Book Discussion Groups

Join New Cumberland Library's Book Discussion Groups! Book discussions are sponsored by the Friends of the New Cumberland Public Library and each group meets on a standing schedule.

Great Books Discussion Groups:

1st & 3rd Monday mornings
September 19, 2022 - May 15, 2023
10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The selection of titles to be read and discussed is available at the Main Desk. 
Questions can be directed to Joan Short, 717-938-3494 or Ethel Bitterman, 717-938-1590
Meeting is held in the Library's Dining Room

Selections for the 2022-2023 Season:
September 19   The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf
October 3          The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
October 17        The Lion In Winter: A Play by James Goldman
November 7      Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
December 5      Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
January 3          The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
January 16        Kindred by Octavia Butler
February 6        Stoner by John Williams
March 6            North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
March 20          The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck
April 3               Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles
April 17             Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
May 1               Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
May 15             Poetry (to be selected)

2nd & 4th Wednesday mornings
10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The selection of titles to be read and discussed is available at the Main Desk.
Questions can be directed to Dan Tepsic, 717-774-0719
Meeting is held in the Library's 2nd Floor Meeting Room

Selections for the January-May 2023:
January 11     How Odd Timofer Died Without a Song by Rainer Maria Rilke
                       Desert Places by Robert Frost

January 25     The Path to the Cemetary by Thomas Mann
                       The Subverted Flower by Robert Frost

February 8     The Prussian Officer by D. H. Lawrence
                      Willful Homing by Robert Frost

February 22    Araby by James Joyce
                       Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, Her Son-in-Law by Luigi Pirandello
                       From the Misery of Don Joost by Wallace Stevens

March 8          The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf
                       Anecdote of the Jar by Wallace Stevens
                       Frogs Eat Butterfies, Snakes Eat Frogs, Hogs Eat Snakes, Men Eat Hogs
                       by Wallace Stevens

March 22       A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka
                      How to Live, What to Do by Wallace Stevens

April 12          The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket by Yasunari Kawabata
                      A Clean, Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemmingway

April 26          The Sacrificial Egg by Chinua Achebe
                      Of Mere Being by Wallace Stevens

May 10          A & P by John Updike 
                      Borges & I  by Jorge Luis Borges
                     The Young Housewife by William Carlos Williams

May 24         The Lady with the Toy Dog by Anton Chekhov
                     The Widows Lament in Springtime by William Carlos Williams

Ruth's Mystery Discussion Group

1st Thursday of every month except July
10:30 a.m.
All lovers of good mysteries are invited to join our monthly discussion group.
Please call the Library at 717-774-7820 for more information
The meeting is currently held in Foundation House.

Ruth's Mystery Discussion Group members each report on a one book they've read on the selected reading topic. The reading topics for 2023 are:

January 5 - Reader's Choice
February 2 - Asian setting or author
March 2 - Private Investigator
April 6 - 1920s Setting
May 4 - Mystery Set Before 1500
June 1 - Spy Craft
July - No Meeting
August - Senior Sleuths
September 7 - One Author
October 5 - Biblio Mysteries
November 2 - Indigenous Peoples
December 7 - Christmas Mysteries