The History Book Group will discuss of Frederic Morton’s “Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914” at 6:30 p.m. Thurs. Feb. 21^st on the 2^nd floor of the library. “Thunder at Twilight” illuminates two crucial years in Vienna. It was during the carnival of 1913 that a young Stalin arrived on a mission that would launch him into the upper echelon of Russian revolutionaries, and it was here that he first collided with Trotsky. It was in Vienna that the failed artist Adolf Hitler kept daubing watercolors and spouting tirades at fellow drifters in a flophouse. And it was here, shortly before his assassination would trigger the Great War, that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had a troubled audience with Emperor Franz Joseph.

The Happy Hour Book Group will meet at Rubaiyat on Wed. Mar. 13^th at 5:15 p.m. to discuss Michelle Obama’s memoir “Becoming.” As First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama helped create the most inclusive White House in history, established herself as a powerful advocate for women, and dramatically changed the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives. In her memoir, she chronicles the experiences that shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address.

The Friday Book Group will meet at 2:00 p.m. Fri. March 15^th on the 2^nd floor of the library to discuss Emma Donoghue’s “The Wonder.” The Irish Midlands, 1859. An English nurse, Lib Wright, is summoned to a tiny village to observe what some are claiming as a medical anomaly or a miracle—a girl said to have survived without food for months. Tourists have flocked to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell, and a journalist has come down to cover the sensation. “The Wonder” is a tale of two strangers who transform each other’s lives, a psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil.

The History Book Group will discuss Ingrid Rowland and Noah Charney’s “The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art” at 6:30 p.m. Thurs. March 21^st on the 2^nd floor of the library. Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was a man of many talents—a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar—but he is best known for “Lives of the Artists,” the classic account that singlehandedly established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. It was through Vasari’s writings that Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as masters. In “The Collector of Lives,” Rowland and Charney introduce readers to this pivotal figure in art history.