Winter/Spring 2010 Reading
and Discussion Series
The Milford Public Library’s Reading and Discussion program continues with this series focusing on novels about music. Meetings are the second Monday of February, March, April, and May, 2010, 7:00–9:00 P.M. Registration begins Monday, December 7, 2009. A limited number of books will be available at the Library. High Fidelity by
Nick Hornby Is it possible to share your life with someone whose record collection
is incompatible with your own? Can people have terrible taste and still
be worth knowing? Do songs about broken hearts and misery and loneliness
mess up your life if consumed in excess?
In an unnamed South American country, a
lavish party is held in honor of the vice president’s birthday
and the visit of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne
Coss, the
most celebrated soprano
in opera, sings for the guests. Then gun-wielding terrorists burst in
and take the entire party hostage. Based in part on a true incident,
Bel Canto explores the relations between music and life, between hostages
and hostage-takers. It won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange
Prize, was named Book Sense Book of the Year, and was a finalist for
the National Book Critics Circle Award. Body
and Soul by Frank Conroy In 1940s New York, a lonely little boy sits at an old white piano and plays—by ear—the songs he hears on the radio. His alcoholic single mother has left him alone while she is out driving a taxi to support them. Claude Rawlings is no ordinary boy. He is a musical prodigy, whose talent will be nurtured by a series of mentors: Mr. Weisfeld, the local music shop owner; an Austrian maestro; Professor Menti and Herr Sturm. Claude’s journey from raw talent to accomplished pianist is counterpointed with his mother’s descent in madness. Frank Conroy was an accomplished jazz pianist who jammed with Charles Mingus, as well as Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman. His memoir Stop-Time was nominated for a National Book Award. The
Choir by Joanna Trollope In the village of Aldminster, dissent roils just beneath the picturesque surface. The village’s cathedral desperately needs a new roof and other repairs, but funds are short. The seemingly obvious solution is to eliminate the boys’ choir and its school, which are expensive and increasingly irrelevant. So the battle lines are drawn between those who would restore the cathedral and those would save the choir. The Choir was made into a Masterpiece Theater mini-series. Joanna Trollope, OBE, is a descendant of novelist Anthony Trollope. The Sunday Telegraph called The Choir “a modern Barchester Chronicle.”
December 14, 2009 |