Event List

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP 2024-2025 

The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams - presented by NBPL Foundation

December 11, 2024

This clever first novel is a beguiling dual love story about how language and people intersect and connect – the joy of lex. A century apart, two lexicographers beaver away in London on the same unfinished Encyclopedic Dictionary. Peter Winceworth, stuck working on the S’s in 1899, rues the English language’s lamentable gaps, and has a habit of fabricating words that might fill them, such as “procrastinattering” about the weather. A hundred years later, an intern named Mallory is hired to update definitions and weed out any bogus entries, aka Mountweazels. The intertwining plotlines build to an explosive climax that raises questions about the instability of language, how words gain currency, and whether fake words are any less real than actual words.

 Meeting Details:

• Friends Room, Central Library, 1000 Avocado Avenue, Newport Beach, CA
• 2nd Wednesday of the month / September to May
• 9:30am - 11:00am / doors open at 9:15am
• FREE (a suggested donation of $10.00 is always appreciated)
• No Reservations required
• Come whether you’ve read the book or not as The Group is kind, curious, and engaging!  

The Book Discussion Group members select, read, and discuss 9-10 books per year. This active and dynamic Group meets on the 2nd Wednesday of the month from 9:30am - 11:00am in the Friends Room at the Central Library. All are welcome whether you’ve read the book or not and the program is FREE. Refreshments are provided and the books are available through the Newport Beach Public Library.

For detailed 2024-2025 Book Discussion Group reading list: https://nbplf.foundation/programs/book-discussion-group/