about the book group at the Norfolk library

Who We Are:

A reading group at the library in Norfolk, Connecticut.

• Who Can Join:

Anyone. Anytime. While most of the members come from Norfolk, the group is open to anyone living in northwestern Connecticut, southwestern Massachusetts, or anywhere, New Hartford to Millbrook, Pittsfield to Roxbury, weekenders or full-timers.

• What We Do:

We read books--then discuss, analyze, push the boundaries of what we believe, what we know, and what we want to know. Oh, and we eat. And sometimes even drink.

• Where We Meet:

At the Norfolk library, 9 Greenwoods Road East, Norfolk, Connecticut--just across US-44 from the town green and catercorner to the congregational church. For more information, call the library at 860-542-5075.

• When We Meet:

Select Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The group started as a brown-bag-and-book group. These days, nobody brings a lunch but there's always a treat brought to share.

• Who I Am:

Mark Scarbrough, the discussion wrangler, an erstwhile Southerner living in New England chill, and an erstwhile lit professor who chucked it all to become a full-time writer. To find out how that story turned out, click here.

To find out the complete schedule for our meetings, click the header link above under "SEMINARS, BOOK GROUPS, AND WORKSHOPS." You'll be taken to a calendar with the full schedule. Look for the Norfolk Book Group on Fridays once or sometimes twice a month. Or see below.

books on the docket in the months ahead

After reading ANNA KARENINA as our big winter novel, we move on to a set of novels about marriages and families of all sorts, a list that will take us through June, 2019. We’ll take off July (as we usually do) before reading the next volume of Anthony Trollope’s Palliser series.

3/8/2019 Daisy Johnson, EVERYTHING UNDER (2018)

3/29/2019 Julian Barnes, THE ONLY STORY (2018)

4/26/2019 George Saunders, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO (2017)

5/17/2019 Helen Klein Ross, WHAT WAS MINE (2016)

6/14/2019 Geoff Ryman, WAS (1992)

No July meeting

8/16/2019 Anthony Trollope, PHINEAS FINN (1868)

books we've read

Here's a full chronology of the Norfolk Library Book Group:

6/4/2010 Simon Mawer, THE GLASS ROOM (2009)

6/25/2010 Louise Erdrich, SHADOW TAG (2010)

7/9/2010 Kaye Ryan, THE NIAGARA RIVER (2005)

7/30/2010 Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 36 ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: A WORK OF FICTION (2010)

8/20/2010 Dan Chaon, AWAIT YOUR REPLY (2010)

9/3/2010 Muriel Barbery, THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG (2006)

9/17/2010 James Hamilton-Paterson, COOKING WITH FERNET BRANCA (2005)

10/1/2010 Jane Gardam, OLD FILTH (2006)

10/15/2010 Ian McEwan, SOLAR (2010)

10/29/2010 Henry James, WASHINGTON SQUARE (1880)

12/3/2010 Colum McCann, LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN (2009)

1/7/2011 Ian McEwan, ENDURING LOVE (1997)

2/4/2011 David Mitchell, THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET (2010)

2/18/2011 Anthony Trollope, THE WARDEN (1855)

3/4/2011 Anita Brookner, HOTEL DU LAC (1984)

3/25/2011 Elena Ferrante, DAYS OF ABANDONMENT (2005)

4/8/2011 Emma Donoghue, ROOM (2010)

4/22/2011 Willa Cather, MY ANTONIA (1918)

4/29/2011 Alison Bechdel, FUN HOME (2006)

5/27/2011 Ian McEwan, ATONEMENT (2003)

6/17/2011 Daniel Defoe, ROXANA (1724)

7/8/2011 Toni Morrison, SONG OF SOLOMON (1977)

7/29/2011 Louise Erdrich, LOVE MEDICINE (1984)

8/12/2011 David Levithan, A LOVER'S DICTIONARY (2011)

9/6/2011 Anne Michaels, FUGITIVE PIECES (1996)

9/23/2011 Philip Roth, AMERICAN PASTORAL (1997)

10/14/2011 Frederick Douglass, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855)

11/4/2011 William Faulkner, LIGHT IN AUGUST (1932)

11/18/2011 Willa Cather, O PIONEERS! (1913)

12/9/2011 Mark Twain, ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1885)

1/13/2012 to 2/24/2012 George Eliot, MIDDLEMARCH (1871 - 1872)

3/30/2012 William Faulkner, THE HAMLET (1940)

4/27/2012 Willa Cather, THE SONG OF THE LARK (1915)

