Library's book club is member-driven

COEUR d'ALENE - Approaching the end of its second year, the Pageturners Library Book Club is organized and conducted by its members rather than by the staff at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library. But every time it meets, the club adds to the resources the library can offer its patrons.

Educator and Library Trustee Katie Sayler was among those who organized the group in 2009. The project has been funded by the Friends of the Library, but the book club is exploring other funding sources.

A committee of the book club selects the books that will be read and discussed when the group meets the last Wednesday of each month at 10:15 a.m. in the library's Community Room (the group doesn't meet in December).

Discussion materials and presentations are by volunteers - either members of the club or qualified presenters from the community. The discussions are open to any adult reader and there is no charge to participate.

Twenty copies of the book to be discussed are purchased and made available for check-out at the library's research and information desk. After the books have been discussed, the library staff bundles them in kits along with discussion materials and they are made available for other book clubs to use.

The most recent discussion, Aug. 31, was of "Salt," a nonfiction work by Mark Kurlansky with a discussion led by John McTear.

The September selection is "Tried By War," by James McPherson. George Sayler will lead that discussion on Sept. 28. McPherson will be the speaker for the Idaho Humanities Council's Eighth Annual Distinguished Humanities Lecture and Dinner on Thursday, Oct. 6, at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

The October book will be the classic "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee with the discussion led by Katie Sayler on Oct. 26.

Previous titles available as Book Club Kits are: "Worst Hard Times," by Timothy Egean; "Change of Heart," by Jodi Picoult; "Montana 1948," by Larry Watson; "Sailing Around the Room," by Billy Collins; "The Annotated Alice: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass," by Lewis Carroll; "The Treasure Called Tubbs Hill," by Scott W. Reed; "The Big Burn," by Jeanette Ingold; "Home," by Marilynne Robinson; "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," by Lisa See; "Big Trouble," by Anthony J. Lukas; "War Dances," by Sherman Alexie; "The View From the Castle," by Alice Munro; "The Art of Racing in the Rain," by Garth Stein; "The Things They Carried," by Tim O'Brien; "Four Seasons in Rome," by Antony Doerr; "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet," by Jamie Ford; "Dracula," by Bram Stoker; and "Beautiful Country," by Robert Wrigley.

For more information about the Pageturners Book Club, contact the library at 769-2315 or email at [email protected]. Discussion materials can be seen at the Pageturners link on the library website: www.cdalibrary.org.