Ada Public Library provides several opportunities for book reading and discussion this winter. Here's the Adult Book Group and Amish Book Group schedule and book topics. Contact the library about joining these groups.
ADULT BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, Feb. 7, 7 p.m.
1838: James and Sadie Goodenough have settled where their wagon got stuck – in the muddy, stagnant swamps of northwest Ohio.
They and their five children work relentlessly to tame their patch of land, buying saplings from a local tree man known as John Appleseed so they can cultivate the fifty apple trees required to stake their claim on the property.
But the orchard they plant sows the seeds of a long battle. James loves the apples, reminders of an easier life back in Connecticut; while Sadie prefers the applejack they make, an alcoholic refuge from brutal frontier life.
Tuesday, March 7, 7 p.m.
In This brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight fami- lies on the edge.
Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt.
Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.
AMISH BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, Jan. 17, 1 p.m.
Brad Igou offers writings by Amish people across North America, compiled from the first 25 years (1968-92) of Family Life, a monthly Amish magazine.
He includes letters, articles, history lessons, parables, questions, challenges—a wide spectrum of human experience, from an Amish point of view. Sixteen chapters cover fascinating topics such as shunning, nonresistance, clothing, youth activities, old age, conflicts with the modern world, work, church, humor, and lessons from life.
Tuesday, Feb. 21, 1 p.m.
Sadie Schrock swore she would never marry. All of her other Amish friends could court and marry—she was content to manage the family business and eventually take it over when her parents are ready to retire.
But all of that changes when a reckless driver kills both of her parents and seriously injures her younger sister. With mounting hospital bills adding to the pile of debt her parents left behind, Sadie is left with no choice: she must marry.
And not just any man—the man who saw her at her weakest and walked away.
Tuesday, March 21, 1 p.m.
Weatherly found the simple life she always wanted when she opened a gift shop in Heavenly, Pennsylvania, a small town in the heart of Amish country. But when murder disrupts her Heavenly home, it’s up to Claire and Detective Jakob Fisher to find the not-so-simple truth.
