Scheduled Books
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July 11
The Housemaid
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.
There are currently no other scheduled books. Please check back at a later date.
Future Suggested Books
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North Woods: A Novel
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Boston Globe, NPR, Chicago Public Library, The Star Tribune, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor, Real Simple, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Bookreporter - When two young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and nonhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to growing apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths an ancient mass grave—only to discover that the earth refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister con man, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle: As the inhabitants confront the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive. - It is not just an unforgettable novel about secrets and destinies, but a way of looking at the world that asks the timeless question: How do we live on, even after we’re gone? - Audio Book: 11 hours, 5 minutes
384 pages
Currently 1 member wants to read this book and 0 members do not.
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Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . . The only way to survive is to open your heart. — Audio Book: 11 hours, 2 minutes
352 pages
Currently 1 member wants to read this book and 0 members do not.
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Pet Sematary
When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. As Louis is about to discover for himself sometimes, dead is better… — Audio Book: 15 hours, 41 minutes
560 pages
Currently 4 members want to read this book and 1 members does not.
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Bear Necessity: A Novel
Danny’s life is falling apart. His eleven-year-old son, Will, hasn’t spoken since the death of his mother in a car crash a year earlier, and Danny has just been fired from his construction job. He’s behind on the rent and his landlord is threatening to break his legs if he doesn’t pay soon. Danny needs money, and fast. After observing street performers in a local park, Danny spends his last few dollars on a tattered panda costume, impulsively deciding to become a dancing bear. While performing one day, Danny spots his son being bullied by a group of older boys. Danny chases them off, and Will opens up for the first time since his mom died, unaware that the man in the panda costume is his father. Afraid of disclosing his true identity, Danny comforts his son. But will Danny lose Will’s trust once he reveals who he is? And will he be able to dance his way out of despair? — Audio Book: 8 hours, 6 minutes
320 pages
Currently 2 members want to read this book and 0 members do not.
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The Little Prince
A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper... And thus, begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers. A beautiful and at times heartbreaking meditation on human nature. The Little Prince is one of the best-selling and most translated books of all time, universally cherished by children and adults alike, and Richard Howard's translation of the beloved classic beautifully reflects Saint-Exupéry's unique and gifted style, bringing the English text as close as possible to the French in language, style, and spirit. — Audio Book: 1 hour, 59 minutes
96 pages
Currently 6 members want to read this book and 1 members does not.
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The Day of the Jackal
A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man. One man with a rifle who can change the course of history. One man whose mission is so secretive not even his employers know his name. And as the minutes count down to the final act of execution, it seems that there is no power on earth that can stop the Jackal. — Audio Book: 13 hours, 2 minutes
358 pages
Currently 4 members want to read this book and 0 members do not.
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Holly
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down. Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless. Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King. “I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.” —STEPHEN KING — Audio Book: 15 hours, 20 minutes
464 pages
Currently 7 members want to read this book and 2 members do not.
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The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
James McBride spun a story of a Brooklyn neighborhood filled with beguiling and booze-filled characters that showed just how vital communities can be—and he’s done it again with The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Except this time, we’re in Chicken Hill, a small town in Pennsylvania, where Black, Jewish, and European immigrants, rich and poor, old and young, collide—defending, fighting, entertaining, feeding, and sheltering one another. This cacophonous melody of characters with all of their schemes and dreams reveal how home is where you make it—and how all of these “outsiders” are anything but. With spunky detail, McBride masterfully makes you feel like you’re part of the neighborhood, that these are your neighbors, your friends, and enemies, drawing you in, so that you, too, know the secrets they keep, the grudges they hold, and kindness they offer. Chock full of the social, racial, and ethnic politics of a small town, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is another irresistible stand-out from McBride. — Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor — Audio book: 12 hours, 21 minutes
400 pages
Currently 3 members want to read this book and 3 members do not.
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The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel
“Funny, tender, and moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry reminds us all exactly why we read and why we love.” — Library Journal. What could be better than a book set in a bookstore? One with a pinch of mystery, a dollop of whimsy and a reluctant love story of course. A.J. Fikry is slowly becoming a hermit. After the death of his wife and the slow decline of his bookstore, all he really wants is to be left alone. But a persistent sales rep and an unexpected package change everything. A.J.’s curmudgeonly ways are in serious jeopardy as he tackles the unexpected with tenacity and grace. Books, lots of books, police and a baby. — Audio Book: 7 hours, 2 minutes
288 pages
Currently 3 members want to read this book and 2 members do not.
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On Earth as It Is on Television
“Cats, television, and bacon all play important roles in the book; cats can perceive things humans can’t and are given powers that help the characters find their way, and the funny way television changes the aliens’ minds about their own culture is quite the commentary on our world. A compelling plot with some quirky features makes this book a great entry for a new sci-fi reader.” —Booklist. In Emily Jane’s rollicking debut, when spaceships arrive and then depart suddenly without a word, the certainty that we are not alone in the universe turns to intense uncertainty as to our place within it. Since long before the spaceships’ fleeting presence, Blaine has been content to go along with the whims of his supermom wife and half-feral, television-addicted children. But when the kids blithely ponder skinning people to see if they’re aliens, and his wife drags them all on a surprise road trip to Disney World, even steady Blaine begins to crack. Half a continent away, Heather floats in a Malibu pool and watches the massive ships hover overhead. Maybe her life is finally going to start. For her, the arrival heralds a quest to understand herself, her accomplished (and oh-so-annoying) stepfamily, and why she feels so alone in a universe teeming with life. Suddenly conscious and alert after twenty catatonic years, Oliver struggles to piece together his fragmented, disco-infused memories and make sense of his desire to follow a strange cat on a westward journey. Embracing the strangeness that is life in the twenty-first century, On Earth as It Is on Television is a rollicking, heartfelt tale of first contact that practically leaps off the planet. — Audio Book: 11 hours, 25 minutes
352 pages
Currently 7 members want to read this book and 2 members do not.
A.S. Book Club Ratings
(1 to 5 stars, with 5 being great!)
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First Lie Wins
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Remarkably Bright Creatures
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The Road
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The Authenticity Project
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Lessons in Chemistry
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Crime and Punishment
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The Cruelest Month
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Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead: A Novel
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1984
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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
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The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Past Events
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Readers Become Writers
In August 2023 it was suggest that club members become writers. At our December 13 meeting, four club members shared stories they had written. Each one was very well received by the group. The readers who became writers were highly praised for their creativity and passion.
VIEW MEMBERS' WORKS