book club

Author: Gregory Boyle

Recommended by Kaye Smith (4.57) 

224 pages, January 1, 2017

In a moving example of unconditional love in difficult times, the Jesuit priest and bestselling author of Tattoos on

the Heart, Gregory Boyle, shares what three decades of working with gang members in Los Angeles has taught him

about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of kinship. This book is guaranteed to shake up our ideas about

God and about people with a glimpse at a world defined by more compassion and fewer barriers. Gently and

humorously, Barking to the Choir invites us to find kinship with one another and reconvinces us all of our own

goodness.

Author: Evan S. Porter

Recommended by Cathy Scheib (3.76) 

368 pages, June 11, 2024

A heartwarming novel about a loving dad who drags his 11-year-old daughter to “father-daughter week” at a

remote summer camp—their last chance to bond before he loses her to teenage girlhood entirely.

Author: Marie Benedict

Recommended by Kaye Smith (4.04) 

389 pages, June 27, 2023

A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Civil Rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune – and the unlikely friendship that changed the world. This is the story of two different, yet equally formidable, passionate, and committed women and the way in which their singular friendship helped form the foundation for the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Author: Safiya Sinclair

Recommended by Debbie Walker (4.46) 

352 pages, October 3, 2023

With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to

break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing – ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of

her childhood – to find her own voice as a woman and poet.

Author: Meg Shaffer

Recommended by Connie Carlock (4.07) 

304 pages, May 30, 2023

Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked

by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a

26-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially

7-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic deaths of his parents. Lucy would give

anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without

proper funds and stability.

Author: Elin Hilderbrand

Recommended by Vicki Kitchin (4.04) 

384 pages, June 13, 2023

After tragedy strikes, Hollis Shaw gathers four friends from different stages in her life to spend an unforgettable

weekend on Nantucket.

Author: Kathleen Grissom

Recommended by Debbie Walker (4.33)

348 pages, June 6, 2023

The New York Times bestselling author of the book club classics The Kitchen House and Glory Over Everything

returns with a sweeping saga inspired by the true story of Crow Mary — an indigenous woman torn between two

worlds in 19th century North America.

Author: Amanda Peters

Recommended by Vicki Kitchin (4.13)

307 pages, April 4, 2023

A 4-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts

the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly 50 years.

Author: William Kent Krueger

Recommended by Lisa Lindsey (4.27) 

307 pages, March 26, 2013

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at

the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop

magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for 13-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.

Author: Kristin Hannah

Recommended by Debbie Walker and Lisa Lindsey (4.63) 

471 pages, February 6, 2024

Women can be heroes. When 20-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a

revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative

parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly

dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army

Nurse Corps and follows his path.

Author: Monica Wood

Recommended by Kaye Smith (4.29) 

228 pages, June 18, 2024

A story about second chances and unlikely friendships, as Violet, recently released from prison, retired English teacher Harriet, and Frank, a retired machinist and handyman, encounter each other at a bookstore in Portland, Maine, and connect in surprising ways. How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing secondvchances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living.

Author: Richard Osman

Recommended by Jan Blough (3.88) 

382 pages, September 3, 2020

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.