Skinny Book Club
Skinny Books is a lively, thoughtful book club that reads and discusses fiction around 200 pages or less. These books are small but mighty in their presentation of great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that beg for conversation; they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language.
Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in.
Meetings take place the first Wednesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Prairie Path Books (255 Town Square Wheaton).
Contact Carrie at carrie@prairiepathbooks.com with questions or to join for one book or all. 15% off the selections, just let us know you'll be attending.
Siddhartha
In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near dispair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of life - the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace and, finally, wisdom.
Skinny Book Club
Skinny Books is a lively, thoughtful book club that reads and discusses fiction around 200 pages or less. These books are small but mighty in their presentation of great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that beg for conversation; they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language.
Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in.
Meetings take place the first Wednesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Prairie Path Books (255 Town Square Wheaton).
Contact Carrie at carrie@prairiepathbooks.com with questions or to join for one book or all. 15% off the selections, just let us know you'll be attending.
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE - A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK - REVIEWED ON THE FRONT COVER
From GMA BOOK CLUB PICK and WOMEN'S PRIZE FINALIST Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana, an electrifying new novel about a woman who has lost everything but the chance to finally tell her story
"Will have you LAUGHING line after line...Cruz AIMS FOR THE HEART, and fires." --Los Angeles Times
"An endearing portrait of a FIERCE, FUNNY woman." --The Washington Post
Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight.
Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz's most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.
Skinny Book Club
Skinny Books is a lively, thoughtful book club that reads and discusses fiction around 200 pages or less. These books are small but mighty in their presentation of great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that beg for conversation; they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language.
Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in.
Meetings take place the first Wednesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Prairie Path Books (255 Town Square Wheaton).
Contact Carrie at carrie@prairiepathbooks.com with questions or to join for one book or all. 15% off the selections, just let us know you'll be attending.
The Missing Word
A BEST BOOK OF 2022 (Crime Reads)
Based on a true story, an urgently told psychological thriller and the fierce portrait of a woman in all her frailty and courage
Irina's life with her husband and her twin daughters is orderly. An Italian living in Switzerland, she works as a lawyer. One day, something breaks. The marriage ends without apparent trauma, but on a weekend seemingly like any other, the girls' father takes Alessia and Livia away with him. They disappear. A few days later the man takes his own life. Of the girls, there is no trace.
Concita De Gregorio takes the unadorned, terrible facts of this true story and embodies the protagonist's voice. In a narrative that is fast and urgent, she unravels these traumatic events to tell the story of a mother bereft of her children - a state for which there is no word.
The Missing Word delves deep into Irina's thoughts and memories as she grasps at the shreds of truth and, piece by piece, stitches her life back together.
Skinny Book Club
Skinny Books is a lively, thoughtful book club that reads and discusses fiction around 200 pages or less. These books are small but mighty in their presentation of great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that beg for conversation; they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language.
Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in.
Meetings take place the first Wednesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Prairie Path Books (255 Town Square Wheaton).
Contact Carrie at carrie@prairiepathbooks.com with questions or to join for one book or all. 15% off the selections, just let us know you'll be attending.
Foster
An international bestseller and one of The Times' "Top 50 Novels Published in the 21st Century," Claire Keegan's piercing contemporary classic Foster is a heartbreaking story of childhood, loss, and love; now released as a standalone book for the first time ever in the US
It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas' house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household--where everything is so well tended to--and this summer must soon come to an end.
Winner of the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award and published in an abridged version in the New Yorker, this internationally bestselling contemporary classic is now available for the first time in the US in a full, standalone edition. A story of astonishing emotional depth, Fostershowcases Claire Keegan's great talent and secures her reputation as one of our most important storytellers.
Skinny Book Club - 7:30 p.m.
Skinny Books is a lively, thoughtful book club that reads and discusses fiction around 200 pages or less. These books are small but mighty in their presentation of great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that beg for conversation; they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language.
Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in.
Meetings take place the first Wednesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Prairie Path Books (255 Town Square Wheaton).
Contact Carrie at carrie@prairiepathbooks.com with questions or to join for one book or all. 15% off the selections, just let us know you'll be attending.
Described as 'Parisian perfection' by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, The Red Notebook is a charming, quirky love story from one of the UK's favourite French authors.
'The very quintessence of French romance' The Times
'Soaked in Parisian atmosphere, this lovely, clever, funny novel will have you rushing to the Eurostar post-haste. . . . the perfect French holiday read' Daily Mail
Bookseller Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on a Parisian street, and feels impelled to return it to its owner. The bag contains no money, phone or contact information. But a small red notebook with handwritten thoughts and jottings reveals a person that Laurent would very much like to meet. Without even a name to go on, and only a few of her possessions to help him, how is he to find one woman in a city of millions?
Skinny Book Club - 6 p.m.