5/11/2012 David Eagleman, SUM: FORTY TALES OF THE AFTERLIVES (2010)

6/1/2012Edith Wharton, THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY (1915)

6/29/2012 Aldous Huxley, ANTIC HAY (1923)

7/27/2012 F. Scott Fitzgerald, THIS SIDE OF PARADISE (1920)

8/17/2012 Evelyn Waugh, DECLINE AND FALL (1928)

9/14/2012 Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE (1852)

10/5 and 10/17/2012 Henry James, THE BOSTONIANS (1886)

11/9/2012 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, HERLAND (1915)

11/30/2012 Ursula Le Guin, THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (1969)

12/14/2012 Philip Roth, NEMESIS (2010)

1/11/2013 Hilary Mantel, WOLF HALL (2010)

2/1/2013 Julian Barnes, THE SENSE OF AN ENDING (2011)

2/22/2013 Rachel Joyce, THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY (2012)

3/22/2013 Richard Ford, CANADA (2012)

4/12/2013 Louise Erdrich, THE PLAGUE OF DOVES (2008)

5/3/2013 Michael Ondaatje, THE CAT'S TABLE (2012)

5/31/2013 Jeanette Winterson, WHY BE HAPPY WHEN YOU COULD BE NORMAL? (2011)

6/21/2013 Per Petterson, OUT STEALING HORSES (2003)

7/19/2013 Carlos Ruiz Zafón, THE SHADOW OF THE WIND (2001)

8/16/2013 Manil Suri, THE DEATH OF VISHNU (2001)

9/13/2013 William Dean Howells, A HAZARD OF NEW FORTUNES (1890)

10/5/2013 Abraham Cahan, THE RISE OF DAVID LEVINSKY (1917)

10/25/2013 Edith Wharton, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1920)

11/15/2013 Nathanael West, MISS LONELYHEARTS (1933) and THE DAY OF THE LOCUST (1939)

12/6/2013 Daschiell Hammett, THE THIN MAN (1936)

1/24/2014 through 3/7/2014 Charles Dickens, OUR MUTUAL FRIEND (1865)

3/28/2014 Julie Otsuka, THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC (2012)

4/25/2014 Elena Ferrante, MY BRILLIANT FRIEND (2011)

5/16/2014 William Faulkner, AS I LAY DYING (1930)

6/13/2014 Kate Atkinson, LIFE AFTER LIFE (2014)

7/11/2014 Colm McCann, TRANSATLANTIC (2014)

8/15/2014 Elena Ferrante, THE STORY OF A NEW NAME (2012)

9/12/2014 Mary Rowlandson, THE SOVEREIGNTY AND GOODNESS OF GOD (1682)

10/3/2014 Catherine Maria Sedgwick, HOPE LESLIE (1827)

10/24/2014 Mark Twain, A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT (1889)

11/14/2014 Sarah Orne Jewett, THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS (1899)

12/12/2014 Philip Roth, THE HUMAN STAIN (2000)

1/9 - 2/6/2015 Henry James, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (1881)

3/13/2015 Diogo Mainardi, THE FALL: A FATHER'S MEMOIR IN 424 STEPS (2014)

4/10/2015 Elena Ferrante, THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY (2014)

5/15/2015 William Faulkner, GO DOWN, MOSES (1942)

6/12/2015 Kate Atkinson, HUMAN CROQUET (1997)

8/14/2015 Michel Faber, THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE (2002)

9/11/2015 and 9/25/2015 Minae Mizumura, A TRUE NOVEL (2002)

10/16/2015 Amara Lakhous, CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS OVER AN ELEVATOR IN PIAZZA VITTORIO (2008)

11/13/2015 Alina Bronsky, THE HOTTEST DISHES OF THE TARTAR CUISINE (2010)

12/11/2015 Timur Vermes, LOOK WHO'S BACK (2012)

1/8/2016 - 2/19/2016 George Eliot, DANIEL DERONDA (1876)

3/18/2016 Haruki Murakami, KAFKA ON THE SHORE (2002)

4/8/2016 Elena Ferrante, THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD (2014)

4/29/2016 Gavin McCrea, MRS. ENGELS (2015)

5/20/2016 André Schwartz-Bart, THE LAST OF THE JUST (1959)

6/17/2016 Hanya Yanagihara, A LITTLE LIFE (2016)

7/15/2016 Magda Szabó, THE DOOR (2005)

8/19/2016 Kent Haruf, THE TIE THAT BINDS (2000)

9/9/2016 and 9/23/2016 Emily Brontë, WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1847)

