Book Event

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

January 21 @ 1 pm - Lunch 'N Books: Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

Join us on January 21 at 1:00 p.m. as we discuss Inheritance, a book about secrets—secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman’s urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment in which we live—a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.

Location: SAMANEA (The Former Source Mall), 1504 Old Country Road, Westbury, NY 11590

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

Discussion guide for Inheritance.

Monday, October 28, 2019

November 19 @ 7:30 pm - Evening Book Discussion: Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Join us on November 19 at 7:30 p.m. as we discuss Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. This novel is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling. The current continues to transport you through worlds both real and imagined, until the triumphant conclusion . . . whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

This event will be held at the East Meadow Jewish Center, 1400 Prospect Ave., East Meadow, NY 11554.

Discussion guide for Once Upon a River.

October 29 @ 7:30 pm - Evening Book Discussion: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Join us on October 29 at 7:30 p.m. as we discuss Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So, in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

This event will be held at the East Meadow Jewish Center, 1400 Prospect Ave., East Meadow, NY 11554.

Discussion guide for Where the Crawdads Sing.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

October 24 @ 1 pm - Lunch 'N Books: Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Join us on October 24 at 1:00 p.m. as we discuss Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. In the 1920s, after oil was discovered beneath their land, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. Many of those investigating the murders were assassinated. The FBI took up the investigation, and badly bungled the case. In desperation, the young J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. Together, with the Osage, they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Location: SAMANEA (The Former Source Mall), 1504 Old Country Road, Westbury, NY 11590

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

Discussion guide for Killers of the Flower Moon.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

September 17 @ 7:30 pm - Evening Book Discussion: The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

Join us on September 17 at 7:30 p.m. as we discuss The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck. The novel tells the story of three women, and their children, who take refuge in the ruins of a Bavarian castle at the end of World War II. The women are war widows - war resistance widows, really - whose husbands paid with their lives for the July 1944 plot against Adolf Hitler. Marianne has promised those who conspired with her husband that she would find and protect their families. But, the support the women give one another is tinged with regrets and guilt about their different pasts, and set against a deprivation for which the world has little sympathy

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

This event will be held at the East Meadow Jewish Center, 1400 Prospect Ave., East Meadow, NY 11554.

Discussion guide for The Women in the Castle.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

August 27 @ 7:30 pm - Evening Book Discussion: The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood

Join us on August 27 at 7:30 p.m. as we discuss The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood. Ava’s twenty-five-year marriage has fallen apart. Ava joins a book group, not only for her love of reading, but also out of sheer desperation for companionship. The group’s goal throughout the year is for each member to present the book that matters most to them. Ava rediscovers a mysterious book from her childhood—one that helped her through the traumas of the untimely deaths of her sister and mother. Ava’s mission to find that book and its enigmatic author, takes her on a quest that unravels the secrets of her past, and offers her the chance to remake her life.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

This event will be held at the East Meadow Jewish Center, 1400 Prospect Ave., East Meadow, NY 11554.

Discussion guide for The Book That Matters Most.

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

July 23 @ 7:30 pm - Evening Book Discussion: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Join us on July 23 at 7:30 p.m. as we discuss An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But, as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

This event will be held at the East Meadow Jewish Center, 1400 Prospect Ave., East Meadow, NY 11554.

Monday, June 10, 2019

June 18 @ 7:30 pm - Evening Book Discussion: A River of Stars by Vanessa Hua

Join us on June 18 at 7:30 p.m. as we discuss A River of Stars by Vanessa Hua. Holed up with other mothers-to-be in a secret maternity home in Los Angeles, Scarlett Chen is far from her native China, where she worked in a factory and fell in love with the married owner, Boss Yeung. Now she’s carrying his baby. To ensure that his first son has every advantage, Boss Yeung has shipped Scarlett off to give birth on American soil. Then a new sonogram of Scarlett’s baby reveals the unexpected. Panicked, she goes on the run by hijacking a van—only to discover that she has taken on a stowaway who intends to track down the father of her own child. The two flee to San Francisco’s bustling Chinatown, where Scarlett will join countless immigrants desperately trying to seize their piece of the American dream. What Scarlett doesn’t know is that her baby’s father is not far behind.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

