Book Clubs

Share your reading experiences and gain insight while getting to know other readers from all across the state. Wolfner Library proudly offers three book clubs for your reading pleasure! Each book club will feature a different type of reading experience.

  • Novel Reads is the general fiction book club.
  • Big Ideas is a non-fiction book club.
  • Good Books is a mild reads book club. The Good Books club will read fiction and non-fiction books that feature little-to-no sex, violence, or strong language.

 All three clubs will meet via conference call line.

How the club works:

 Call Wolfner Library to register for the club or clubs you are interested in. Your books will be sent to you. We recommend registering at least two weeks in advance of your club meeting date.

     1. Read the book for your club(s).

     2. On the appointed day and time, call the toll-free number which will be provided at the time of registration.

     3. Once everyone is on the line, we will discuss the book we have read!

Schedule:

November, 2019-January, 2020:

 All three Book Clubs will be on break for the holidays.  The clubs will resume in February. 

February:

February 13 at 2 p.m. Novel Reads: A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole (DB 91333; BR 22253)

Marlie Lynch, freeborn daughter of a former slave, helps the Union during the Civil War by using her herbal skills and even hiding escaped prisoner Ewan McCall. When her home is claimed by the Confederate Home Guard, she and Ewan flee together. Some violence, some strong language, and some descriptions of sex. 2017.

February 20 at 2 p.m. Good Books (mild reads): Christy by Catherine Marshall (DB 39327; LP033247; BR 15428)

Based on the life of the author’s mother, this is the tale of nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston’s first year teaching in an Appalachian mountain cove. With the help of Alice Henderson, the Quaker who founded the Cutter Gap mission school, Christy finds her point of reference in God. She makes friends among the hardscrabble Cutter Gap "clan," sees some of them succumb to typhoid fever, and inspires love in two admirable men.

February 27 at 2 p.m. Big Ideas: The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman (DB 25385)

Account of the author’s experiences during the early days of the West, including big game hunts, Indian encounters, and camp life on the trail. 

March:

March 12 at 2 p.m. Novel Reads: The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan (DBC16846)

Historical novel of 17th century India. Mehrunnisa, the daughter of Persian refugees, sets out to marry Prince Salim, the son of Emperor Akbar.

March 19 at 2 p.m. Good Books: Waterlily by Ella Cara Deloria (DB 28216)

An evocation, in novelistic form, of the life of a female Dakota (Sioux) in the mid-nineteenth century, before whites settled the plains. The novel details cultural information about the Sioux, including specific women’s rituals, duties of different tribal members, religious beliefs, relationships, and skills. Deloria (1889-1971) was a Sioux ethnologist who studied at Columbia University and worked with anthropologist Franz Boas, and she wrote the work in 1944.

March 26 at 2 p.m. Big Ideas: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (DB 86608)

The host of TV’s The Daily Show shares his coming-of-age story as the child of a white father and black mother in South Africa. Their very union was considered a crime, and when the author was born during apartheid, his biracial status made him an outcast. Some violence, strong language, and some descriptions of sex. 2016.

April:

April 16 at 2 p.m. Novel Reads: The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott (DB 76900)

1912. Aspiring dressmaker Tess Collins is designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon’s maid aboard the Titanic. After it sinks, the Gordons are accused of refusing to pick up survivors, and Tess testifies at their trial. Meanwhile, Tess must choose between two suitors. 2012.

April 23 at 2 p.m. Good Books (mild reads): The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (DB 75192; LP033555)

Western Australia, 1926. On an island one hundred miles from the mainland, lighthouse keepers Isabel and Tom Sherbourne discover a boat carrying a dead man and a crying baby. The decisions they make that day come back to haunt them several years later. Bestseller. 2012.

April 30 at 2 p.m. Big Ideas: Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter that Saved Greece—and Western Civilization by Barry S. Strauss (DB 59746)

Classics professor outlines the momentous 480 B.C. naval battle in which the Greeks repelled the Persian forces under King Xerxes. Analyzes the political and military strategies of the Athenian commander Themistocles, the participation of the Greek playwright Aeschylus, and the role of the female commander Artemisia. 2004.