June 2013

The Lower River

by Paul Theroux

Ellis Hock never believed that he would return to Africa. He runs an old-fashioned menswear store in a small town in Massachusetts but still dreams of his Eden, the four years he spent in Malawi with the Peace Corps, cut short when he had to return to take over the family business. When his wife leaves him, and he is on his own, he realizes that there is one place for him to go: back to his village in Malawi, on the remote Lower River, where he can be happy again.

Arriving at the dusty village, he finds it transformed: the school he built is a ruin, the church and clinic are gone, and poverty and apathy have set in among the people. They remember him—the White Man with no fear of snakes—and welcome him. But is his new life, his journey back, an escape or a trap?

Interweaving memory and desire, hope and despair, salvation and damnation, this is a hypnotic, compelling, and brilliant return to a terrain about which no one has ever written better than Theroux.

Everyone is Welcome to Attend

June 6th, 2013, 7 p.m.

Albany Public Library

2450 14th Avenue SE

About the Author

Paul Theroux's highly acclaimed novels include Blinding Light, Hotel Honolulu, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, and The Mosquito Coast. His renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Dark Star Safari, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, and The Happy Isles of Oceania. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.

There's More...

Prefer to listen to a book instead? You can be "hands free" and listen to a book while you drive, clean, garden, the possibilities are endless!

Albany Public Library card holders have FREE access to thousands of audiobooks in Library2Go. Download the FREE Overdrive Software to begin your listening adventure. A list of compatible devices to listen to your book selection can be found on the Library2Go website. On the Library2Go webpage there are instructions for using Library2Go.

Do you have a ebook reader? Library2Go also offers books to download to selected ebook readers as well.

You can find a link to this FREE service on our library website, http://library.cityofalbany.net.

Another available option is Project Gutenberg. There you can download the book onto your computer, or ebook reader , Kindle, and more! Click on this link to explore your options! http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/140

Previous Book Club Titles ( * Unavailable as a book club kit for checkout.)

  • The Lower River, by Paul Theroux
  • Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed
  • Carry the One, by Carol Anshaw
  • The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt
  • The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman
  • Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, by Atul Gawande *
  • State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
  • Starvation Heights, by Gregg Olsen
  • The Space Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar *
  • Affluenza, by John De Graaf, et al *
  • A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolick *
  • Honeymoon in Tehran, by Azadeh Moaveni *
  • Sarah's Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay *
  • The End of Overeating, by David M. Kessler, M.D. *
  • The Dive from Clausen's Pier, by Ann Packer *
  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by Kamkwamba *
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin, By Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Fordlandia, The Rise and Fall of Henry Fords Forgotten Jungle City, By, Greg Grandin
  • Housekeeping, By Marilynne Robinson
  • The Places In Between, By Rory Stewart
  • The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
  • The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
  • The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
  • Freedom: A Novel, By Jonathan Franzen
  • The Ghost Map: The story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, By Steve Johnson
  • The Housekeeper and the Professor, By Yoko Ogawa
  • The Whistling Season, By Ivan Doig
  • Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, By Alexandra Fuller
  • A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, By Michael Dorris
  • The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, By Michael Pollan
  • Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese
  • Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, by Erik Larson
  • The Crying Tree, by Naseem Rakha
  • Crossing the Gates of Alaska: One man, two dogs and 600 miles off the map, by, Dave Metz
  • Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
  • Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
  • Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell
  • Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford
  • My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.
  • The curious incident of the dog in the night-time: a novel by Mark Haddon
  • The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson
  • The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, by Louise Erdrich
  • Zaatar Days, Henna Nights, by Maliha Masood
  • Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
  • Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner
  • Church of the Dog, by Kaya McLaren
  • The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, By Timothy Egan
  • A Thread of Grace, by Mary Doria Russell
  • Stubborn Twig, Lauren Kessler

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Jeannette Walls Interviews

Great stuff is available on Youtube. Lots of interviews of Jeannette Walls, some with her mother.
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

selections for the book club

Anyone attending the book club is welcome to make suggestions for a future book selection. So if you have a favorite book that you think the club would be interested in reading and discussing, let us know and we will certainly consider it!
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