March (Geraldine Brooks)

As the North reels under a series of unexpected defeats during the dark first year of the Civil War, one man leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (Mark Haddon)

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. He has Asperger Syndrome. Christopher is on a quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog.

January 30 (10:00-11:00)

Discover how easy it is to learn basic mouse skills by following the online tutorial under a librarian’s guidance. This class is for beginners only. No registration required.

Everyone's Reading Finding My Voice (Diane Rehm) and The Nick Adams Stories (Ernest Hemingway)

The first title is the Everyone's Reading selection for 2009, in which a leading radio personality describes her rise from an abusive childhood in an Arab-American household in Washington, D.C., to success in the field of radio and details her determined battle with spasmodic dysphonia, the rare neurological disorder that nearly destroyed her career.

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (Geraldine Brooks)

In 1666, a young woman comes of age during an extraordinary year of love and death. Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a "plague village" in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history.

To Keep the Waters Troubled: The Life of Ida B. Wells (Linda O. McMurry)

In the generation following Frederick Douglass, no African American was more prominent or outspoken than Ida B. Wells. Her fiery personality and uncompromising approach sometimes lost her friendships even as it won great victories.

Everyone's Reading Finding My Voice (Diane Rehm)

For 25 years, Rehm has offered her listeners compelling conversations with the world's most interesting and important people. This year her autobiography, Finding My Voice, is the Metro Detroit’s Everyone’s Reading selection.

January 24 or February 24 (9:30-11:30)

Jazz up your presentation by adding motion and sound in MS 2007 version. Prerequisite: Power Point I.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See)

Foot binding; nu shu, a 1000-year-old secret language used by women of Hunan Province, and laotong, the arranged friendship between little girls meant to last a lifetime, provide the framework for this look at a chapter in Chinese history.

The Bean Trees (Barbara Kingsolver)

Taylor Greer grew up poor in Kentucky in the '60s and '70s, managed to avoid pregnancy through high school, and earned enough money to buy a Volkswagen that would take her west.

"The Kite Runner" is the story of two boys growing up in Afghanistan, their unique friendship,  how it is tried by sibling rivalry, torn apart by the Soviet Afghan War, and later by the Taliban. It is also about the redemptive courage and power to make things right once they have gone horribly wrong in a terrible world. Come join us as we view and discuss it in our meeting room at 2 o'clock on January 21st.

Case Histories (Kate Atkinson): Private detective Jackson Brodie finds his own need for resolution sparked by three investigations including those of two sisters who discover a shocking clue to the disappearance of their third sister 30 years earlier, a lawyer whose life is turned upside-down when his daughter joins the firm, and a woman whose past mistakes and demanding family life culminate in a violent escape.

The Auto Show is back this year, from January 17-25 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Check out what the auto industry has to offer, from production models, hybrids to over-the-top concept cars. Rediscover your love for the Tin Lizzies of today!

"The Number" made me re-think how much money I would need to retire, how much longer I might live and how to best invest my money.

"White Tiger" is a brutal view of India's class struggles is cunningly presented in Adiga's debut about a racist, homicidal chauffer. Balram Halwai is from the "Darkness," born where India's downtrodden and unlucky are destined to rot. Balram manages to escape his village and move to Delhi after being hired as a driver for a rich landlord.

The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird
by Bruce Barcott (2008)

The Wonder Spot (Melissa Banks): Struggling with ambivalent feelings toward the passions and identities that are important to other members of her Jewish Pennsylvania family, Sophie Applebaum makes observations about her family life over the course of 20 years. By the author of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing.

Oxygen by Carol Cassella (2008)

The main character in Carol Cassella's very readable first novel, Oxygen, is, like Cassella herself, an anesthesiologist in Seattle. Dr. Marie Heaton finds her life gone badly off track when what should have been a pretty routine surgical procedure goes wrong, and eight-year-old Jolene Jansen dies on the operating table. Jolene's mother files a malpractice suit against Marie as well as the hospital, and guilt, grief, and fears about her future as a physician begin to take their toll on Marie. She turns for support and reassurance to her colleague, Dr.

Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston): When independent Janie Crawford returns home, her small African-American community begins to buzz with gossip about the outcome of her affair with a younger man, in a novel set in the 1930s South.

Best Friends (Martha Moody): From their first meeting at Oberlin College in 1973, the friendship of two very different women - one from a working-class, Protestant family in Ohio and the other from a wealthy, Jewish family in L.A. - spans two decades and endures family and career demands.