Skinny Books is a lively, thoughtful book club that reads and discusses fiction around 200 pages or less. These books are small but mighty in their presentation of great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that beg for conversation; they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language.
Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in.
Meetings take place the first Wednesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Prairie Path Books (255 Town Square Wheaton).
Contact Carrie at carrie@prairiepathbooks.com with questions or to join for one book or all. 15% off the selections, just let us know you'll be attending.
Described as 'Parisian perfection' by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, The Red Notebook is a charming, quirky love story from one of the UK's favourite French authors.
'The very quintessence of French romance' The Times
'Soaked in Parisian atmosphere, this lovely, clever, funny novel will have you rushing to the Eurostar post-haste. . . . the perfect French holiday read' Daily Mail
Bookseller Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on a Parisian street, and feels impelled to return it to its owner. The bag contains no money, phone or contact information. But a small red notebook with handwritten thoughts and jottings reveals a person that Laurent would very much like to meet. Without even a name to go on, and only a few of her possessions to help him, how is he to find one woman in a city of millions?
Skinny Book Club
Skinny Books is a lively, thoughtful book club that reads and discusses fiction around 200 pages or less. These books are small but mighty in their presentation of great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that beg for conversation; they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language.
Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in.
Meetings take place the first Wednesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Prairie Path Books (255 Town Square Wheaton).
Contact Carrie at carrie@prairiepathbooks.com with questions or to join for one book or all. 15% off the selections, just let us know you'll be attending.
One Night Two Souls Went Walking
"I believe in expecting light. That's my job." A hospital chaplain offers compassion to her patients over the course of one eventful night shift, and finds some for herself, too.
Skinny Book Club
Skinny Books is a lively, thoughtful book club that reads and discusses fiction around 200 pages or less. These books are small but mighty in their presentation of great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that beg for conversation; they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language.
Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in.
Meetings take place the first Wednesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Prairie Path Books (255 Town Square Wheaton).
Contact Carrie at carrie@prairiepathbooks.com with questions or to join for one book or all. 15% off the selections, just let us know you'll be attending.
The Saturday Night Ghost Club
An irresistible and bittersweet coming-of-age story in the vein of Stranger Things and Stand by Me about a group of misfit kids who spend an unforgettable summer investigating local ghost stories and urban legends
"A celebration of the secret lives of children, both their wonders and their horrors . . . Immensely enjoyable, piercingly clever, and satisfyingly soulful." -Jason Heller, NPR
Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls - a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place - Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the "Saturday Night Ghost Club." But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly light-hearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined. With the alternating warmth and sadness of the best coming-of-age stories, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the haunting mutability of memory and storytelling, as well as the experiences that form the people we become, and establishes Craig Davidson as a remarkable literary talent.
Skinny Book Club
Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg
Skinny Books is a lively, thoughtful book club that reads and discusses fiction around 200 pages or less. These books are small but mighty in their presentation of great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that beg for conversation; they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language.
Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in.
Meetings take place the first Wednesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Prairie Path Books (255 Town Square Wheaton).
Contact Carrie at carrie@prairiepathbooks.com with questions or to join for one book or all. 15% off the selections, just let us know you'll be attending.
Skinny Books, Fat Content Bookclub: Dear Committee Members
Dear Committee Members
by Julie Schumacher
Wednesday, May 6, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University, a small and not very distinguished liberal arts college in the midwest. His department is facing draconian cuts and squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His once-promising writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life, in part as the result of his unwise use of his private affairs for his novels. His star (he thinks) student can't catch a break with his brilliant (he thinks) work Accountant in a Bordello, based on Melville's Bartleby. In short, his life is a tale of woe, and the vehicle this droll and inventive novel uses to tell that tale is a series of hilarious letters of recommendation that Fitger is endlessly called upon by his students and colleagues to produce, each one of which is a small masterpiece of high dudgeon, low spirits, and passive-aggressive strategies. We recommend Dear Committee Members to you in the strongest possible terms.
This book club reads and discusses fiction books under 200 pages that present some great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that just beg for discussion. Though they look deceptively short and simple, they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language. Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in. Meetings will last just one hour, so discussion will be as intense as the reading.
Free!
Call the store to say you can come, (630) 765-7455!
Skinny Books, Fat Content Bookclub: We The Animals
We The Animals by Justin Torres
Wednesday, March 4, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
In this groundbreaking debut, Justin Torres plunges us into the chaotic heart of one family, the intense bonds of three brothers, and the mythic effects of this fierce love on the people we must become.
