Book Discussion Kits

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The titles listed below are currently available to the public as book discussion kits.  Each kit includes six to twelve copies of the book, leader resources and discussion questions.

• Check out the complete book kit on a current Berwyn Public Library card.  This person is responsible for the entire kit, including all copies of the book. 

If you would like to utilize our resources and discussion questions, you can download them using the "Resource Guide" link following the book description.  To return to this page, use your browser's back button.

Fiction

Allende, Isabel.  Inés of My Soul
336 pages
An historical novel based off the true story of Inés Suarez, who helped her conquistador lover, Pedro Valdivia, conquer Chile during the 16^th Century.

Atkinson, Kate.  Case Histories
320 pages  |  Resource Guide
Private detective Jackson Brodie investigates three interconnected crimes that end up being more about those left behind than about the victims.

Bradbury, Ray.  Fahrenheit 451
190 pages
First published in 1953, Bradbury’s classic of dystopian literature is about a totalitarian regime who orders the burning of all books.

Dallas, Sandra.  The Persian Pickle Club
196 pages |  Resource Guide
During the Depression, a group of women in Harveyville, Kansas find solace and friendship from within their weekly quilting circle.

Desai, Kiran.  The Inheritance of Loss
336 pages  |  Resource Guide
Set in 1985 in a small Himalayan town amidst Nepali rebels fighting for their independence, an Indian family experiences love and loss in their search for “belonging.”

Diamant, Anita.  The Red Tent
321 pages |  Resource Guide
The story of Dinah, a tragic character from the Bible whose great love, a prince, is killed by her brother, leaving her alone and pregnant. The novel traces her life from childhood to death, in the process examining sexual and religious practices of the day, and what it meant to be a woman.

Edwards, Kim.  The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
401 pages
When a doctor delivers his twin newborns, he gives one of them to the attending nurse so that his wife will never learn of the child’s affliction with Down Syndrome.

Gruen, Sarah.  Water for Elephants
352 pages | Resource Guide
Jacob Jankowski, in his nineties, fondly recalls his experiences had and friendships made while he traveled with a Depression-era circus.

Ishiguro, Kazuo.  Never Let Me Go
304 pages
Three friends reminisce about their time at an unusual private school where the students are clones used for their organs in the fight to eradicate disease.

Otsuka, Julie.  When the Emperor Was Divine
141 pages
A chronicle of Japanese Americans forced to live in internment camps during World War II related through the five different voices of one family.

Picoult, Jodi.  My Sister’s Keeper
432 pages | Resource Guide
Anna was conceived so she could be a donor to her leukemia-stricken sister but now at age 13, she is fed up with the invasive surgeries and ready to take control of her body.

Strout, Elizabeth.  Olive Kitteridge

286 pages  |  Resource Guide

Thirteen interconnected short stories, all linked by the title character, tell the story of Olive and her family as well as the other inhabitants of a small town in Maine.

Tyler, Anne.  Digging to America
288 pages  |  Resource Guide
Two families bond over a chance meeting while they are both on their way to adopt a Korean daughter in this novel about cultural identity.

Non-fiction

Shachtman, Tom.  Rumspringa:  To Be or Not To Be Amish
304 pages | Resource Guide
Rumspringa is the period for Amish youth where the strict rules guiding their lives are suspended while they decide whether or not to be officially baptized into the church.

Tolan, Sandy.  The Lemon Tree:  an Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East
384 pages
Tolan illuminates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the personal stories of two families who lived in the same house at two different times.

Vowell, Sarah.  Assassination Vacation
272 pages  |  Resource Guide
A lively history lesson unfolds as Vowell visits multiple monuments and memorials commemorating the first three assassinated presidents; Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley.