 / 6:00 p.m. | Marie Lu will sign Wildcard (Putnam, $18.99). Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo's new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she's always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side. Determined to put a stop to Hideo's grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone's put a bounty on Emika's head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn't all that he seems--and his protection comes at a price. Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?
Thursday, September 20/ 6 p.m. | The World War II At Night Group will discuss Rising Sun, Falling Skies: The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II by Jeffrey Cox (Osprey, $14.95). Few events have ever shaken a country in the way that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor affected the United States. After the devastating attack, Japanese forces continued to overwhelm the Allies, attacking Malaya with its fortress of Singapore, and taking resource-rich islands in the Pacific - Borneo, Sumatra, and Java - in their own blitzkrieg offensive. Allied losses in these early months after America's entry into the war were great, and among the most devastating were those suffered during the Java Sea Campaign, where a small group of Americans, British, Dutch, and Australians were isolated in the Far East - and directly in the path of the Japanese onslaught. It was to be the first major sea battle of World War II in the Pacific.
Thursday, September 20 / 6:30 p.m. | The As the Worm Turns Book Group will discuss Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor (Plume, $16.00). At 28, Jessica Fechtor was happily immersed in graduate school and her marriage, and thinking about starting a family. Then one day, she went for a run and an aneurysm burst in her brain. She nearly died. She lost her sense of smell, the sight in her left eye, and was forced to the sidelines of the life she loved. Jessica's journey to recovery began in the kitchen as soon as she was able to stand at the stovetop and stir. There, she drew strength from the restorative power of cooking and baking. Written with intelligence, humor, and warmth, Stir is a heartfelt examination of what it means to nourish and be nourished. Woven throughout the narrative are 27 recipes for dishes that comfort and delight. Betsy Von Kerens will facilitate the discussion.
Saturday, September 22 / 10 a.m. | Omaha author Paula Wallace will sign her newest picture book, Mr. Reginald and the Bunnies (Pomegranate, $17.95). Spend the day with three rambunctious bunnies as they romp through the quiet life of their uncle, Mr. Reginald—who likes things just so—and his perfectly tidy neighbor, Mrs. Paddock. Full of sweet mischief, the youngsters bumble and tumble while the adults mumble and grumble through a chaotic spring holiday. With whimsical illustrations and read-aloud giggles galore, Mr. Reginald and the Bunnies celebrates childhood (bunny slippers for everyone!) while gently reminding us that sometimes it’s okay when things are not just so.
Saturday, September 22 / 10 a.m. | The American History Book Club will discuss Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History by Brian Kilmeade (Sentinel, $9.99). When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, pirates from North Africa's Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford. As a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco) and found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion justified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims. These rogue states would show no mercy--at least not while easy money could be made by extorting the Western powers. So President Jefferson moved beyond diplomacy and sent the U.S. Navy's new warships and a detachment of Marines to blockade Tripoli--launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America's journey toward future superpower status.
Sunday, September 23 / 1 p.m. | William Kent Krueger will sign Desolation Mountain (Atria, $26.00). When Stephen O'Connor experiences the vision of a great bird shot from the sky, he knows something terrible is about to happen. The crash of a private plane on Desolation Mountain in a remote part of the Iron Lake Reservation, which kills a United States senator and most of her family, confirms Stephen's worst fears. Stephen joins his father, Cork O'Connor and a few Ojibwe men from the nearby Iron Lake reservation to sift through the smoldering wreckage when the FBI arrives and quickly assumes control of the situation. As he initiates his own probe, Cork O'Connor stumbles upon a familiar face in Bo Thorson, a private security consultant whose unnamed clients have hired him to look quietly into the cause of the crash. In that far north Minnesota County, Cork, Stephen, and Bo attempt to navigate a perilous course. Roadblocked by lies from the highest levels of government, uncertain who to trust, and facing growing threats the deeper they dig for answers, the three men finally understand that to get to the truth, they will have to face the great menace, a beast of true evil lurking in the woods--a beast with a murderous intent of unimaginable scale.
Monday, September 24 / 2 p.m. | The World War II Book Group will discuss Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century by Alastair Horne (Harper, $16.99). From the 1905 Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War, to Hitler's 1941 bid to capture Moscow, to MacArthur's disastrous advance in Korea, to the French downfall at Dien Bien Phu, Horne shows how each of these battles was won or lost due to excessive hubris on one side or the other. Horne provides a meticulously detailed analysis of the ground maneuvers employed by the opposing armies in each battle. He also explores the strategic and psychological mindset of the military leaders involved to demonstrate how devastating combinations of human ambition and arrogance led to overreach. Making clear the danger of hubris in warfare, his insights hold resonant lessons for civilian and military leaders navigating today's complex global landscape.
