Scheduled Books
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December 12
The Rosie Project: A Novel
Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially challenged professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. And so, in the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers. Rosie Jarman is all these things. She also is strangely beguiling, fiery, and intelligent. And while Don quickly disqualifies her as a candidate for the Wife Project, as a DNA expert Don is particularly suited to help Rosie on her own quest: identifying her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on the Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you. Arrestingly endearing and entirely unconventional, Graeme Simsion’s distinctive debut will resonate with anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of great challenges. The Rosie Project is a rare find: a book that restores our optimism in the power of human connection.
There are currently no other scheduled books. Please check back at a later date.
Future Suggested Books
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A Dirty Job: A Novel
Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death. It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's gotta do it.
Printed Book: 405 pages
Audio Book: 11 hours, 50 minutes
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We Solve Murders
From the #1 bestselling author of The Thursday Murder Club Series A brand new mystery. An iconic new detective duo. And a thrilling new murder to solve . . . Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . . As a thrilling race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outrun and outsmart a killer? Solving murders. It’s a family business.
Printed Book: 400 pages
Audio Book: 10 hours, 30 minutes
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Wonder
August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. Beginning from Auggie’s point of view and expanding to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others, the perspectives converge to form a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance. In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope.
Printed Book: 315 pages
Audio Book: 07 hours, 10 minutes
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The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife: A Novel
Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up. Denise Simms is stuck breathing the same disappointing air again and again. A middle-aged mom and caregiver at Bernard's facility, her crumbling marriage and daughter's health concerns are suffocating her joy for life. Wounded by her two-faced husband, she vows never to let a man deceive her again. As Fred walks in Bernard’s shoes, he leaves a trail of kindness behind him, fueling Denise's suspicions about his true identity. When unexpected truths are revealed, Fred and Denise rediscover their sense of purpose and learn how to return a broken life to mint condition.
Printed Book: 336 pages
Audio Book: 10 hours, 49 minutes
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What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe’s iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by signature xkcd comics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion. The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with updated and expanded versions of the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? will be required reading for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical.
Printed Book: 320 pages
Audio Book: 06 hours, 36 minutes
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Olga Dies Dreaming
It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro “Prieto” Acevedo, are boldfaced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn, while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan’s power brokers. Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1 percent but she can’t seem to find her own. . . until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets. Olga and Prieto’s mother, Blanca, a Young Lord turned radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives. Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico’s history, Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife, and the very notion of the American dream — all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.
Printed Book: 384 pages
Audio Book: 11 hours, 42 minutes
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The Accidental Tourist: A Novel
Travel writer Macon Leary hates travel, adventure, surprises, and anything outside of his routine. Immobilized by grief, Macon is becoming increasingly prickly and alone, anchored by his solitude and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts. Then he meets Muriel, an eccentric dog trainer too optimistic to let Macon disappear into himself. Despite Macon’s best efforts to remain insulated, Muriel up-ends his solitary, systemized life, catapulting him into the center of a messy, beautiful love story he never imagined. A fresh and timeless tale of unexpected bliss, The Accidental Tourist showcases Tyler’s talents for making characters—and their relationships—feel both real and magical. “Incandescent, heartbreaking, exhilarating…One cannot reasonably expect fiction to be much better than this.” —The Washington Post
Printed Book: 352 pages
Audio Book: 12 hours, 43 minutes
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Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
A mesmerizing tale of unjust imprisonment and offbeat escape, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is one of Stephen King’s most beloved and iconic stories, and it helped make Castle Rock a place readers would return to over and over again. Suspenseful, mysterious, and heart-wrenching, this iconic King novella, is populated by a cast of unforgettable characters — Andy Dufresne, a banker, was convicted of killing his wife and her lover and sent to Shawshank Prison. He maintains his innocence over the decades he spends at Shawshank during which time he forms a friendship with "Red", a fellow inmate.
Printed Book: 128 pages
Audio Book: 03 hours, 58 minutes
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The Wager
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder — From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire. A Best Book of the Year (2023): The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, TIME, Smithsonian, NPR, Vulture, Kirkus Reviews
Printed Book: 327 pages
Audio Book: 08 hours, 28 minutes
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The Guest List
ONE OF "THE NEW YORK TIMES" BEST THRILLERS OF THE YEAR. The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body. On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?
Printed Book: 336 pages
Audio Book: 10 hours, 22 minutes
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Anatomy of a Scandal
Sophie Whitehouse has a lovely home, 2 adorable children and a handsome, successful husband. In other words her life is perfect. But everything changes when her husband confesses an indiscretion. As it turns out, James's revelation is just the tip of the iceberg. He stands accused of a terrible crime. The truth is more shocking than anyone ever could have thought. Is James the guilty perpetrator or an innocent victim of a Toxic agenda? This is a riveting story of love, revenge and deception. No one's motives are pure, but some people's secrets are much darker than others.
Printed Book: 400 pages
Audio Book: 10 hours, 56 minutes
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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.
Printed Book: 352 pages
Audio Book: 11 hours, 02 minutes
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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.
Printed Book: 358 pages
Audio Book: 13 hours, 02 minutes
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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
Printed Book: 400 pages
Audio Book: 12 hours, 21 minutes
A.S. Book Club Ratings
(1 to 5 stars, with 5 being great!)
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Holly
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Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
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On Earth as It Is on Television
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The Housemaid
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
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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