Check it out:Joining book group adds to experience of reading

Manuscripts Book Discussion Group is beginning the new 2007-08 season with an exciting lineup of titles, and the eagerly awaited list is unveiled below.

Start reading now and have time to mull over your opinions before meeting on the second Wednesday of each month from 9:15 to 11 a.m. Books are selected from group suggestions, individual requests and title availability.

Some people choose to purchase the book and make notes in the margins, while others prefer to check the books out from the library and keep a separate notebook.

These sessions are free, open to the public and sponsored by the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation. Refreshments are provided.

Lively discussions and exploratory questions are the heart and soul of the group.

Selected books have author appearances in tandem with the readings. Here are the new season’s titles with corresponding months.

“Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe: Sept. 12; Experience the 18th century from a 21st century perspective. Moll Flanders is an English language classic. Find out why.

As an added bonus, a special paid event will follow the free discussion.

“Keeping Up Appearances: An Eighteenth Century Art” with English professor Peggy Strong, features a luncheon and lecture from noon until 2:30 p.m. Reserve your seat today by calling the Foundation at: (949) 644-3296.

“Triangle” by Katharine Weber: Oct. 10; This work of historical fiction recounts the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire as remembered by a 106-year-old survivor and incorporates questions posed by her granddaughter.

Author Katherine Weber will appear at the Central Library in person Oct. 25 for a 7 p.m. free lecture and book signing, courtesy of the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation.

“Angels in America” by Tony Kushner: Nov. 14: This Pulitzer Prize-winning play explores the AIDS crisis in the United States.

You can meet Kushner in person Nov. 4 at 6 p.m. when he appears in conversation with John Glore at the Central Library. Light supper and cocktails are included in this special foundation event benefiting the Newport Beach Public Library. To reserve your seats or find out more about purchasing tickets, call the foundation at: (949) 64-3296.

“Charming Billy” by Alice McDermott: Dec. 12; Love him or hate him, everyone had an opinion of the late Billy Lynch. What they didn’t realize was his importance in their lives.

“Suite Française” by Irène Némirovsky: Jan. 9; Experience a story about the Nazi occupation of France in a previously unpublished novel written over 60 years ago.

“Legends of the Fall” by Jim Harrison: Feb. 13; Read an extraordinary Western saga as big as the Montana skies where three brothers vie against the backdrop of World War I.

“Here is Where We Meet” by John Berger: March 12; John meets his mother in Lisbon on a hot afternoon. The trouble is that she’s been dead for 15 years.

“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy: April 9; A father and son traveling together explore a brutal, future world.

“Yellow House” by Martin Gayford: May 14; Master artists Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh shared a house in 1888 one summer in this nonfiction title that reveals a fascinating relationship.

“The Ice Queen: A Novel” by Alice Hoffman: June 11; A new beginning in life is afforded a small-town librarian after she is struck by lightning in her own house.

“A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini: July 9; The author of “The Kite Runner” pens a 30-year chronicle involving Afghan history interwoven with families, faith and friendship.