SOCRATES CAFE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1 @ 7:30PM

Come then and join the latest topical discussion.

HADDASSAH BOOK CLUB
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6 @ 7:00PM
THE LOST WIFE
by Alyson Richman

A rapturous new novel of first love in a time of war-from the celebrated author of "The Last Van Gogh."

In pre-war Prague, the dreams of two young lovers are shattered when they are separated by the Nazi invasion. Then, decades later, thousands of miles away in New York, there's an inescapable glance of recognition between two strangers. Providence is giving Lenka and Josef one more chance. From the glamorous ease of life in Prague before the Occupation, to the horrors of Nazi Europe, "The Lost Wife" explores the power of first love, the resilience of the human spirit- and the strength of memory.

NEW HORROR BOOK CLUB
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 @ 7:00PM
A PRAYER FOR THE DYING
by Stewart O'Nan

Set in Friendship, Wisconsin, just after the Civil War, "A Prayer for the Dying" tells of a horrible epidemic that has gripped the town in a vise of fear and death. Dark, poetic, and chilling, it makes one consider if it's possible to be a good man in a time of madness.

QUEER BOOK CLUB
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15 @ 7:00PM
PORTRAIT OF A MARRIAGE
by Nigel Nicolson

Vita Sackville-West, novelist, poet, and biographer, is best known as the friend of Virginia Woolf, who transformed her into an androgynous time-traveler in "Orlando".

The story of Sackville-West's marriage to Harold Nicolson is one of intrigue and bewilderment. In "Portrait of a Marriage", their son Nigel combines his mother's memoir with his own explanations and what he learned from their many letters. Even during her various love affairs with women, Vita maintained a loving marriage with Harold.

"Portrait of a Marriage" presents an often misunderstood but always fascinating couple.

"Portrait of a Marriage" is as close to a cry from the heart as anybody writing in English in our time has come, and it is a cry that, once heard, is not likely ever to be forgotten. . . . Unexpected and astonishing."
--Brendan Gill, "New Yorker"

"The charm of this book lies in the elegance of its narration, the taste with which their son has managed to convey the real, enduring quality of his parents' love for each other."
--Doris Grumbach, "New Republic"

TUESDAY AFTERNOON BOOK CLUB
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28 @ 1:30PM
HALF BROKE HORSES: A True-Life Novel
by Jeannette Walls

Walls reimagines the life of her grandmother, Lily Casey, who by age six was helping her father break horses. At 15, she left home to teach in a frontier town--riding 500 miles on her pony to get to her post. She le...arned to drive a car, fly a plane, and with her husband, managed a vast ranch in Arizona, surviving tornadoes, droughts, floods, and the Great Depression.

Publisher Comments

"Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls's no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town--riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one who is Jeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in "The Glass Castle."

Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds--against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn't fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. "Half Broke Horses" is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen's "Out of Africa" or Beryl Markham's "West with the Night."