Monday, September 24 / 6:30 p.m. | The Books To Die For Group will discuss The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster, $16.00). Iberia Parish Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux is deployed to New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina has left the commercial district and residential neighborhoods awash with looters and predators of every stripe. There is no law, no order, no sanctuary for the infirm, the helpless, and the innocent. Bodies float in the streets and lie impaled on the branches of flooded trees. In the midst of an apocalyptical nightmare, Robicheaux must find two serial rapists, a morphine-addicted priest, and a vigilante who may be more dangerous than the criminals looting the city.
Tuesday, September 25 / 6:30 p.m. | The Crime Through Time Book Group will discuss The Wicked Boy: An Infamous Murder in Victorian London by Kate Summerscale (Penguin, $17.00). In 1895, Robert Coombes (age 13) and his brother Nattie (age 12) were seen spending lavishly around the docklands of East London The boys told neighbors their mother was visiting family, but their aunt was suspicious. When she eventually forced the brothers to open the house to her, she found the badly decomposed body of their mother. Robert and Nattie were arrested for matricide and sent for trial. Robert confessed to having stabbed his mother, but his lawyers argued that he was insane. Nattie struck a plea and gave evidence against his brother. The judge sentenced the thirteen-year-old to detention in Broadmoor, the most infamous criminal lunatic asylum in the land. Broadmoor turned out to be the beginning of a new life for Robert--one that would have profoundly shocked anyone who thought they understood the Wicked Boy.
Wednesday, September 26 / 6 p.m. |The Mysterious Readers Book Group will discuss two books by Rhys Bowen:
Murphy’s Law (Minotaur, $16.99). Irish immigrant Molly Murphy flees her turn-of-the-century homeland after killing a person in self-defense. When a man is murdered on Ellis Island--a man Molly was seen arguing with--Molly pounds the notorious streets of Hell's Kitchen and the Lower East Side to find the killer and clear her name before her deadly past comes back to haunt her new future.
Death of Riley (Minotaur, $16.99). Molly Murphy sets off on a journey that will take her through the back alleys of Manhattan and into the bars and lounges of the literary scene, where she spends time with writers, actors, poets, and musicians. It's quite an eye-opening turn for innocent young Molly, but she's resolute in her decision to find out exactly what happened that day in the office of Paddy Riley. Armed with nothing more than her fiery will and matching wild red hair, Molly has no idea of the danger her pursuit may bring.
Thursday, September 27 / 6 p.m. | The Philosophy Book Discussion Group will continue their discussion of Aristotle: The Desire to Understand by Jonathan Lear (Cambridge University Press, $34.99). This is a philosophical introduction to Aristotle, and Professor Lear starts where Aristotle himself started. He introduces us to the essence of Aristotle's philosophy and guides us through all the central Aristotelian texts--selected from the Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, Politics and the biological and logical works. The book is written in a direct, lucid style that engages the reader with the themes in an active
Saturday, September 29 / 10 to 11:30 a.m. | Saturday Storytime at The Bookworm - The Children's Department hosts Saturday Storytime on the last Saturday of the month. Teachers from local schools will read their favorite books of the season. Readers this Saturday will be Helen Wisler from Millard Public Schools, Tami Jensen, retired from Papillion La Vista Community Schools and Kim Dutiel from Omaha Public Schools. Join us one and all.
Saturday, September 29 / 1 p.m. | Irish American Writers & Artists: The Spoken from Ireland and Irish America featuring Drucilla Wall, Bob Churchill, Todd Robinson, Eamonn Wall, and others to be announced. Poetry will be on Irish/Irish American Themes and as well as entertain seek to promote the work of Irish American Writers & Artists Inc., an organization to promote the involvement of the Irish American in the Arts.
Sunday, September 30 / 1 p.m. | Todd Robinson and Miles Waggener will sign their works of poetry.
Todd’s most recent work is Mass for Shut-Ins ($16.00, Backwaters Press). The poems in Mass for Shut-Ins are galloping and all-at-once pensive. There's always risk with a touch of ego and humanity. The emotional range of a single poem can go from hilarity to remorse to bravado. These poems speak to being human and alive and work with both vivid imagery and philosophical ruminations. Mass for Shut-Ins is a lament for wounded love, a celebration of recovery, an elegy for innocence, and an ode to hope.
