The Lanpher Library hosts a book discussion on the third Tuesday of each month from 6:30-8:00. The discussions are free and all are welcome to join us.
Copies of the book are available for loan in advance at the Lanpher Library and are due back on or before the evening of the discussion.
Participants take turns choosing the book and facilitating the discussion. Light refreshments are also the responsibility of the person who chose the book.
Copies of the book are available for loan in advance at the Lanpher Library and are due back on or before the evening of the discussion.
Participants take turns choosing the book and facilitating the discussion. Light refreshments are also the responsibility of the person who chose the book.
September 17, 2019 Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds
Selected as the 2019 Northern Vermont University Johnson's Common Read
A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE
Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he?
As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator?
Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.
And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator.
Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.
Selected as the 2019 Northern Vermont University Johnson's Common Read
A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE
Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he?
As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator?
Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.
And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator.
Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.
Past discussion titles include:
August 2019 I Liked My Life, by Abby Fabiaschi
July 2019 The Women in the Castle, by Jessica Shattuck
June 2019 Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
May 2019 Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders
April 2019 The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka
March 2019, An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
February 2019 The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
January 2019 March: Book 1, by John Lewis
November 2018: Women and Power, by Mary Beard
October 2018: Educated, by Tara Westover
September 2018 The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware
August 2018 The Girl with Seven Names, by Hyonseo Lee
July 2018 An Address in Amsterdam, by Mary Dungee Fillmore
June 2018: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows
May 2018: Doc, by Mary Doria Russell
April 2018: Maisie Dobbs, by Jaqueline Winspear
March 2018: Bread and Roses Too, by Katherine Paterson (VT READS 2018)
February 2018: Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
January 2018 Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See
Nobember 2017 A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
October 2017 Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline
Septbember 2017 Transatlantic, by Colum McCann
August 2017 Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
July 2017 Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
June 2017 Tribe, by Sebastian Junger
May 2017 A Long Way Home, by Saroo Brierly
April 2017 The Grass Harp, by Truman Capote
March 2017 Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
February 2017: Brown Girl Dreaming , by Jaqueline Woodson (VT READS 2017)
December 2016/January 2017: The Thornbirds, by Colleen McCullough
November 2016: The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, by Jan-Philipp Sendker
October 2016: Not a Wasted Breath, by LaRecea Taylor Gibbs
September 2016, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, by Laurie R. King
August 2016, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, by John Valliant
July 2016, A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Iriving
June 2016, Goodbye for Now, by Laurie Frankel
May 2016 A Slant of Light, by Jeffrey Lent
April 2016 H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
March 2016 Too Late the Phalarope, by Alan Paton
February 2016 Three Can Keep a Secret, by Archer Mayor
January 2016, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
December 2015, The All of It, by Jeannette Haien
November 2015 The Professor's House, by Willa Cather
October 2015: Water Witches, by Chris Bohjalian
September 2015: Naked, by David Sedaris
August 2015 Watership Down, by Richard Adams
July 2015: Postmistress, by Sara Blake
June 2015: Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie (VT Reads 2015)
May 2015: October Light, by John Gardner
April 2015: The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford
March 2015: White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
February 2015: A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley
January 2015: The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson
December 2014: Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi
November 2014 The Proving Ground, by G. Bruce Knecht
October 2014: The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho
September 2014: Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
August 2014: A Stranger in the Kingdom, by Howard Frank Mosher
July 2014 Wonder, by R.J. Palacio (VT Reads 2014)
June 2014: Daisy Miller, by Henry James
May 2014: Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee
April 2014: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang
March 2014: Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder
February 2014: The Lives of Girls and Women, by Alice Munro
January 2014: The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
December 2013: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, by Dai SiJie
November 2013: A Study in Scarlett, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