"A tremendously gifted writer whose highly personal voice should excite us in much the same way that Raymond Carver’s or Jeffrey Eugenides’s voice did when we first heard it." —Washington Post
"A novel so honest, poetic, and tough that it makes you reexamine what it means to love and to hurt." —O, The Oprah Magazine
"The communal howl of three young brothers sustains this sprint of a novel . . . A kind of incantation." —The New Yorker
This book club reads and discusses fiction books under 200 pages that present some great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that just beg for discussion. Though they look deceptively short and simple, they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language. Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in. Meetings will last just one hour, so discussion will be as intense as the reading.
Free!
Call the store to say you can come, (630) 765-7455!
Skinny books, Fat Content Bookclub: Chemistry
Chemistry by Weike Wang
Wednesday, February 5, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
A luminous coming-of-age novel about a young female scientist who must recalibrate her life when her academic career goes off track; perfect for readers of Lab Girl and Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You.
This book club will reads and discusses fiction books under 200 pages that present some great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that just beg for discussion. Though they look deceptively short and simple, they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language. Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in. Meetings will last just one hour, so discussion will be as intense as the reading.
Free!
Call the store to say you can come, (630) 765-7455!
Skinny Books, Fat Content Bookclub: A Whole Life
A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler
Wednesday, January 8, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Andreas Egger knows every path and peak of his mountain valley, the source of his sustenance, his livelihood--his home.
Set in the mid-twentieth century and told with beauty and tenderness, Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life is a story of man's relationship with an ancient landscape, of the value of solitude, of the arrival of the modern world, and above all, of the moments, great and small, that make us who we are.
This bookclub will reads and discusses fiction books under 200 pages that present some great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that just beg for discussion. Though they look deceptively short and simple, they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language. Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in. Meetings will last just one hour, so discussion will be as intense as the reading.
Free!
Call the store to say you can come, (630) 765-7455!
Skinny Books, Fat Content Club: White Houses
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
Wednesday, October 2, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
For readers of The Paris Wife and The Swans of Fifth Avenue comes a “sensuous, captivating account of a forbidden affair between two women” (People)—Eleanor Roosevelt and “first friend” Lorena Hickok.
This book club will reads and discusses fiction books under 200 pages that present some great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that just beg for discussion. Though they look deceptively short and simple, they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language. Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in. Meetings will last just one hour, so discussion will be as intense as the reading.
Free!
Call the store to say you can come, (630) 765-7455!
Skinny Books, Fat Content Club: The Fifth Child
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
Wednesday, October 2, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Harriet and David Lovatt, parents of four children, have created an idyll of domestic bliss in defiance of the social trends of late 1960s England. While around them crime and unrest surge, the Lovatts are certain that their old-fashioned contentment can protect them from the world outside—until the birth of their fifth baby. Gruesomely goblin-like in appearance, insatiably hungry, abnormally strong and violent, Ben has nothing innocent or infant-like about him. As he grows older and more terrifying, Harriet finds she cannot love him, David cannot bring himself to touch him, and their four older children are afraid of him. Understanding that he will never be accepted anywhere, Harriet and David are torn between their instincts as parents and their shocked reaction to this fierce and unlovable child whose existence shatters their belief in a benign world.
This book club will reads and discusses fiction books under 200 pages that present some great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that just beg for discussion. Though they look deceptively short and simple, they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language. Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in. Meetings will last just one hour, so discussion will be as intense as the reading.
Free!
Call the store to say you can come, (630) 765-7455!
Skinny Books, Fat Content Bookclub: President's Hat
The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain
Wednesday, September 4, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Dining alone in an elegant Parisian brasserie, accountant Daniel Mercier can hardly believe his eyes when President François Mitterrand sits down to eat at the table next to him. Daniel’s thrill at being in such close proximity to the most powerful man in the land persists even after the presidential party has gone, which is when he discovers that Mitterrand’s black felt hat has been left behind. After a few moments’ soul-searching, Daniel decides to keep the hat as a souvenir of an extraordinary evening. It’s a perfect fit, and as he leaves the restaurant Daniel begins to feel somehow … different.
This book club will reads and discusses fiction books under 200 pages that present some great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that just beg for discussion. Though they look deceptively short and simple, they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language. Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in. Meetings will last just one hour, so discussion will be as intense as the reading.
Free!
Call the store to say you can come, (630) 765-7455!
Skinny Books, Fat Content Bookclub: Ghachar Ghochar
This new book club will read and discuss fiction books under 200 pages that present some great moral dilemmas, plot twists, memorable characters and ideas that just beg for discussion. Though they look deceptively short and simple, they will WOW you with the depth of their meaning and the precision of their language. Even if you are already in a book club, you could squeeze this one in. Meetings will last just one hour, so discussion will be as intense as the reading.
We will kick-off with Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag.
Elegantly written and punctuated by moments of unexpected warmth and humor, Ghachar Ghochar is a quietly enthralling, deeply unsettling novel about the shifting meanings—and consequences—of financial gain in contemporary India.
Free!
Call the store to say you can come, (630) 765-7455!
