We invite you to join our book club!
Every other month, a different Community Library staff member chooses a book and hosts a lively discussion. Our exciting new book club features a wide array of genres, including popular fiction, science fiction, narrative nonfiction, literary fiction … even graphic novels.
There’s something for every reader, and participants can drop in for one session or attend them all!
Book Clubs are intellectually stimulating and a great way to connect to your library and community. To become a member, sign up here. You’ll receive reminders about upcoming sessions and updates on future dates and book selections.
2025 Events
Events are held in the Programs Studio inside the Children’s entrance to the Library on 4th and Walnut. Unless otherwise noted, they will be held on the first Wednesday of even numbered months.
5:30pm, February , 2025
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Hosted by Director of Programs and Education Martha williams
In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Tova Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her encounter with a Neohelix albolabris—a common woodland snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater understanding of her own place in the world. Find it in our collection here.
Read Martha’s review of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating here.
5:30pm, April 2, 2025
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
Hosted by Information Systems Manager Will Duke
The Mighty Red is Louise Erdrich at her consummate best. A novel of tender humor, disquietude, yearning, community, and family, it is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets; men and women both complicated and contradictory, flawed and decent, lonely and hopeful. Human time, deep time, Red River time, and geological time are explored alongside the impact of crises in our own time–climate change, the depletion of natural resources, the economic meltdown of 2008. Find it in our collection here.
Read Will’s review of The Mighty Red here.
5:30pm, June 4, 2025
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Hosted by Director of Library Operations Pam Parker
When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide…
Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. Find it in our collection here.
Read Pam’s review of The God of the Woods here.
5:30pm, August 6, 2025
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
Hosted by Executive Director Jenny Emery Davidson
In her heralded first novel, Gloria Naylor weaves together the stories of seven women living in Brewster Place, a bleak inner-city sanctuary, creating a powerful, moving portrait of the strengths, struggles, and hopes of black women in America. Vulnerable and resilient, openhanded and open-hearted, these women forge their lives in a place that in turn threatens and protects—a common prison and a shared home. Find it in our collection here.
5:30pm, October 1, 2025
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Hosted by Communications Manager Kyla Merwin
Film Screening of The Book Thief: 5:30pm, September 30
The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times.
When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. Find it in our collection here.
Note: A screening of The Book Thief film will be presented on Tuesday, September 30. More/register here.
5:30pm, December 3, 2025
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sara Wynn-Williams
Hosted by Librarian Andrea Nelson
From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite. Find it in our collection here.
Click Here to Join the Club!
Sign up above to be part of one or all of our bi-monthly book discussions at The Community Library.
By joining the Book Club, you will receive one email reminder of an upcoming discussion three weeks before the event, and one “Save the Date” email announcing the next book shortly after every event.
Questions? Email Librarian Andrea Nelson here.
Want more? Read staff book reviews of Book Club titles here.
Click here for titles and reviews from previous Book Clubs.