10/14/2016 and 10/28/2016 Charlotte Brontë, JANE EYRE (1847)

11/18/2016 Anne Brontë, AGNES GREY (1847)

12/9/2016 Anne Brontë, THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL (1848)

1/13, 1/27, and 2/10/2017 Charlotte Brontë, VILLETTE (1853)

3/17/2017 Amitav Ghosh, THE GLASS PALACE (2000)

4/7/2017 Paula Whyman, YOU MAY SEE A STRANGER (2016)

4/28/2017 David Szalay, ALL THAT MAN IS (2016)

5/18/2017 Alexander Weinstein, CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD (2016)

6/9/2017 Francesca Marciano, THE OTHER LANGUAGE (2014)

8/11/2017 Nathan Hill, THE NIX (2016)

9/15/2017 and 9/29/2017    Thomas Hardy, THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (1878)

10/20/2017     Damian Wilkins, MAX GATE (2016)

11/10/2017       Thomas Hardy, TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES (1891)

12/08/2017     Christopher Nicholson, WINTER (2016)

1/5/2018 through 2/16/2018   Henry Fielding's TOM JONES, THE HISTORY OF A FOUNDLING (1749)

3/16/2018   Yaa Gyasi, HOMEGOING (2016)

4/13/2018   Karan Mahajan, THE ASSOCIATION OF SMALL BOMBS (2016)

5/11/2018   Paul Beatty, THE SELLOUT (2016)

6/8/2018   Paul Murray, SKIPPY DIES (2010)

8/17/2018 Anthony Trollope, CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? (1865)

9/14/2018  Sarah Fielding, THE ADVENTURES OF DAVID SIMPLE, Books 1 and 2 (1744)

9/28/2018  Sarah Fielding, THE ADVENTURES OF DAVID SIMPLE, Book the Last (1753)

10/19/2018 Tobias Smollett, THE EXPEDITION OF HUMPHRY CLINKER (1771)

11/16/2018 Fanny Burney, EVELINA (1778)

12/14/2018 Jane Austen, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1811)

1/11/2019 through 2/8/2019 Leo Tolstoy, ANNA KARENINA (1878)

 And here are those same books, broken down into literary categories:

Renaissance and Eighteenth-Century Literature

Mary Rowlandson, THE SOVEREIGNTY AND GOODNESS OF GOD (1682)

Daniel Defoe, ROXANA (1724)

Sarah Fielding, THE ADVENTURES OF DAVID SIMPLE, Books 1 and 2 (1744)

Henry Fielding, TOM JONES (1749)

Sarah Fielding, THE ADVENTURES OF DAVID SIMPLE, Book the Last (1753)

Tobias Smollett, THE EXPEDITION OF HUMPHRY CLINKER (1771)

Fanny Burney, EVELINA (1778)

Jane Austen, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1811)

Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Literature

Catherine Maria Sedgwick, HOPE LESLIE (1827)

Charlotte Brontë, JANE EYRE (1847)

Anne Brontë, AGNES GREY (1847)

Emily Brontë, WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1847)

Anne Brontë, THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL (1848)

Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE (1852)

Charlotte Brontë, VILLETTE (1853)

Anthony Trollope, THE WARDEN (1854)

Frederick Douglass, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855)

Charles Dickens, OUR MUTUAL FRIEND (1865)

George Eliot, MIDDLEMARCH (1871 - 1872)

George Eliot, DANIEL DERONDA (1876)

Thomas Hardy, THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (1878)

Leo Tolstoy, ANNA KARENINA (1878)

Henry James, WASHINGTON SQUARE (1880)

Henry James, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (1881)

Mark Twain, ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1885)

Henry James, THE BOSTONIANS (1886)

Mark Twain, A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT (1889)

William Dean Howells, A HAZARD OF NEW FORTUNES (1890)

Thomas Hardy, TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES (1891)

Sarah Orne Jewett, THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS (1899)

Willa Cather, O PIONEERS! (1913)

Willa Cather, THE SONG OF THE LARK (1915)

Edith Wharton, THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY (1915)

Abraham Cahan, THE RISE OF DAVID LEVINSKY (1917)

Willa Cather, MY ANTONIA (1918)

Edith Wharton, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1920)

Modernism and Its Discontents

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, HERLAND (1915)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, THIS SIDE OF PARADISE (1920)

Aldous Huxley, ANTIC HAY (1923)

Evelyn Waugh, DECLINE AND FALL (1928)

William Faulkner, AS I LAY DYING (1930)

