Santa Has a Surprise for You!

A new RTG kit!--A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. In a review, Janet Maslin of the New York Times has this to say:

Ms. Egan uses goon as a synonym for time, as in: "Time’s a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?" Taking some of her inspiration from Proust’s "In Search of Lost Time" as well as some from "The Sopranos," she creates a set of characters with assorted links to the music business and lets time have its way with them. Virtually no one in this elaborately convoluted book winds up the better for wear. But Ms. Egan can be such a piercingly astute storyteller that the exhilaration of reading her outweighs the bleak destinies she describes.

A Visit from the Goon Squad author, Jennifer Egan, was the winner of a Pulitzer Prize in April. And, it was announced that A Visit from the Goon Squad will be made into an HBO series in near future!

The kit is hosted by the Keene Public Library and is available on a first come, first served basis. Keene is hosting three kits and has decided that taking advance reservations doesn't work for the library. Please call Gail Zachariah at 352-0157 if you have questions.

Image courtesy Open Clip Art Library.

One More Kit!

Due to a generous grant by New Hampshire Library Association, READS-TO-GO has another title to offer! It's Room by Emma Donoghue.

If you haven't heard about Room, it's the story of a young woman who was abducted and held capture for years. The woman has had a child by her abductor and she tries, to the best of her ability, to raise him in one small room.

To say this is a discussable book is an understatement! It should result in many thought provoking sessions around the state!

The kit is being hosted by the Lincoln Public Library. Call Carol Riley at 745-8159 to book the kit for your group.

Announcing...

The Emperor's Guest: Coming of Age Behind Barbed Wire During WW II in Indonesia by Titia Bozuwa, is now a kit. Titia Bozuwa gives a riveting account of her husband Gijs's WW II experiences. Gijs, whose father was Commander of the Royal Dutch Air Force in the Dutch East Indies, is separated from his family and interned with adults where he remains for the duration of the war.

This kit is sponsored by Gafney Library in Sanbornville. Titia Bozuwa is a New Hampshire resident and is happy to speak to library groups! Contact Beryl Donovan at Gafney Library, 522-3401, to arrange to borrow the kit, or to be put in contact with the author.

We're On a Roll!

We have three new READS-TO-GO kits! Today I'm going to be announcing only two of those kits because I'm awaiting official notification from the hosting library of the third.

Without further ado:

French, Tana. Faithful Place.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Canaan Town Library and hosted at the Canaan Town Library. Call Amy Thurber at 523-9650.

Janet Maslin in a New York Times review commented, "Perhaps Ms. French’s training as an actor at Trinity College contributes to her three-dimensional characterizations of every last person in this book."





Waldman, Ayelet. Red Hook Road.

Sponsored through a generous grant from New Hampshire Library Association and hosted at the Madison Library. Call Mary Cronin at 367-8545.

Novelist Pat Conroy had this to say, "It took me out of my home on the coast of South Carolina, placed me in the town along Red Hook Road, and changed me the way good books always do."

--Diane

Our Mission Statement

There was a bit of discussion today on our Facebook page about our mission statement. We discovered that it isn't posted on the blog, so without further ado, here it is:

READS-TO-GO is a program of the Reference and Adult Services (READS) section of New Hampshire Library Association.

Its mission is to provide kits of highly discussable, recently published books. Kits include books and other materials necessary to assist adult book discussion groups throughout the state, and the libraries that serve them.

--Diane