The Middlebury Public Library is looking ahead to December as a month for readers to travel to different countries and states through book club picks and related titles. As Jhumpa Lahiri said, “That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”
The Brown Bag Book Discussion choice for December is “A Well-Tempered Heart” by Jan-Philipp Sendker. In this spirited sequel to “The Art of Hearing Heartbeats,” Julia, a middle-aged disgruntled and disillusioned American lawyer, travels back to her father’s native country, Burma, to find and renew herself.
Shortly after she breaks up with her boyfriend, Julia begins to hear voices in her head. One voice, a woman named Nu Nu, refuses to disappear and begins to ask the questions Julia was trying to avoid – why, who and what do you want from your life? Sendker takes the reader on an inspiring and passionate journey through the human heart.
If you enjoy that book, you may enjoy “Saving Fish from Drowning” by Amy Tan. Bibi Chen, an art lover from San Francisco, has planned a journey of a lifetime to Burma for 11 lucky friends. Bibi mysteriously dies prior to their trip, but her friends still embark on the planned trip along the famed Burma Road.
High upon her ghostly perch, Bibi watches as her friends veer from the intended path and their tourist cruise disappears on a misty lake. Through the watchful eye of Bibi, Tan takes the reader on a journey of human experiences and a place in our own heart where hope can be found.
The library’s Mystery Book Group book for December is “Malice In Maggody” by Joan Hess. This is the first book in the Sheriff Arly Hanks series. Sheriff Hanks is the spunkiest, most appealing, off-beat sleuth around.
When a neighboring town receives a permit from the EPA to build a sewage processing plant that would empty into Boone Creek, the residents of Maggody, Ark., (population 755) are determined to stop it in order to save their popular fishing hole. Sheriff Hanks and her deputy, Paulie, set out on a hilarious, hell-raising chase through the back woods in search of a stolen dog, a kidnapped EPA official and the murderer of a local barmaid.
If you like entertaining mysteries, Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series) writes another fun and interesting series about a young woman named Harper Connelly. After being struck by lightning, Harper is able to locate dead bodies as well as see their last moments alive through the eyes of the deceased. In the first book in the series, “Grave Sight,” Harper and her step-brother travel to a small town in the Ozark Mountains to find a missing teenage girl and end up unraveling a network of murders and lies.
The library offers book groups for readers of all ages. For information about book groups for younger readers, please visit the library or its website middleburypubliclibrary.org.
