Book Discussion Group
The Book Discussion Group members select, read, and discuss 9-10 books per year. All are welcome whether you’ve read the book or not and the program is FREE. Refreshments are provided and the books are available through the Newport Beach Public Library.
September 11, 2024
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Amor Towles’ latest is a compulsively readable joyride. Set in 1954, with the country on the brink of major change, this Great American Road Novel follows four boys, three fresh from a juvenile reformatory, as they set out in an old Studebaker in pursuit of a better future. Their route from Nebraska to New York is filled with unexpected twists, turns, detours and close encounters. This is a quest novel, and its large cast – not all of whom are heroic – settle scores as they seek to find their way home.
October 9, 2024
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” is a classic American novel that follows the journey of a young boy named Huck Finn as he escapes from his abusive father and travels down the Mississippi River. Alongside his companion, Jim, a runaway slave, Huck encounters a series of adventures that challenge his moral beliefs and societal norms. The novel, set in the pre-Civil War South, serves as a powerful critique of racism and slavery, while also celebrating the themes of friendship, freedom, and the quest for personal identity.
November 13, 2024
James by Percival Everett
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place, Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
December 11, 2024
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams
This clever first novel is a beguiling dual love story about how language and people intersect and connect – the joy of lex. A century apart, two lexicographers beaver away in London on the same unfinished Encyclopedic Dictionary. Peter Winceworth, stuck working on the S’s in 1899, rues the English language’s lamentable gaps, and has a habit of fabricating words that might fill them, such as “procrastinattering” about the weather. A hundred years later, an intern named Mallory is hired to update definitions and weed out any bogus entries, aka Mountweazels. The intertwining plotlines build to an explosive climax that raises questions about the instability of language, how words gain currency, and whether fake words are any less real than actual words.
January 8, 2025
Solito: Home, Identity, and the Immigrant Experience by Javier Zamora
Poet Javier Zamora tells his childhood story of living in a tiny village with his grandparents and cousins, but without his parents – they escaped El Salvador’s crushing civil war to cross into “La USA”. His parents promise they are saving up to send for him. When they do, Javi leaves his beloved family with the (false) promise that the coyote they’ve paid will look after him. “Solito” is the story of Javier’s 3,000-mile journey to the U.S. and the people who help him along the way. It’s all told in a 9-year-old’s voice, in language that is gorgeous and poetic.
February 12, 2025
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
Zomorod (Cindy) Yousefzadeh is the new kid on the block . . . for the fourth time. California’s Newport Beach is her family’s latest perch, and she’s determined to shuck her brainy loner persona and start afresh with a new Brady Bunch name—Cindy. It’s the late 1970s and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S. headlines with protests, revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages. A poignant yet lighthearted YA debut from the author of the best-selling “Funny in Farsi”.
March 12, 2025
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
A profound, startling, and beautifully crafted novel. “The Sympathizer’ is the story of the captain of south Vietnamese army: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, “The Sympathizer’ explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.
April 9, 2025
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for a Chicago art gallery, is about to pull off a coup, bringing an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDs epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. Yale and Fiona’s intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of 80’s and the chaos of the modern world, as both struggles to find goodness amid disaster.
May 14, 2025
The Book of Goose: A Novel by Yiyun Li
In her latest book, the story revolves around two poverty-stricken teenage girls in post-World War II France who embark on a literary hoax. The outcome surprises both the characters and the readers. Fabienne is dead. Her childhood friend, Agnès, receives this news in America, far from their rural French upbringing where Fabienne once helped Agnès escape a decade earlier. With the freedom to share her tale, Agnès recalls their childhood bond in a war-torn town, where they created a world of their own. Fabienne’s transformative idea sets Agnès on a journey of fame, fortune, and profound sorrow.
About Book Discussion Group
The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation (NBPLF) created the Book Discussion Group in 1996 and it was under the stellar leadership of volunteer, educator, and poet, Charlotte “Charlie” Alexander that it blossomed. Intellectually curious, insightful, and entertaining, Charlie inspired people to open their minds and hearts through reading. Rich Alexander, Charlie’s husband for 44 years, said she believed in the power of books to change people’s lives.
Reading History
Click here for a PDF of the complete history of the Book Discussions Group’s titles
Program details:
- Second Wednesday of the month
- 9:30am – 11:00am
- Friends Room at the Central Library (IN-PERSON EVENT)
- Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave, Newport Beach CA 92660
- Free admission (suggested $10 donation) and refreshments
The upcoming construction of Witte Hall will temporarily disrupt parking in the main lot of the Central Library with limited spaces available. There are additional parking located in the Civic Center parking structure.
Questions?
Contact Director of Programs Kunga Wangmo at 949-717-3818 or programs@nbplf.foundation
The Book Discussion Group program is made possible by the members of the NBPL Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Please join the Foundation today to support this and all of the Foundation’s programming. If you have questions about membership contact the NBPLF at info@nbplf.foundation or call 949-717-3892.