Miles is the author of four poetry collections: Phoenix Suites, Sky Harbor, Desert Center, and most recently Superstition Freeway ($17.00). “Retrace the paths. Name what/you can. . . .” sings one of the luminous chorus of voices – obsessive, grieving, sometimes darkly funny – animating Miles Waggener’s newest collection, and such is the soul-making work at the heart of these evocative, masterfully crafted lyrics. Passionate and wise, Superstition Freeway is a beautiful book.” --Susan Aizenberg
Sunday, September 30 / 3:30 p.m. | Dr. Jody Neathery-Castro, Chair of the Department of Political Science at UNO, and Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, Professor of Political Science and the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at UNO, will lead a discussion centered on the concepts in On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder ($8.95). The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Dr. Neathery-Castro will highlight lessons #2 - Defend institutions, #11 -Investigate, and #16 - Learn from peers in other countries. Dr. Benjamin-Alvarado will focus on lessons. # 5 -Remember professional ethics, #16 – Learn from peers in other countries, and #18 – Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. We're looking forward to a lively discussion.
Monday, October 1 / 6:30 p.m. | The Lit Wits Group will discuss Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Signet, $5.95). The story of Victor Frankenstein and the monstrous creature he created has held readers spellbound ever since it was published two centuries ago. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting horror; but on a more profound level, it offers searching illumination of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a monster brought to life in an alien world, ever more desperately attempting to escape the torture of his solitude..
Tuesday, October 2 / 6:30 p.m. | The Killing Time Book Group will discuss The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon (Grove, $16.00). Fifteen years ago, a teenage girl fell into a canal late at night. Unable to swim, she went under and started to drown. She survived thanks to a nearby man, an alcoholic, who heard her splashes and pulled her out, though not before she suffered irreparable brain damage that left her unable to learn or mature. The drunk man claimed he saw her thrown into the canal, but the following day he couldn't remember a thing. Now a wealthy and aristocratic patroness--the girl's grandmother--asks Brunetti if he will investigate. Brunetti's not sure what to do. If a crime was committed, the criminal surely would be protected by the statute of limitations. But out of a mixture of curiosity, pity, and a willingness to fulfill the wishes of a guilt-wracked older woman, Brunetti agrees.
Wednesday, October 3 / Noon - 1 p.m. | What Are You Reading? book chat. Join us to chat about favorite reads, books that changed your life, or the book you just couldn’t put down. No need to make reservations--just come and enjoy a little conversation about books. Carol Lynch facilitates the discussions.
Thursday, October 4 / 6:30 p.m. | The Notable Novellas group will discuss The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (Oxford University Press, $9.95). The War of the Worlds, published in 1897, describes the coming of the Martians, who land in Woking, and make their way remorselessly towards the capital, wreaking chaos, death, and destruction. The novel is closely associated with anxiety about a possible invasion of Great Britain at the turn of the century, and concerns about imperial expansion and its impact, and it drew on the latest astronomical knowledge to imagine a desert planet, Mars, turning to Earth for its future. The Martians are also evolutionarily superior to mankind.
Saturday, October 6 / 11 a.m. | The Biography Discussion Group will discuss Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King (Picador, $17.00). Coretta Scott King was an American civil rights activist, international human rights champion, and author, the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. and a mother of four. Born in 1927 in Alabama, she died in 2006 in Mexico.
Saturday, October 6 / 1 p.m. | Adrian Koesters will sign Union Square ($15.99). In the Union Square neighborhood of Baltimore, 1952 will in fact mark the beginning of what will4 come to be known as The Great Decline. Grand three-story row houses, old money and stature frame the setting for descendants of European immigrants and slaves who exist side-by-side. But in a community already marked by violence, alcoholism, and lurking poverty, young Irish boxer Paddy Dolan personifies the shadow that lies over much of a city where religious tensions, racial hatred, and sexual violence work to make monsters. A tale of damnation and redemption, the sacred and the profane, Union Square is also a story of deep humor and characters who will not soon be forgotten.
Sunday, October 7 / 1 p.m. | Oliver B. Pollak will sign Welcome to Omaha (Arcadia, $21.99). Millions of people traveling America's railroads and highways passed through Omaha, breaking for an overnight stay. At the end of the day, the traveler's experience was in the hands of transportation workers, hoteliers, and restaurateurs who promise comfort, food, and safety. Omaha's hospitality industry offerings ranged from the modest Scandinavian Young Women's Christian Association and the Hotel Harley bachelor lodgings to the lofty Fontenelle and Blackstone Hotels. The resilient Paxton has been a fixture since 1882. Visitors to Omaha took in the bright lights and culture, documenting their impressions on postcards that picture the city's hotels, restaurants, train depots, bridges, and weather events.
