Teen Book Club - April 2020

April Meeting: 4/15/20 at 3pm

The Teen Book Group The Teen Book Group meets on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 3pm. We read hot new titles and older classics, exclusively from our Young Adult collection. Copies of the current month's title will be available behind the circulation desk for both members and nonmembers. Open to Ages 14-18.

This month we will be reading The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe, by Allyson Condie.

Poe Blythe, the young captain of the Outpost's last mining ship, wants revenge far more than the gold they tear from the Serpentine River. She has vowed to annihilate the river raiders who robbed her of everything two years ago. But as she navigates the treacherous waters of the Serpentine and realizes there might be a traitor among her crew, she must also reckon with who she has become, who she wants to be, and the ways love can change and shape you.

Upton Reads Book Group - April 2020

April Meetings: 4/14/20 at 12:45pm and 4/16/20 at 6:45pm

The Upton Reads Book Group meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 12:45 and on the second Thursday of each month at 6:45 in the library gathering room. Sue Pfeiffer from the library staff leads a casual and thought-provoking discussion of an eclectic mix of contemporary literary fiction. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading The Secrets We Kept, by Lara Prescott

At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR, where no one dare publish it, and help Pasternak's magnum opus make its way into print around the world. Glamorous and sophisticated Sally Forrester is a seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit all over the world-- using her magnetism and charm to pry secrets out of powerful men. Irina is a complete novice, and under Sally's tutelage quickly learns how to blend in, make drops, and invisibly ferry classified documents.

Kids' Book Group - April 2020

April Meeting: 4/1/20 at 4pm

The Kids’ Book Group meets at 4:00pm on the first Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Each month, members explore popular juvenile and preteen titles. Copies are available at the circulation desk for both members and nonmembers.

This month we will be reading The Button War, by Avi

Patryk and Jurek are as much friends as rivals in the small Russian-occupied Polish village where they live. When, in August 1914, Patryk finds an old button on the forest floor, Jurek becomes wildly jealous. Not long after, World War I comes to Poland, bringing one invading army after another to the village. Jurek devises an exciting dare among the seven boys in their pack: whoever steals the best military button will be Button King. The boys agree. The contest is on. The competition escalates from stealing uniform buttons on a wash line to looting the bodies of dead soldiers to setting up an ambush. Leading the charge is Jurek, who will do anything to be Button King. It's only Patryk who tries to stop Jurek's increasingly dangerous game before it leads to deadly consequences.

Library Book Group - March 2020

March Meeting: 3/25/20 at 7pm

The Library Book Group meets at 7:00pm on the last Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Book titles are chosen by the members and copies are available at the library. The group alternates between fiction and non-fiction titles. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading Run Away, by Harlan Coben

You've lost your daughter. She's addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she's made it clear that she doesn't want to be found. Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park. But she's not the girl you remember. This woman is living on the edge, frightened, and clearly in trouble. You don't stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home. She runs. And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line. And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on.

Teen Book Group - March 2020

March Meeting: 3/18/20 at 3pm

The Teen Book Group The Teen Book Group meets on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 3pm. We read hot new titles and older classics, exclusively from our Young Adult collection. Copies of the current month's title will be available behind the circulation desk for both members and nonmembers. Open to Ages 14-18.

This month we will be reading Frankly in Love, by David Yoon

High school senior Frank Li takes a risk to go after a girl his parents would never approve of, but his plans will leave him wondering if he ever really understood love--or himself--at all.

Upton Reads - March 2020

March Meetings: 3/10/20 at 12:45pm and 3/12/20 at 6:45pm

The Upton Reads Book Group meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 12:45 and on the second Thursday of each month at 6:45 in the library gathering room. Sue Pfeiffer from the library staff leads a casual and thought-provoking discussion of an eclectic mix of contemporary literary fiction. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading The Wartime Sisters, by Lynda Cohen Loigman.