October 2013: When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro
September 2013: The Last Telegraph, by Liz Trenow
August 2013: My Antonia, by Willa Cather
July 2013: Secret Daughter, by Shipli Somaya
May 2013: The Terra Cotta Dog, by Andrea Camillieri
April 2013: The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
March 2013: Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem
February 2013: Coyote Wisdom, by Lewis Mahl Madrone
January 2013: The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve
2012 Titles:
Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom
To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Wolf
Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
Bull Run, by Paul Fliechman
Skinwalkers, by Tony Hillerman
The Water is Wide, by Pat Conroy
August 2019 I Liked My Life, by Abby Fabiaschi
July 2019 The Women in the Castle, by Jessica Shattuck
June 2019 Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
May 2019 Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders
April 2019 The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka
March 2019, An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
February 2019 The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
January 2019 March: Book 1, by John Lewis
November 2018: Women and Power, by Mary Beard
October 2018: Educated, by Tara Westover
September 2018 The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware
August 2018 The Girl with Seven Names, by Hyonseo Lee
July 2018 An Address in Amsterdam, by Mary Dungee Fillmore
June 2018: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows
May 2018: Doc, by Mary Doria Russell
April 2018: Maisie Dobbs, by Jaqueline Winspear
March 2018: Bread and Roses Too, by Katherine Paterson (VT READS 2018)
February 2018: Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
January 2018 Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See
Nobember 2017 A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
October 2017 Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline
Septbember 2017 Transatlantic, by Colum McCann
August 2017 Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
July 2017 Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
June 2017 Tribe, by Sebastian Junger
May 2017 A Long Way Home, by Saroo Brierly
April 2017 The Grass Harp, by Truman Capote
March 2017 Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
February 2017: Brown Girl Dreaming , by Jaqueline Woodson (VT READS 2017)
December 2016/January 2017: The Thornbirds, by Colleen McCullough
November 2016: The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, by Jan-Philipp Sendker
October 2016: Not a Wasted Breath, by LaRecea Taylor Gibbs
September 2016, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, by Laurie R. King
August 2016, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, by John Valliant
July 2016, A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Iriving
June 2016, Goodbye for Now, by Laurie Frankel
May 2016 A Slant of Light, by Jeffrey Lent
April 2016 H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
March 2016 Too Late the Phalarope, by Alan Paton
February 2016 Three Can Keep a Secret, by Archer Mayor
January 2016, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
December 2015, The All of It, by Jeannette Haien
November 2015 The Professor's House, by Willa Cather
October 2015: Water Witches, by Chris Bohjalian
September 2015: Naked, by David Sedaris
August 2015 Watership Down, by Richard Adams
July 2015: Postmistress, by Sara Blake
June 2015: Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie (VT Reads 2015)
May 2015: October Light, by John Gardner
April 2015: The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford
March 2015: White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
February 2015: A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley
January 2015: The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson
December 2014: Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi
November 2014 The Proving Ground, by G. Bruce Knecht
October 2014: The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho
September 2014: Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
August 2014: A Stranger in the Kingdom, by Howard Frank Mosher
July 2014 Wonder, by R.J. Palacio (VT Reads 2014)
June 2014: Daisy Miller, by Henry James
May 2014: Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee
April 2014: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang
March 2014: Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder
February 2014: The Lives of Girls and Women, by Alice Munro
January 2014: The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
December 2013: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, by Dai SiJie
November 2013: A Study in Scarlett, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
October 2013: When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro
September 2013: The Last Telegraph, by Liz Trenow
August 2013: My Antonia, by Willa Cather
July 2013: Secret Daughter, by Shipli Somaya
May 2013: The Terra Cotta Dog, by Andrea Camillieri
April 2013: The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
March 2013: Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem
February 2013: Coyote Wisdom, by Lewis Mahl Madrone
January 2013: The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve
2012 Titles:
Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom
To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Wolf
Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
Bull Run, by Paul Fliechman
Skinwalkers, by Tony Hillerman
The Water is Wide, by Pat Conroy