Book Event

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Past Meets Present


The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett

Retired antiquarian bookseller Peter Byerly has withdrawn from his life and has fled to England after the death of his beloved wife.  One day he wanders into a bookstore and discovers, in the pages of an eighteenth-century study of Shakespeare forgeries, a Victorian watercolor portrait of a woman who strongly resembles his dead wife.  Searching for the origins of this painting he stumbles upon a rare manuscript and soon finds himself in danger.  On the run, he tries to authenticate the work that may answer the age old question –did Shakespeare write the plays credited to him?



The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer

After her twin brother dies from AIDS and her lover leaves her for another woman, Greta Wells is depressed.   Undergoing electroshock therapy she finds the procedure has a shocking side effect. After each treatment she awakes in a different time period- 1918, 1941 and the present - and in each time period she lives a different life with different struggles, losses and joys.  As she becomes more involved in these alternate lives, she tries to make changes and starts to wonder - which life should she choose for her own?



The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan

 In the Artic, Kate Philo makes an extraordinary find -a man who has been frozen since the early 1900s. Erastus Carthage who has had success in reanimating small sea creatures brings the man back to life despite being unable to keep his previous subjects alive for longer than twelve days. This amazing event causes a media frenzy and has wide ranging implications in the political, religious and scientific communities.  Meanwhile the frozen man wakes and learns about his new world, protected by Dr. Philo who sees him as a human being not a scientific specimen.  As the clock ticks downs, as protests increase, as relationships develop and as accusations of fraud begin to fly - what will happen to this man from the past?