Jane Austen Book Discussion: Persuasion
Wednesday, December 3, 7:00-8:00pm, Adults, Auditorium
In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birthday, join us for a discussion of Persuasion, Austen's final and most moving novel. Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish Sir Walter Elliot, is woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. When she was nineteen she fell in love with—and was engaged to—a naval officer, the fearless and headstrong Captain Wentworth. But the young man had no fortune, and Anne allowed herself to be persuaded to give him up.
Now, eight years later, Wentworth has returned to the neighborhood, a rich man and still unwed. Anne’s never-diminished love is muffled by her pride, and he seems cold and unforgiving.
What happens as the two are thrown together in the social world of Bath—and as an eager new suitor appears for Anne—is touchingly and wittily told in Persuasion, a masterpiece that is also one of the most entrancing novels in the English language. (From the publisher)
Find copies of the book here. Ebook and audiobook copies are available through the Digital Library of Illinois and the Libby app. Ebook and audiobook copies are always available through Hoopla.
Light refreshments will be served.
Classics & Contemporary Book Discussion: The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
Tuesday, December 9, 10:30-11:30am, Adults, Auditorium
A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.
Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakota people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn’t return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited.
On a winter’s day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband’s farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron—women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools.
Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors. (From the publisher)
Copies of the book are available here. Ebook and audiobook copies are available through Digital Library of Illinois or the Libby app. Ebook and audiobook copies are always available on Hoopla.
For those who would like to purchase a copy of The Seed Keeper, please support our local independent bookstore, The Book Stall at 811 Elm Street in Winnetka. Copies may also be available at Books Down Under on the Lower Level of the library. Proceeds benefit the Friends of the Wilmette Public Library.