Two estranged sisters, raised in Brooklyn and each burdened with her own shocking secret, are reunited at the Springfield Armory in the early days of WWII. While one sister lives in relative ease on the bucolic Armory campus as an officer's wife, the other arrives as a war widow and takes a position in the Armory factories as a "soldier of production." Resentment festers between the two, and secrets are shattered when a mysterious figure from the past reemerges in their lives.

Kids' Book Club - March 2020

March Meeting: 3/4/20 at 4pm

The Kids’ Book Group meets at 4:00pm on the first Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Each month, members explore popular juvenile and preteen titles. Copies are available at the circulation desk for both members and nonmembers.

This month we will be reading Guts, by Raina Telgemeier

Raina wakes up one night with a terrible upset stomach. Her mom has one, too, so it's probably just a bug. Raina eventually returns to school, where she's dealing with the usual highs and lows: friends, not-friends, and classmates who think the school year is just one long gross-out session. It soon becomes clear that Raina's tummy trouble isn't going away... and it coincides with her worries about food, school, and changing friendships. What's going on?

Library Book Group - February 2020

February Meeting: 2/26/20 at 7pm

The Library Book Group meets at 7:00pm on the last Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Book titles are chosen by the members and copies are available at the library. The group alternates between fiction and non-fiction titles. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading Why We Dream: The Transformative Power of Our Nightly Journey, by Alice Robb

Science journalist and lucid dreamer Alice Robb explores fresh, revelatory research to uncover why we dream and how we can improve our dream life.

Teen Book Group - January 2020

Our new Teen Book Group is meeting from 

3 - 4pm on Wednesday, January 29! 

A book club just for teens! We read hot new titles and older classics, exclusively from our Young Adult collection. Copies of the current month's title will be available behind the circulation desk for members and non-members alike. Open to Ages 14-18.

Our first book is The Last 8, by Laura Pohl.

After an alien attack devastates the Earth, pilot and future astronaut Clover Martinez bands with seven other teens in a struggle to survive.

Clover Martinez has always been a survivor, which is the reason she isn't among the dead when aliens invade and destroy Earth as she knows it.

Clover is convinced she's the only one left until she hears a voice on the radio urging her to go to the former Area 51. When she arrives, she's greeted by a band of misfits who call themselves The Last Teenagers on Earth. And when she finds a hidden spaceship within the walls of the compound, she doesn't know what to believe...or who to trust.


If you are interested in joining the book club, please contact Lee Ann Murphy, our Young Adult librarian by phone at 508-529-6272 or via email at lmurphy@cwmars.org.

Upton Reads Book Group - February 2020

February Meetings: 2/11/20 at 12:45pm and 2/13/20 at 6:45pm

The Upton Reads Book Group meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 12:45 and on the second Thursday of each month at 6:45 in the library gathering room. Sue Pfeiffer from the library staff leads a casual and thought-provoking discussion of an eclectic mix of contemporary literary fiction. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading 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.

Kids' Book Group - February 2020

February Meeting: 2/05/20 at 4pm

The Kids’ Book Group meets at 4:00pm on the first Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Each month, members explore popular juvenile and preteen titles. Copies are available at the circulation desk for both members and nonmembers.

This month we will be reading Snow & Rose, by Emily Winfield Martin

Snow and Rose search the forest for their missing father and discover there is a sinister magic at work in the woods.

Upton Reads Book Group - January 2020

January Meetings: 1/14/20 at 12:45pm and 1/16/20 at 6:45pm

The Upton Reads Book Group meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 12:45 and on the second Thursday of each month at 6:45 in the library gathering room. Sue Pfeiffer from the library staff leads a casual and thought-provoking discussion of an eclectic mix of contemporary literary fiction. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading The Only Woman in the Room, by Marie Benedict.

Hedy Kiesler is lucky. Her beauty leads to a starring role in a controversial film and marriage to a powerful Austrian arms dealer, allowing her to evade Nazi persecution despite her Jewish heritage. But Hedy is also intelligent. At lavish Vienna dinner parties, she overhears the Third Reich's plans. One night in 1937, desperate to escape her controlling husband and the rise of the Nazis, she disguises herself and flees her husband's castle. She lands in Hollywood, where she becomes Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But Hedy is keeping a secret even more shocking than her Jewish heritage: she is a scientist. She has an idea that might help the country and that might ease her guilt for escaping alone -- if anyone will listen to her. A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication.

