The Noon Book Group meets at the Springfield City Library, 220 State Street in the lower level Community Room on the second Tuesday of each month from noon to 1:00 p.m. Newcomers are always welcome. Ask for a copy of the book at the Second Level (Rotunda) Circulation Desk. Copies of each book are kept at the desk during the month prior to the selection discussion.

For further information, contact Chris at 413-263-6828 ext. 442 or email: ckasputis@springfieldlibrary.org.

Reading Selections for 2012

January 10 – My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira 2010 (fiction)

Traveling to civil War-era Washington, D.C. , to tend wounded soldiers and pursue her dream of becoming a surgeon, headstrong midwife Mary receives guidance from two smitten doctors and resists her mother's pleas for her to return home.

February 14 – Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay 2010 (fiction)

Former Bolshoi ballerina Nina Revskaya auctions off her jewelry collection and becomes overwhelmed by memories of her homeland, the friends she left behind amidst Stalinist aggression, and the dark secret that brought her to a new life in Boston.

March 13 – Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland 2011 (fiction)

Hoping to honor his father and the family business with innovative glass designs, Louis Comfort Tiffany launches the iconic Tiffany lamp as designed by women's division head Clara Driscoll, who struggles with the mass production of her creations.

April 10 – When the Killing's Done by T.C. Boyle 2011 (fiction)

Traces an incrementally violent confrontation between a National Park Service biologist who would eradicate invasive wildlife on the Channel Islands and two locals who are fiercely opposed to the killing of any creatures.

May 8 – The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon 2011 (fiction)

A novel about a woman who can't speak, a man who is deaf, and a widow who finds herself suddenly caring for a newborn baby.

June 12 – Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks 2011 (fiction)

In 1660 on Martha's Vineyard in the settlement of Great Harbor, fifteen-year-old Bethia Mayfield lives with her pastor father; her brother, Makepeace; and her sister, Solace. She yearns after an education that is closed to her by her gender.

July 10 – Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller 2011 (memoir)

This is a candid, heartfelt, and humorous memoir from the author. This follow-up to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight tells the story of her parents. Her mother was born on a Scottish island and raised in Kenya, while her father, Tim, endured an impoverished childhood in England. They move from country to country but finally return to their African homeland.

August 14 – City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris 2010 (fiction)

After the body of a brutally beaten woman is found on a beach in Saudi Arabia, Detective Osama Ibrahim, along with the help of female coroner Katya and her friend Nayir, discovers that the victim was a controversial filmmaker and must discern who wanted her dead.

September 11 – Last Man in Tower by Aravind Adiga 2011 (fiction)

Refusing to leave his home when a powerful real-estate developer offers to buy out the residents of a crumbling apartment complex near the infamous Dharavi slums, a retired schoolteacher becomes a target of violence by the developer and his own neighbors.

October 9 - (to be announced)

November 13 – The Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne 2006 (fiction)

Thanksgiving at the New England home of the second of three sisters marks a reunion between the three Fiske sisters and their long-estranged father, in a portrait of the unraveling of a family.

December 11 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 2008 (fiction)

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.