Whether you’ve been involved in a book club that reads novels and discusses them together for years or if you’ve just joined one, you can benefit from an opportunity at the Carmel Clay Public Library. The opportunity comes in the form of kits called Books in a Bag. It’s a simple concept, and yet it can really come in handy for making things easier on your book group. If you pick up a Books in a Bag package, you take all the hassle out of preparing for group discussions. Each package contains at least five copies of whichever book you’re reading, pre-made discussion questions, and an author biography (and sometimes even an author interview).
You know the Books in a Bag idea is well-covered in this case, as nobody knows books as well as the average library. The Carmel Clay Public Library has Books in a Bag with a wide variety of titles and authors. If your group would like to take advantage of this resource, you can reserve packages several months in advance and then check the package out for six weeks at a time. You can stop by the Readers’ Advisory Desk or call 814-3987 for more information. In the meantime, here are some (though not all) of the titles available for Books in a Bag:
- Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
- Little Heathens by Mildred Kalish
- Lunch at the Piccadilly by Clyde Edgerton
- Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- Chocolat by Joanne Harris
- Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
- Defending Jacob by William Landay
- Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
- Empire Falls by Richard Russo
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett
- The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
- The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
- The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli