The History Book Group will discuss Anne Applebaum’s “Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956” at 6:30 p.m. Thurs. April 18^th on the 2^nd floor of the library. In “Iron Curtain,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. She draws on newly opened East European archives, interviews, and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray the dilemmas faced by millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief and took away everything they had accumulated.

The Friday Book Group will meet at 2:00 p.m. Fri. April 26^th on the 2^nd floor of the library to discuss Kirk Wallace Johnson’s “The Feather Thief.” In June 2009, twenty-year-old Edwin Rist went to the Natural History Museum at Tring and stole hundreds of rare bird skins whose feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to those who shared his obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson learned about the heist and was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation.

The Happy Hour Book Group will meet at Rubaiyat on Wed. May 8^th at 5:15 p.m. to discuss Yangsze Choo’s “The Night Tiger.” When 11-year-old Ren’s master dies, he makes one last request of his Chinese houseboy: that Ren find his severed finger, lost years ago in an accident, and reunite it with his body. Apprentice dressmaker Ji Lin moonlights as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. One night, Ji Lin’s dance partner leaves her with a gruesome souvenir: a severed finger. As a prowling tiger wreaks havoc on the town, Ji Lin and Ren’s lives intertwine in ways they could never have imagined.

The History Book Group will discuss Barbara Tuchman’s “The First Salute” at 6:30 p.m. Thurs. May 16^th on the 2^nd floor of the library. In “The First Salute,” Barbara Tuchman places the American Revolution in the context of the centuries-long conflicts between England and both France and Holland, demonstrating how the aid these nations provided to the American colonies made the triumph of independence possible. She sheds new light on the key role played by the contending navies and recounts in detail the decisive campaign of the war at Yorktown.

The Friday Book Group will meet at 2:00 p.m. Fri. May 17^th on the 2^nd floor of the library to discuss Barbara Kingsolver’s “Unsheltered.” Willa Knox has arrived at middle age with nothing to show for it but an inherited brick home that is literally falling apart. As she begins to investigate the history of the house, she discovers a kindred spirit from the 1880s. A science teacher with a passion for honest investigation, Thatcher Greenwood finds himself under siege in his community for telling the truth: his employer forbids him to speak of the exciting new theory recently published by Charles Darwin. “Unsheltered” is the story of two families in two centuries as they navigate the challenges of surviving a world in the throes of major cultural shifts.