ADULT BOOK CLUBS
Mystery Book Club
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
In 1929, the Hope family was brutally murdered at their cliffside mansion, Hope's End, and seventeen-year-old Lenora was the prime suspect. Though never convicted, Lenora has remained silent about that night for decades.
Now in 1983, home-health aide Kit McDeere is assigned to care for Lenora, who, in her seventies and mute from a series of strokes, communicates only by tapping out sentences on a typewriter. One night, Lenora offers to reveal the truth behind the murders: *"I want to tell you everything."*
As Kit helps Lenora write her story, new details emerge, and Kit begins to suspect that Lenora may not be as innocent—or as harmless—as she appears.
Tuesday, November 26 @ 5:00 PM
Banned or Challenged Book Club
The Glass Castle by Jennette Walls
The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.
The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.
Tuesday, December 3 @ 5:00 PM
Romance Book Club
The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply "B", asking her to leave her husband.
Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance.
Monday, December 16 @ 5:30 PM
Sci Fi/Fantasy Book Club
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
Tuesday, December 17 @ 5:30 PM
TEEN BOOK CLUB
Teen Book Club
The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez
There are no shortcuts to surviving your first day at a new school--you can't fix it with duct tape like you would your Chuck Taylors. On Day One, twelve-year-old Malú (Maria Luisa, if you want to annoy her) inadvertently upsets Posada Middle School's queen bee, violates the school's dress code with her punk rock look, and disappoints her college-professor mom in the process. Her dad, who now lives a thousand miles away, says things will get better as long as she remembers the first rule of punk: be yourself.
The real Malú loves rock music, skateboarding, zines, and Soyrizo (hold the cilantro, please). And when she assembles a group of like-minded misfits at school and starts a band, Malú finally begins to feel at home. She'll do anything to preserve this, which includes standing up to an anti-punk school administration to fight for her right to express herself!
Saturday, December 7 @ 1:00 PM
CHILDREN'S BOOK CLUB
Elementary Book Club & Movie
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Sara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies. Now penniless and banished to a room in the attic, Sara is demeaned, abused, and forced to work as a servant. How this resourceful girl's fortunes change again is at the center of A Little Princess , one of the best-loved stories in all of children's literature.
Discussion is followed by a screening of the movie.
Tuesday, December 10 @ 4:00 PM
ADULT BOOK CLUBS
Mystery Book Club
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
In 1929, the Hope family was brutally murdered at their cliffside mansion, Hope's End, and seventeen-year-old Lenora was the prime suspect. Though never convicted, Lenora has remained silent about that night for decades.
Now in 1983, home-health aide Kit McDeere is assigned to care for Lenora, who, in her seventies and mute from a series of strokes, communicates only by tapping out sentences on a typewriter. One night, Lenora offers to reveal the truth behind the murders: *"I want to tell you everything."*
As Kit helps Lenora write her story, new details emerge, and Kit begins to suspect that Lenora may not be as innocent—or as harmless—as she appears.
Tuesday, November 26 @ 5:00 PM
Banned or Challenged Book Club
The Glass Castle by Jennette Walls
The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.
The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.
Tuesday, December 3 @ 5:00 PM
Romance Book Club
The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply "B", asking her to leave her husband.
Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance.
Monday, December 16 @ 5:30 PM
Sci Fi/Fantasy Book Club
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
Tuesday, December 17 @ 5:30 PM
TEEN BOOK CLUB
Teen Book Club
The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez
There are no shortcuts to surviving your first day at a new school--you can't fix it with duct tape like you would your Chuck Taylors. On Day One, twelve-year-old Malú (Maria Luisa, if you want to annoy her) inadvertently upsets Posada Middle School's queen bee, violates the school's dress code with her punk rock look, and disappoints her college-professor mom in the process. Her dad, who now lives a thousand miles away, says things will get better as long as she remembers the first rule of punk: be yourself.
The real Malú loves rock music, skateboarding, zines, and Soyrizo (hold the cilantro, please). And when she assembles a group of like-minded misfits at school and starts a band, Malú finally begins to feel at home. She'll do anything to preserve this, which includes standing up to an anti-punk school administration to fight for her right to express herself!
Saturday, December 7 @ 1:00 PM
CHILDREN'S BOOK CLUB
Elementary Book Club & Movie
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Sara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies. Now penniless and banished to a room in the attic, Sara is demeaned, abused, and forced to work as a servant. How this resourceful girl's fortunes change again is at the center of A Little Princess , one of the best-loved stories in all of children's literature.
Discussion is followed by a screening of the movie.
Tuesday, December 10 @ 4:00 PM