This event will be held at the East Meadow Jewish Center, 1400 Prospect Ave., East Meadow, NY 11554.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

June 10 @ 1 pm - Lunch 'N Books: The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore

Join us on June 10 at 1:00 p.m. as we discuss The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore. New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history—and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer takes a case that seems impossible to win. His client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country? In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison.

Location: East Meadow Public Library, 1886 Front St., East Meadow, NY

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

Discussion guide for The Last Days of Night.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

May 21 @ 7:30 pm - Evening Book Discussion: Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak

Join us on May 21 at 7:30 p.m. as we discuss Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak. It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years, the Birch family will be under one roof. For the next week, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity and forced into each other’s orbits. Frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being immersed in first-world problems. As Andrew sequesters himself in his study, writing scathing restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole family upside down. But nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive .

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

Discussion guide for Seven Days of Us.

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

May 14 @ 1 pm - Lunch 'N Books: Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

Join us on May 14 at 1:00 p.m. as we discuss Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou. In 2014, Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos founder and CEO, was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood testing significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn’t work.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

Friday, April 5, 2019

April 23 at 7:00 p.m. - Book Discussion/Author Skype: The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis

Join us on April 23 at 7:00 p.m. as we discuss The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis. The author will join us by Skype!

In her latest captivating novel, national best-selling author Fiona Davis takes readers into the glamorous lost art school within Grand Central Terminal, where two very different women, fifty years apart, strive to make their mark on a world set against them.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

Discussion guide for The Masterpiece.

Thursday, March 21, 2019

April 4th at 1:00 p.m. - Lunch 'N Books/Long Island Reads: The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

Join us on April 4 at 1:00 p.m. as we discuss The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer. Charming and wise, knowing and witty, Meg Wolitzer delivers a novel about power and influence, ego and loyalty, womanhood and ambition. At its heart, The Female Persuasion is about the flame we all believe is flickering inside of us, waiting to be seen and fanned by the right person at the right time. It’s a story about the people who guide and the people who follow (and how those roles evolve over time), and the desire within all of us to be pulled into the light.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

Saturday, March 2, 2019

March 18th at 1:00 p.m. - Lunch 'N Books: The Library Book by Susan Orlean

The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Join us on March 18 at 1:00 p.m. as we discuss The Library Book by Susan Orlean. On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous; it reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains. Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading, into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236

Discussion guide for The Library Book.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

February 28th at 1:00 p.m. - Lunch 'N Books: A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

Join us on February 28 at 1:00 p.m. as we discuss A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza. As an Indian wedding gathers a family back together, parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children have made. There is Hadia, their headstrong, eldest daughter, whose marriage is a match of love and not tradition. Huda, the middle child, is determined to follow in her sister’s footsteps. Lastly, their estranged son, Amar, returns to the family fold for the first time in three years, to take his place as brother of the bride. What secrets and betrayals have caused this close-knit family to fracture? Can Amar find his way back to the people who know and love him best?

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236.

Discussion guide for A Place For Us.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

February 19th at 7:30 p.m. - Evening Book Discussion/Author Skype: Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict

Join us on February 19 at 7:30 p.m. as we discuss Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict. The author will join us by Skype!

Clara Kelley is not the experienced Irish maid hired to work in one of Pittsburgh’s grandest households. She’s a poor farmer’s daughter with nothing in her pockets. But the other woman with the same name has vanished, so Clara is pretending to be her . . . if she can keep up the ruse. Carnegie’s Maid tells the story of a brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie toward philanthropy.

For more information, please call the Reader Services Department at 516-794-2570 ext. 236