Library Book Group - January 2020

January Meeting: 1/29/20 at 7pm

Reminder! 
We will be voting for our 2020 fiction titles at the January 29 meeting!

The Library Book Group meets at 7:00pm on the last Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Book titles are chosen by the members and copies are available at the library. The group alternates between fiction and non-fiction titles. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for the often harsh life of Williamsburg demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior—such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce—no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are tenderly threaded with family connectedness and raw with honesty.

Kids' Book Group - January 2020

January Meeting: 1/8/20 at 4pm

The Kids’ Book Group meets at 4:00pm on the first Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Each month, members explore popular juvenile and preteen titles. Copies are available at the circulation desk for both members and nonmembers.

This month we will be reading I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, by Lauren Tarshis

When the massive metal tank filled with sticky brown molasses that rises up over her crowded North End neighborhood explodes, young Carmen must fight for her life, as a tsunami of molasses rushes through the streets.

Upton Reads Book Group - December 2019

December Meetings: 12/10/19 at 12:45pm and 12/12/19 at 6:45pm

The Upton Reads Book Group meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 12:45 and on the second Thursday of each month at 6:45 in the library gathering room. Sue Pfeiffer from the library staff leads a casual and thought-provoking discussion of an eclectic mix of contemporary literary fiction. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading The book woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson

Tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry. She joins Roosevelt's Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a traveling librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky. Along her route, Cussy faces doubters at every turn, but is determined to bring the joy of books to the hardscrabble Kentuckians.

Kids' Book Group - December 2019

December Meeting: 12/04/19 at 4pm

The Kids’ Book Group meets at 4:00pm on the first Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Each month, members explore popular juvenile and preteen titles. Copies are available at the circulation desk for both members and nonmembers.

This month we will be reading The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, by Daniel Pinkwater

Arthur goes to pick up the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner but comes back with a 260-pound chicken.

Library Book Group - December 2019

DUE TO NOVEMBER HOLIDAYS, WE WILL BE MEETING THE FIRST WEDNESDAY IN DECEMBER.

Meeting: 12/04/19 at 7pm

The Library Book Group meets at 7:00pm on the last Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Book titles are chosen by the members and copies are available at the library. The group alternates between fiction and non-fiction titles. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading Where the Crawdad Sings, by Delia Owens

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world--until the unthinkable happens.

Upton Reads Book Club - November 2019

November Meetings: 11/12/19 at 12:45pm and 11/14/19 at 6:45pm

The Upton Reads Book Group meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 12:45 and on the second Thursday of each month at 6:45 in the library gathering room. Sue Pfeiffer from the library staff leads a casual and thought-provoking discussion of an eclectic mix of contemporary literary fiction.

This month we will be reading Where the Crawdad Sings, by Delia Owens

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world--until the unthinkable happens.

Kids' Book Group - November 2019

November Meeting: 11/6/19 at 4pm

The Kids’ Book Group meets at 4:00pm on the first Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Each month, members explore popular juvenile and preteen titles. Copies are available at the circulation desk for both members and nonmembers.

This month we will be reading Dragons in a Bag, by Zetta Elliott

In Brooklyn, nine-year-old Jax joins Ma, a curmudgeonly witch who lives in his building, on a quest to deliver three baby dragons to a magical world, and along the way discovers his true calling.

Library Book Group - October 2019

October Meeting: 10/30/19 at 7pm

The Library Book Group meets at 7:00pm on the last Wednesday of each month, in the library gathering room. Book titles are chosen by the members and copies are available at the library. The group alternates between fiction and non-fiction titles. Copies of each month’s book are available at the library. Please call the library directly at 508-529-6272 to request a copy of this month's title.

This month we will be reading The Girl with Seven Names, by Hyeonseo Lee

As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life.