Book Club
Discuss books with fellow lit lovers in the community! We meet the second Thursday of every month at 1:30pm at the Argenta Library. The library can place a hold on the monthly selections for you if you wish. We also try to keep a few spare copies at the circulation desk. Check out our top-rated books!
We’re always open to new members – join at any time! Contact us if you’d like more information.
February Selection
Courting Mr. Lincoln
by Louis Bayard
Discussion: Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 1:30 pm
at the Argenta Library
Description:
When Mary Todd meets Abraham Lincoln in Springfield in the winter of 1840, he is on no one’s shortlist to be president. Rough and reticent, he’s a country lawyer lacking money and manners, living above a dry goods shop, but with a gift for oratory. Mary, a quick, self-possessed debutante with a tireless interest in debates and elections, at first finds him an enigma. ‘I can only hope,’ she tells his roommate, the handsome, charming Joshua Speed, ‘that his waters being so very still, they also run deep.’ It’s not long, though, before she sees the Lincoln that Speed knows: a man who, despite his awkwardness, is amiable and profound, with a gentle wit to match his genius and a respect for her keen political mind. But as her relationship with Lincoln deepens, she must confront his inseparable friendship with Speed, who has taught his roommate how to dance, dress, and navigate the polite society of Springfield. Told in the alternating voices of Mary Todd and Joshua Speed, and rich with historical detail, Courting Mr. Lincoln creates a sympathetic and complex portrait of Mary unlike any that has come before; a moving portrayal of the deep and very real connection between the two men; and most of all, an evocation of the unformed man who would grow into one of the nation’s most beloved presidents.
March Selection
Magpie Murders
by Anthony Horowitz
Discussion: Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 1:30 pm
at the Argenta Library
Description:
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pund, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job. Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pund investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.
April Selection
Devil’s Half Mile
by Paddy Hirsch
Discussion: Thursday, April 9, 2020 at 1:30 pm
at the Argenta Library
Description:
New York, 1799. A cauldron of opportunity and oppression in a new world of possibility. Thanks to Alexander Hamilton, America has recovered from the financial panic of 1792, but the young country is still finding its way. New lawyer Justice Flanagan, fresh from university, returns to discover who murdered his father. But the city has changed, and the ghosts of the past are all too present, even before bodies appear in alleyways — young women, brutally murdered. Justy teams up with Kerry O’Toole, a childhood friend and the mixed-race daughter of an escaped slave and an Irish gangster, to discover the truth, only to reveal a massive fraud that the perpetrators are determined to keep secret at any cost. And as the body count rises among the rich and the downtrodden alike, the looming crisis could topple the nation.
May Selection
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
by Bryn Greenwood
Discussion: Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 1:30 pm
at the Argenta Library
Description:
A beautiful and provocative love story between two unlikely people and the hard-won relationship that elevates them above the Midwestern meth lab backdrop of their lives. As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It’s safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father’s thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold. By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery. When tragedy rips Wavy’s family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world. Kellen may not be innocent, but he is the fixed point in Wavy and Donal’s chaotic universe. Instead of playing it safe, Wavy has to learn to fight for Kellen, for her brother, and for herself. A powerful novel you won’t soon forget, Bryn Greenwood’s “All the Ugly and Wonderful Things” challenges all we know and believe about love.
Past discussion selections:
January 2020: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman — Our Rating: 3.97
December 2019: Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb — Our Rating: 3.95
November 2019: Cemetery Road by Greg Iles — Our Rating: 4.3
October 2019: The Silent Wife by Kerry Fisher — Our Rating: 3.1
September 2019: Less by Andrew Sean Greer — Our Rating: 1.79
August 2019: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See — Our Rating: 4.36
July 2019: Traveling Light by Lynne Branard — Our Rating: 3.1
June 2019: Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty — Our Rating: 2.0
May 2019: The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser — Our Rating: 3.95
April 2019: Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald — Our Rating: 1.87
March 2019: The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton — Our Rating: 3.85
February 2019: Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan — Our Rating: 3.75
January 2019: The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman — Our Rating: 3.7
Click Here to see 2013-2018 Discussion Selections
Interested in participating? Let us know!
We’ll keep you informed of future discussions and even place a hold on the book for you.
Each month the Book Discussion Group rates the book that we have read on a scale from 1-5