Award Winners TALK Series “Award Winners” Book Descriptions Adult Summer Book TALK Series Charming Billy by Alice McDermott Billy Lynch’s loved ones gathered at a Bronx bar to Sometimes, if all the right ELEMENTS come Book eulogize a great romantic. Their voices form Billy’s together, a great book is born. When a novel or Book tragic story, becoming a gentle homage to the lives in collection of stories wins a major national book Discussion their community fractured by grief, shattered by se- award, it can become the most widely read Nights: crets, and sustained by the dream of love. literary works of its day. National Book Award Winner (1998) 7:00 PM JOIN US for our Summer Reading Series. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier June 5 Book discussions will be lead by scholars from This novel tells an interwoven epic love story between several Kansas universities. June 26 Inman, a Confederate soldier, and the woman he loves, Ada. Frazier writes a gripping story of human connec- AWARD-WINNING BOOKS: July 10 July 31 tion during a defining ideological crossroads of Ameri- 1. June 5: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson July 31 can history. Discussion Leader: Bill Brown, Ks Wesleyan Univ. National Book Award Winner (1997) Pulitzer Prize (2005) Hesston National Book Critics Circle Award (2004) Public Library Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 2. June 26: Charming Billy by Alice McDermott Community Gilead is written as a letter from the aging John Ames Discussion Leader: Thomas Prasch, Washburn Room to his young son. It chronicles the lives of three gen- National Book Award Winner (1998) 300 N. Main erations of Ames men who took different approaches 3. July 10: Motherless Brooklyn by J. Lethem Hesston, KS to the same moral questions. Discussion Leader: Marilyn Klaus, KU National Book Critics Circle Award (1999) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize (2005) Everyone Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award 4. July 31: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier Welcome! (2004) Discussion Leader: Kevin Rabas, Emporia State National Book Award Winner (1997)

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem Book sets are available at the library. Lionel Essrog narrates this literary detective novel, centering on the death of mobster Frank Minna. Lionel For more information, contact the library at 620.327.4666 must comb the cityscape for answers, while negotiat- or [email protected] This series is sponsored by the ing the uncontrollable verbal acrobatics of his Kansas Tourette’s Syndrome in this amusing novel. Humanities Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award Council (1999)