CFL Book Club – Monday, August 12 6:30pm
Join us for a discussion of “The Paper Palace” by Miranda Cowely Heller on Monday, August 12 in the Community Room of the Conshohocken Free Library. Light refreshments will be served. Copies are available for check out at the circulation desk now!
About the Book: It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace”—the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside.
Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always
imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives.
As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.
Mystery Book Club
– Thursday, August 29 7pm
Virtual on Zoom
Join Conshohocken Free Library’s Mystery Book Club for a discussion of Six Four by Hideo Yakoyama. Email cflmystery@gmail.com for Zoom link and ask to join the virtual book club group. Copies available upon request from the circulation desk.
About the Book: The nightmare no parent could endure. The case no detective could solve. The twist no listener could predict.
For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter’s kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. They would never see their daughter again.
For the 14 years that followed, the Japanese public listened to the police’s apologies. They would never forget the botched investigation that became known as Six Four. They would never forgive the authorities their failure. For one week in late 2002, the press officer attached to the police department in question confronted an anomaly in the case.
He could never imagine what he would uncover. He would never have looked if he’d known what he would find.