William Faulkner, LIGHT IN AUGUST (1932)

Nathanael West, MISS LONELYHEARTS (1933)

Dashiell Hammett, THE THIN MAN (1936)

Nathanael West, THE DAY OF THE LOCUST (1939)

William Faulkner, THE HAMLET (1940)

William Faulkner, GO DOWN, MOSES (1942)

André Schwartz-Bart, THE LAST OF THE JUST (1959)

Twentieth-Century/Early Twenty-First Century Realism

Anita Brookner, HOTEL DU LAC (1984)

Ian McEwan, ENDURING LOVE (1997)

Kent Haruf, THE TIE THAT BINDS (2000)

Amitav Ghosh, THE GLASS PALACE (2000)

Michel Faber, THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE (2002)

Per Petterson, OUT STEALING HORSES (2003)

Kay Ryan, THE NIAGARA RIVER (2005)

Magda Szabó, THE DOOR (2005)

Elena Ferrante, DAYS OF ABANDONMENT (2005)

Jane Gardam, OLD FILTH (2006)

Alison Bechdel, FUN HOME (2006)

Ian McEwan, SOLAR (2010)

Emma Donoghue, ROOM (2010)

Paul Murray, SKIPPY DIES (2010)

David Eagleman, SUM (2010)

Alina Bronsky, THE HOTTEST DISHES OF THE TARTAR CUISINE (2010)

Hilary Mantel, WOLF HALL (2010)

Elena Ferrante, MY BRILLIANT FRIEND (2011)

Rachel Joyce, THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY (2012)

Richard Ford, CANADA (2012)

Julie Otsuka, THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC (2012)

Elena Ferrante, THE STORY OF A NEW NAME (2012)

Elena Ferrante, THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY (2013)

Elena Ferrante, THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD (2014)

Francesca Marciano, THE OTHER LANGUAGE (2014)

Gavin McCrea, MRS. ENGELS (2015)

Hanya Yanigahara, A LITTLE LIFE (2015)

Paula Whyman, YOU MAY SEE A STRANGER (2016)

David Szalay, ALL THAT MAN IS (2016)

Christopher Nicholson, WINTER (2016)

Damien Wilkins, MAX GATE (2016)

Nathan Hill, THE NIX (2016)

Yaa Gyasi, HOMEGOING (2016)

Karan Mahajan, THE ASSOCIATION OF SMALL BOMBS (2016)

Magic Realism

Ursula Le Guin, THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (1969)

Toni Morrison, SONG OF SOLOMON (1977)

Louise Erdrich, LOVE MEDICINE (1984)

Carlos Ruiz Zafón, THE SHADOW OF THE WIND (2001)

Louise Erdrich, THE PLAGUE OF DOVES (2008)

Postmodernism

Anne Michaels, FUGITIVE PIECES (1996)

Philip Roth, AMERICAN PASTORAL (1997)

Kate Atkinson, HUMAN CROQUET (1997)

Philip Roth, THE HUMAN STAIN (2000)

Manil Suri, THE DEATH OF VISHNU (2001)

Haruki Murakami, KAFKA ON THE SHORE (2002)

Minae Mizumura, A TRUE NOVEL (2002)

Ian McEwan, ATONEMENT (2003)

James Hamilton-Paterson, COOKING WITH FERNET BRANCA (2005)

Simon Mawr, THE GLASS ROOM (2009)

Muriel Barbery, THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG (2006)

Amara Lakhous, CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS OVER AN ELEVATOR IN PIAZZA VITTORIO (2008)

Colum McCann, LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN (2009)

Dan Chaon, AWAIT YOUR REPLY (2010)

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 36 ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD (2010)

Louise Erdrich, SHADOW TAG (2010)

David Mitchell, THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET (2010)

Philip Roth, NEMESIS (2010)

Paul Murray, SKIPPY DIES (2010)

David Levithan, A LOVER'S DICTIONARY (2011)

Julian Barnes, THE SENSE OF AN ENDING (2011)

Jeanette Winterson, WHY BE HAPPY WHEN YOU COULD BE NORMAL? (2011)

Michael Ondaatje, THE CAT'S TABLE (2012) 

Timur Vermes, LOOK WHO'S BACK (2012)

Kate Atkinson, LIFE AFTER LIFE (2013)

Colm McCann, TRANSATLANTIC (2013)

Diogo Mainardi, THE FALL: A FATHER'S MEMOIR IN 424 STEPS (2014)

Alexander Weinstein, CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD (2016)

Paul Beatty, THE SELLOUT (2016)