Tuesday, October 9 / 6 p.m. | Bestselling author Ransom Riggs will sign A Map of Days: The Fourth Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children (Dutton, $22.99). Having defeated the monstrous threat that nearly destroyed the peculiar world, Jacob Portman is back where his story began, in Florida. Except now Miss Peregrine, Emma, and his peculiar friends are with him, and doing their best to blend in. But carefree days of beach visits and normalling lessons are soon interrupted by a discovery—a subterranean bunker that belonged to Jacob’s grandfather, Abe. Clues to Abe’s double-life as a peculiar operative start to emerge, secrets long hidden in plain sight. And Jacob begins to learn about the dangerous legacy he has inherited—truths that were part of him long before he walked into Miss Peregrine’s time loop. Now, the stakes are higher than ever as Jacob and his friends are thrust into the untamed landscape of American peculiardom—a world with few rules—that none of them understand. All new wonders, and dangers, await in this brilliant new chapter for Miss Peregrine’s peculiar children.
Wednesday, October 10 / 6:30 p.m. | The Wednesday Bookworms will discuss The Last Castle: The Story of Love, Loss and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home by Denise Kiernan (Touchstone, $17.00). Edith Stuyvesant Dresser grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House. Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore--and secure the future of the region and her husband's legacy.
Thursday, October 11 / 6 p.m. | Amiable Adult Readers Discussing Books Almost Always Read by Kids (Aardbaark) will discuss The November Girl by Lydia Kang ($9.99). A few months before his eighteenth birthday, Hector runs away to the remote Isle Royale on Lake Superior. In the spring, when he’ll be legally free from his brutal uncle, he can go back to the mainland. Until then, he’ll have to weather the vicious autumn storms and find a way to survive the hostile, uninhabited island.
Thursday, October 11 / 6 p.m. | The Philosophy Book Discussion Group selection is pending.
Sunday, October 14 / 11 a.m. | The Books and Bagels book group will discuss The Ghost & Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick (Vintage, $14.95). Burdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg. Through the struggles of supporting her children, seeking out romance from the wrong places, and working to publish the captain's story as a book, Lucy finds in her secret relationship with Captain Gregg a comfort and blossoming love she never could have predicted.
Monday, October 15 / 6:30 | The Droids and Dragons Book Club will discuss Writers of the Future Volume 34: The Best New Sci Fi and Fantasy Short Stories of the Year (Galaxy, $15.95). Presenting this year's collection of fresh voices, fabulous worlds, and fantastic new characters. Each year, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests blue-ribbon judges search the world to discover and introduce to you the very best new talent in sci-fi and fantasy.
Tuesday, October 16 / 6 p.m. | Dan Scanlan will sign and discuss How to Play Ukulele: A Complete Guide for Beginners (Adams, $13.99). With just this book and your ukulele in hand, you'll learn basic music skills, how to care for your instrument, and how to play some simple tunes. Whether you're looking to impress your friends with spontaneous singalongs, or just want to strum solo, How to Play Ukulele is the perfect entryway to the wonderful world of ukulele.
Wednesday, October 17 / 2 p.m. | A Read Around the World Pop Up Group will meet for three months. The October book for discussion is Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum (New York Review, $16.95). A grand hotel in the center of 1920s Berlin serves as a microcosm of the modern world. Among the guests of the hotel is Dr. Otternschlag, a World War I veteran whose face has been sliced in half by a shell. Grusinskaya is a great ballerina now fighting a losing battle not so much against age as against her fear of it, and Gaigern is a sleek professional thief, who may or may not be made for each other. Herr Preysing is the director of a family firm that isn't as flourishing as it appears, and Kringelein is his underling, a timorous petty clerk he's bullied for years.
Thursday, October 18 / 6 p.m. | The World War II At Night Group will discuss Browned Off and Bloody-Minded: The British Soldier Goes to War 1939-1945 by Alan Allport (Yale, $25.00). More than three-and-a-half million men served in the British Army during the Second World War, the vast majority of them civilians. Allport's examines the experience of the war from the perspective of these men, who were plucked from their peacetime families and workplaces and sent to fight for King and Country. Allport chronicles the huge diversity of their wartime trajectories, tracing how soldiers responded to and were shaped by their years with the British Army, and how that army had to accommodate itself to them. He provides an enlightening perspective on how a generation of young men responded to the challenges of a brutal and disorienting conflict.
Thursday, October 18 / 6:30 p.m. | The As the Worm Turns Book Group will discuss You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Alexie Sherman (Back Bay, $16.99). Sherman Alexie's bond with his mother Lillian was more complex than most. She plunged her family into chaos with a drinking habit, but shed her addiction when it was on the brink of costing her everything. She survived a violent past, but created an elaborate facade to hide the truth. She selflessly cared for strangers, but was often incapable of showering her children with the affection that they so desperately craved. She wanted a better life for her son, but it was only by leaving her behind that he could hope to achieve it. It's these contradictions that fills his memoir with raw, angry, funny, profane, tender memories of a childhood few can imagine, much less survive. Jackie Byers will facilitate the discussion.
Saturday, October 20 / 11 a.m. | Bruce Haas will sign Great Game!: D1 College Hockey: People, Places, Perspectives ($29.95). Bruce Haas has captured the passion men's Division 1 college hockey incites through interviews with former players, coaches, officials, and fans, presenting their perspectives on everything from team camaraderie and leadership to how officials approach calling a game. Coaches talk about their role in developing young men, former players discuss what it's like to win the NCAA tournament, and fans provide stories and insights on why they love the game so much. Great Game! gives readers a variety of perspectives in a way few sports books have done before.
Saturday, October 20 / 3 p.m. | The Literature by People of Color Group selection is pending.
Monday, October 22 / 2 p.m. | The World War II Book Group will discuss Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis by Tim Townsend (Morrow, $17.99). U.S. Army Chaplain Henry Gerecke was sent to Nuremberg to minister to the twenty-one imprisoned Nazi leaders awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. Mission at Nuremberg takes us deep inside the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, into the cells of the accused and the courtroom where they answered to the world for their crimes. These twenty-one Nazis had sat at Hitler's right hand; Hermann Goering, Albert Speer, Wilhelm Keitel, Hans Frank, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner were the orchestrators, and in some cases the direct perpetrators, of the most methodical genocide in history.
Monday, October 22 / 6:30 p.m. | The Books To Die For Group will discuss Cover Her Face by P. D. James (Touchstone, $16.00). Sally Jupp was a sly and sensuous young woman who used her body and her brains to make her way up the social ladder. Now she lies across her bed with dark bruises from a strangler's fingers forever marring her lily-white throat. Someone has decided that the wages of sin should be death...and it is up to Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to find who that someone is. Cover Her Face is P.D. James' delightful debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.
Tuesday, October 23 / 6:30 p.m. | The Crime Through Time Book Group will discuss The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (Penguin, $12.00). Rumors abound that a ghost stalks the dark passages and cellars of the Paris Opera House. No one has actually seen this Phantom, but Christine Daaé, a beautiful and talented young singer, has heard his voice. He is her "Angel of Music," coaching her to sing as she never could before. When the handsome Viscount begins to court Christine, the mysterious Phantom-consumed by jealousy-rises up to seek revenge.
Wednesday, October 24 / 6 p.m. |The Mysterious Readers Book Group will discuss For the Love of Mike by Rhys Bowen (Minotaur, $16.99). Having inherited the cases of her deceased mentor Paddy Reilly, private investigator Molly Murphy is following philandering husbands, tracking down runaway debutantes and working in a sweatshop to discover who is purloining dress designs. Then a woman's body is fished out of the East River and Molly fears it is the missing society girl everyone is talking about. Then Molly's sometimes beau, police captain Daniel Sullivan, reveals that another corpse may be the girl's cheating lover, Mike Kelly.
Thursday, October 25 / 2 p.m. | Cather and Friends reads and discusses the work of Willa Cather, her contemporaries, and fellow Nebraskans. Tea will be served, so bring your favorite cup. Please call 402-392-2877 to register or sign up at the store. Willa’s book for October discussion is O Pioneers! (Vintage, $10.00). Alexandra Bergson, a young Swedish immigrant girl who inherits her father's farm and must transform it from raw prairie into a prosperous enterprise, is the first of Cather's great heroines--all of them women of strong will and an even stronger desire to overcome adversity and succeed. Willa Cather, perhaps more than any other American writer, was able to re-create the real drama of the pioneers, capturing for later generations a time, a place, and a spirit that has become part of our national heritage.
Thursday, October 25 / 6 p.m. | The Philosophy Book Discussion Group selection is pending.
Saturday, October 27 / 10 a.m. | The American History Book Club will discuss Reconstruction: A Concise History by Allen Guelzo (Oxford University Press, $18.95). Guelzo delves into the constitutional, political, and social issues behind Reconstruction to provide a lucid and original account of a historical moment that left an indelible mark on American social fabric. He depicts Reconstruction as a "bourgeois revolution" -- as the attempted extension of the free-labor ideology embodied by Lincoln and the Republican Party to what was perceived as a Southern region gone awry from the Founders' intention in the pursuit of Romantic aristocracy.
