Books to Go : For Book Groups

Mount Prospect Public Library offers book discussion kits specifically designed for book groups. Each kit may be checked out for six weeks and includes ten copies of a title, as well as a binder containing information about the book, biographical information on the author, and questions for discussion. To reserve a kit, contact the Fiction/AV/Teen desk in person, by calling 847/590-4070, or by e-mailing us at readers@mppl.org. This service is funded by Friends of the Mount Prospect Library.

Book Discussion Kit Guidelines

Book Discussion Kit Titles

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

From the initial formation of The Freesia Court Book Club and over the course of the next thirty years, five women in small-town Minnesota share the events, triumphs, tragedies, hardships, joys, and sorrows of their lives.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher’s soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three-year custody battle between daughter Zoe’s maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.

Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos

Margaret Hughes, a septuagenarian living in Seattle, takes in a series of boarders, who help her cope with her illness and whose lives become unexpectedly connected to each other.

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

To this day, Cleopatra proves to be one of the most important and controversial figures in ancient history. Married to both of her brothers, the first of which she defeated in a civil war before ordering the second’s murder, Cleopatra would also have affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony and nearly tear the Roman Empire in two. However, one Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer believes history has given Cleopatra a bad rap and sets out to tell the Egyptian queen’s true story.  Nonfiction.

Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See by Robert Kurson

A fascinating profile of Michael May, a man blinded by a chemical explosion at the age of three, describes his successful life as a CIA analyst, champion skier, entrepreneur, and family man, who is offered a rare chance to see once again through risky, cutting-edge stem-cell transplant surgery.  Nonfiction.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Twin brothers born from a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone come of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, where their love for the same woman drives them apart.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

For a price, Libby Day will reconnect with the players that murdered her mother and two sisters in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” Having testified that her brother Ben was the murderer on that fateful night 25 years ago, now she is not so sure as, piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges. From the writer of Gone Girl.

Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario

The story of one Honduran boy’s difficult and dangerous journey to find his mother, who had made the trek northward to the United States in search of a better life when Enrique had been five years old, but who had never made enough money to return home for her children.  This poignant account addresses the issues of family and the implications of illegal immigration.  Nonfiction.

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Inseparable best friends Kate and Tully, two young women who, despite their very different lives, have vowed to be there for each other forever, have been true to their promise for thirty years, until events and choices in their lives tear them apart.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey—a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Many scientific and medical advances of the modern world have been made possible by cells taken from one African-American woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent. This fascinating tale intertwines her story with that of her family’s search for answers.  Nonfiction.

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander

Based on the 1918 Bolshevik revolutionary murder of Czar Nicholas II and the rest of the Russian royal family, the story is told from the perspective of the event’s only surviving witness, a young kitchen boy.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, Victoria is unable to get close to anyone, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. When she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.

Lark & Termite: A Novel by Jayne Anne Phillips

Set during the 1950s in West Virginia and Korea, this is the story of two children—Lark, on the verge of adulthood, and her brother, Termite, a child unable to walk and talk but filled with radiance—who grow up with their mother and aunt while their soldier-father fights for his life during the chaotic early months of the Korean War.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting in Oak Park, Illinois, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society.

Martha Quest by Doris Lessing

Martha Quest, a passionate and intelligent young British woman growing up on a farm in Africa, rebels against her snobbish parents as she determines to live her life to the fullest.

Mozart’s Last Aria by Matt Rees

In 1791 Austria, Madame Maria Anna Berchtold von Sonnenburg journeys to Vienna to pay her final respects to her brother, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who died under mysterious circumstances, and becomes submerged in a world of suspicion and intrigue.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

At the edge of the continent, in the small town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large but doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her.  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

An Indian request in 1854 for 1,000 white brides to ensure peace is secretly approved by the U.S. government in this alternate-history novel. Their journey west is described by May Dodd, a high-society woman released from an asylum where she was incarcerated by her family for an affair.

Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference by Warren St. John

In a fascinating true story, a wildly diverse group of young kids miraculously unite as a team against the backdrop of a Southern community that has become the first American home for scores of families in flight from the world’s war zones.  Nonfiction.

The Photograph by Penelope Lively

Finding a mysterious photograph of his late wife, Kath, holding hands with another man, Glyn begins a search that proves shocking to Kath’s family and friends.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

A classic novel of romantic suspense finds the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter entering the home of her mysterious and enigmatic new husband and learning the story of the house’s first mistress, to whom the sinister housekeeper is unnaturally devoted.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman with a troubled past who lives in a remote nineteenth-century Wisconsin town, has advertised for a reliable wife; and his ad is answered by Catherine Land, a woman who makes every effort to hide her own dark secrets.

Run by Ann Patchett

Struggling with single parenthood and a scandal that cost him his political career, Bernard Doyle fights his disappointment with his adopted son’s career choices before a violent event forces the members of his family to reconsider their priorities.

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Interweaving the stories of Kavita, Somer, and the child that binds both of their destinies, Secret Daughter poignantly explores the emotional terrain of motherhood, loss, identity, and love, as witnessed through the lives of two families – one Indian, one American – and the child that indelibly connects them.

Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul by Karen Abbott

A history of America’s most famous brothel, Chicago’s Everleigh Club, which catered to some of America’s leading moguls, actors, and writers from 1900 to 1911, profiles its aristocratic proprietors and their efforts to elevate the industry to new heights.  Nonfiction.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

When her health begins failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales.

Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber

Young widow Anne Marie Roche, the owner of a successful Seattle bookstore, creates a list of twenty wishes, and, while acting upon her wishes, encounters an 8-year-old girl named Ellen who helps her complete her list – with unexpected results.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Depression and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them hope.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Eva never really wanted to be a mother—and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered nine people two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin’s horrific rampage. Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction.

The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

In a true story, Warsaw Zoo keepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski save the lives of hundreds of Jewish citizens in the aftermath of Germany’s invasion of Poland by smuggling them into empty cages.  Nonfiction.