The Rakow Readers Book Group is for readers interested in reading and discussing contemporary fiction and nonfiction. The group meets the fourth Monday of each month at 1:30 p.m. at the Rakow Branch. New members are always welcome! To join, please contact Susan Farnham via
or at 847-531-7271.
In the tradition of "City of Light" and "Fortune's Rocks" comes a stunning debut novel of one family's struggle, set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls. …More
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode. …More
In rural Wisconsin in 1909, Ralph Truitt stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. …More
The highly acclaimed "New York Times" bestseller--a selection of Oprah's Book Club(--is now available in paperback. When evangelist Nathan Price takes his family to the Belgian Congo in 1959, the seeds they plant bloom in tragic ways within the country's complex culture. …More
"Still Alice" is a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer's disease, written by a first-time author who holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience. Reminiscent of "A Beautiful Mind" and "Ordinary People," this work packs an emotional punch. …More
The bestselling author of "A Map of the World" and "The Book of Ruth" has written a sex comedy, and the world is a better place for it (Meg Wolitzer, author of "The Ten Year Nap"). …More
From a internationally best-selling, critically acclaimed author of four novels that have been called moving, hilarious, tender, superb, smart, honest, sweet, deft, and magnificent comes this newest novel. …More
From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past. …More
In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another. …More
In the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron comes Janze's hilarious and moving memoir about a woman who returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis. …More
The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways-and with unexpected consequences-in acclaimed author Dan Chaon's gripping, brilliantly written new novel. …More
