"Discussion Group Open To Everyone"

Columbus Public Library Discussion Group has six more meetings for the year 2003. We would love to see new faces and hear new opinions. Our group is pretty diverse. Both men and women belong, also age is, of course, never considered, but we do have all age brackets represented. Some of our members enjoy bringing background material on the book being discussed. Every one gets a chance to speak. Our format is pretty straight forward. Each month we all read the same book and one of us has volunteered to lead the discussion. No one ever feels intimidated because Columbus Library is always able to help the reviewer do research on the author and help with any background material they might need for their discussion.

We meet the last Thursday of the month in the Constitution Room on the first floor of the Library. This year we’re going to try something different---November and December are such busy months, we’re going to combine them and meet on December 11th, 2003. The books that we discuss are recommendations from the members. Consequently, we have a very eclectic list of books.

June 26th we’ll be talking about “The Smoke Jumper” by Nicholas Evans. New York born and bred, Julia Bishop has no warning that spending the summer counseling troubled teens in Montana will change her life forever. Happily in love with smoke jumper and musician Ed Tully, she looks forward to spending the summer weekends with him in Missoula and is stunned and disturbed by the instant connection she feels to his best friend, Connor Ford. “The Smoke Jumper” is a tale of loyalty and guilt, honor and selfless love, and the human cost of choices made.

July 31st, a wonderful book by Stephen J. Ambrose called “Band of Brothers” is on the agenda. “As good a rifle company as any in the world, Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, kept getting the tough assignments--- responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden.” In “Band of Brothers”, Ambrose tells of the men in this brave unit who fought, went hungry, fought battles in the bitter cold, and sadly, died. A company that took 150 percent casualties and considered the Purple Heart a badge of office.

August 28th - “The Night Inspector” by Frederick Busch follows the extraordinary life of William Bartholomew, a maimed veteran of the Civil War, as he returns from the battlefields to New York City, bent on reversing his fortunes. “New York City, 1867: repulsed by the revelation that the conversion of black souls into merchandise has not ceased after the Civil War, William Bartholomew, finds himself drawn into a steamy underworld of murderers, whores, and sewer and slum dwellers.”

Next column will finish the titles for Columbus Public Library Book Discussion Group 2003. September through December have some great works by new authors and old stand-bys. So, be watching for my next column to finish the book list.