La Crescent Public’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2022)

La Crescent Public’s comments from the La Crescent Public Library group.

Join us in a community wide readalong! The 2022 Driftless Regional Read is Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver! Enjoy book discussions and programming on Climate Change and the Driftless Region. Find the full schedule of programs at http://driftlessregionalread.com

Attend a book discussion if you can! Here are the upcoming book chats and locations.

September 14th, 10:00am - La Crosse Public Library
September 19th, 10:00am - La Crescent Public Library
September 29th, 6:00pm - La Crosse Public Library

October 16th, 1:30pm - La Crosse Public Library
October 25th, 6:00pm - La Crosse Public Library

November 17th, 7:00pm - La Crosse Public Library, via Zoom (Part of B.Y.O.B. - Bring Your Own Book Discussion)

1. What challenges does The Curious Incident present to the ways we usually think and talk about characters in novels? How does it force us to reexamine our normal ideas about love and desire, which are often the driving forces in fiction? Since Mark Haddon has chosen to make us see the world through Christopher's eyes, what does he help us discover about ourselves?

2. Christopher's conversations with Siobhan, his teacher at school, are possibly his most meaningful communications with another person. What are these conversations like, and how do they compare with his conversations with his father and his mother?

Join us for our Book Club on July 18th at 10am at the library or discuss online in the chat! This month, we're reading The Sentence by Louise Erdrich!

Discussion Questions:

1. Discuss the character Tookie and how she changes over the course of the novel.

2. "The Sentence asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book." What do you think of this statement?

Join us in person at the library on Monday, June 20th or discuss online here! What did you think of The Bone Clocks? Here are a few questions to get started.

1. David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks begins in 1984 with sixteen-year-old Holly Sykes running away from home in a fit of rage over her mother’s refusal to let her move in with a man she loves and then finding that man in bed with her best friend. Did the opening of the book grip you? How did you feel about Holly?

2. While on the road Holly meets a very old woman who asks her if she will give her refuge if she needs it. She says yes and unknowingly makes herself a key player in a century’s old battle between the good Atemporals and the evil Anchorites. The Atemporals are immortal through their ability to transport their spirit into a human’s form without changing or damaging the human and the Anchorites do so by stealing the souls from young children. What did you make of these supernatural beings? How soon did you catch on to what was happening? Were there any standout clues as to their paranormal abilities?

Join us in person for book club discussion at the library on Monday, May 16th or in the chat below! Share what you thought of the book or respond to these suggested questions to get started.

1. What does the title “Truevine” convey? Do you think it’s an accurate depiction of the book? What role does its setting play in the story? What else might you have named the book?

2. The majority of what we learn about the Muse brothers comes from the write-ups around them, which focus on their albinism and their sideshow act. We get a very different impression from the stories told by family. By the end of the book, what did you think of George and Willie?

Join us in person for a book club discussion on Monday, April 18th at 10am. Or join us in the chat and tell us what you thought of William Kent Krueger's Lightning Strike! Here's some questions to get started...

1. The book begins with an older Cork O’Connor looking back on a childhood summer that changed his life. Do you have any similar experience of a pivotal moment when you were growing up that changed you, or an event that made you suddenly feel like more of an adult?

2. Why don’t the people on the reservation trust Liam’s conclusion that Big John’s death is a suicide? What is the history between the people who live on the reservation and those in law enforcement in Aurora? How does Dilsey, Liam’s mother-in-law, try to help connect Liam and the people on the reservation, and why does she get so frustrated with Liam?

Join us at the library for an in person book club discussion on Monday, March 21st at 10am, or you can join in the fun online by posting your responses to these starter discussion questions. What did you think of the book?

1. What do the living spaces in their various conditions throughout the novel suggest about the people living in them? Figuratively speaking, which foundations turn out to be solid, or precarious?

2. Mary Treat tells Thatcher that to be unsheltered is to live in daylight. What does she mean? What kinds of shelter do these characters crave, in their different centuries? How might sheltered lives --- or the craving for them --- become a hindrance?

3. Which of the many challenges confronting Willa are hers alone to bear, and why? What do you see as the foundation of her successful relationship with Iano? How has marriage changed, or not changed, since the time of Rose and Thatcher?

Karissa wrote: "We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins! Its such a cute little story."

That is the perfect picture book for a dinosaur storytime and one of our favorites too! Did you know there's a sequel called We Will Rock Our Classmates?

Find it in our catalogue here: https://selco.ent.sirsi.net/client/en...

Join us in person for book club on February 28th at 10am at the library, OR share your favorite parts (or not so favorite) below! You can also chime in (see what we did there?) using the following discussion questions to get started.

1. What does "the beautiful mystery" of the title refer to? What are the powers and/or limitations of music throughout the novel?

2. 2. As we get to know the inner workings of the monastery, how do you come to regard the community of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups and the individuals who choose to devote their lives to it?

Old World Murder is the first in the Chloe Ellefson Historic Sites Mystery series by Kathleen Ernst. Our in-person book club will be discussing it on Monday, January 24th at 10am. But anyone can join in online!

Here's a few questions to get started:

1. What was your first impression of Chloe? How did your perception of her change over the course of the book?

2. Roelke exhibits a strong tendency to protect those he cares about. How do you feel about his choices, and the way the women react?