Join us on the second Monday of the month at 6:30 pm to discuss the selected title. To register call (440) 944-6010 or click above.
1/12: The Husbands by Holly Gramazio – When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem–she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years. As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?
2/9: The Women by Kristin Hannah – Women can be heroes, too. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances Frankie McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
3/9: Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E. Smith – The four Endicott siblings–Gemma, Connor, Roddy, and Jude–were once inseparable. Decades later, the unthinkable has happened: the Endicotts haven’t spoken in years … until an out-of-the-blue text arrives from Jude, now a famous actress, summoning them to a small town in North Dakota. They’re each at a crossroads: Gemma, who put her own ambitions aside to raise the others, now isn’t sure if she wants to be a mother herself; Connor, a celebrated novelist, is floundering after his recent divorce and suffering from an epic case of writer’s block; and Roddy, at the tail end of a professional soccer career, is dangerously close to losing his future husband for the chance at one last season. Jude is the only Endicott who seems to have it all together–but appearances can be deceiving. As the weekend unfolds, and the siblings wrestle with their shared past and uncertain futures, they’ll discover that Jude has been keeping three secrets … each of which could change everything.
4/13: The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George – Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can’t seem to heal through literature is himself; he’s still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened. Finally tempted to read the letter, Perdu hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story.
5/11: Death in the Family by James Agee – On a sultry summer night in 1915, Jay Follet leaves his house in Knoxville, Tennessee, to tend to his father, whom he believes is dying. The summons turns out to be a false alarm, but on his way back to his family, Jay has a car accident and is killed instantly. Dancing back and forth in time and braiding the viewpoints of Jay’s wife, brother, and young son, Rufus, Agee creates an overwhelmingly powerful novel of innocence, tenderness, and loss that should be read aloud for the sheer music of its prose.
6/8: Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel – One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production. Jeevan Chaudhary, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur’s chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside as life disintegrates outside. This novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.
7/13: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman – A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door. Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon–the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell. But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.
8/10: If the Creek Don’t Rise by Leah Weiss – In a North Carolina mountain towns, Sadie Blue is only the latest girl to face a dead-end future at the mercy of a dangerous drunk. She’s been married to Roy Tupkin for fifteen days, and she knows now that she should have listened to the folks who said he was trouble. But when a stranger sweeps in and knocks the world off-kilter for everyone in town, Sadie begins to think there might be more to life than being Roy’s wife.
9/14: Empire Falls by Richard Russo – Milo Roby tries to hold his family together while working at the Empire Grill in the once-successful logging town of Empire Falls, Maine, with his partner, Mrs. Whiting, who is the heir to a faded logging and textile legacy.
10/12: The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark – In June 1975, the Taylor family is shattered when two teenage siblings are found dead, leaving Vincent as the only survivor and prime suspect. Decades later, Vincent becomes a famous horror writer, while his daughter, Olivia Dumont, hides her identity. Facing financial ruin, Olivia is offered a job to ghostwrite her father’s last book, only to discover it’s not a horror novel but the true story of what happened that night in 1975.
11/9: Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza – Lizzie and Bex were best friends in college-until Bex vanished. Fifteen years later, she’s reinvented as Rebecca Sommers, a glamorous influencer with a perfect life. When Bex invites Lizzie to an exclusive conference and then disappears again-this time leaving a dead husband behind-Lizzie is pulled into a web of lies, jealousy, and secrets in the ruthless world of social media. To find Bex and clear her name, Lizzie must uncover the truth behind the influencer façade.
12/14: The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd – The story of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who ran her father’s plantation outside Charleston, South Carolina in the 1700s and struck a bargain with the plantation’s slaves–teach her how to make indigo and she would teach them to read.
