AFTERNOON BOOK CLUB

The Afternoon Book Club is a group of book lovers and readers. Meetings are informal and peer-led so all community members are free to join or listen to get a feel for the discussions and insight into the most recent read. The club meets monthly so you have plenty of time to get through the following months selection.  

At each meeting, the following month's book selection will be available for checkout.
​A valid CT library card is required.

If you have questions about obtaining a book or joining a meeting, contact the library, staff are happy to help.
You may also contact Pat van der Swaagh: (860) 774-6504. 

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Marie Chartier Community Room
The Second Thursday of the Month
​September - May
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
​​See Our Calendar For Upcoming Events

*Copies of the following meetings selected title are available at the library's Circulation Desk

2024-2025

• Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
  
• The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
  
• The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks Dalton
  
• Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva
  
• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
  
• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
  
• The Girl Downstairs by Stacey Lee
  
• The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
• Quiet Corner Reads Author
  

2023-2024

• Behind Enemy Lines by Martha Cohn and Wendy Holden
  
• Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes
• The Lost Apothecary by Sara Penner
  
• Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy by Seymour Reit
  
• The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes
• Seven Days of Us by Francesa Hornak
  
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
  
• Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

2022-2023

• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
• Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler
• Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
• When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor
• Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
• ​The Devil's Bed by William Kent Krueger

2021 - 2022

• Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk
  
• Take It Back by Kia Abdullah
  
• Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
  
• The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedr Patrick 
  
• The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
  
• Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
  
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
  
• The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
  
• ​The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

2020 – 2021

• The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict
  
• Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
  
• The Lost Man by Jane Harper
  
• The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris
  
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
  
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
  
• That Kind of Mother by Alam Rumaan
  
• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
  
• The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

2019 - 2020

• The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris  
• The Lost Man by Jane Harper
• The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict
• Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
• Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
• The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter by Hazel Gaynor
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris 

2018 - 2019

• Still Life by Louise Penny
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
• ​Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• Educated by Tara Westover
• The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis
• ​The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff 

2017-2018

• ​Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
• ​The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg
• ​The Wright Brothers by David McCullough​
• The Curse by Bob Steele
• ​Take Me with You by Catherine Ryan Hyde
• Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation Into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly
• The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
• The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
• Hillbilly Elegy by J.D.Vance
• Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
• The Hundred Year Old Man Who Crawled Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

2016-2017

• Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee
• All the Light You Cannot See, Anthony Doer
• Black Water Rising or Pleasantville, Attica Locke
• Young Elizabeth: The Making of a Queen, Kate Williams
• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
• The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
• The Sound of Glass by Karen White
• Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

2015 - 2016

• The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
• Turn of Mind, Alice LaPlante
• The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown
• The Girl You Left Behind, Jojo Moyes
• The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah
• Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring, Alexander Rose
• Life After Life, Kate Atkinson
• Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins

2014 – 2015

• 1984, George Orwell & Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
• I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzia
• The Round House, Louise Erdrich
• The Wives of Los Alamos, TaraShea Nesbit
• Defending Jacob, William Landay
• Gone Girl, Jillian Flynn
• The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
• The Housmaid’s Daughter, Barbara Mutch
• The Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline

2013 – 2014

• Caleb’s Crossing, Geraldine Brooks
• The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman
• The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer
• Dewey – The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, Vicki Myron with Brett Witter
• The Paris Wife, Paula Mclain
• For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
• The Yellow House, Patricia Falvey
• Baking Cakes in Kigali, Gaile Parkin
• Dinner with the Smiley’s, Jane Smiley

2012 – 2013

• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
• Killing Lincoln, Bill O’Reilly
• Clara and Mr. Tiffany, Susan Vreeland
• The Lost Constitution, William Martin
• The Lost Wife, Alyson Richman
• The Snowball-Warren Buffet and the Business of Life, Alice Schroeder
• Wait Till Next Year, Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Wild, Cheryl Strayed
• QCR selection – Tag Man, Archer Mayer

2011 – 2012

• The Island, Victoria Hislop
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
• Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson
• Mutant Message Down Under, Marlo Morgan
• Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
• Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
• Left Neglected, Lisa Genova
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford

2010 – 2011

• In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
• Cane River, Lalita Tademy
• The Help, Kathryn Stockett
• Walking Across Egypt, Clyde Edgerton
• Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Rosnay
• Lottery, Patricia Wood
• Ireland, Frank Delaney
• Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls
• Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

2009 – 2010

• World Without End, Ken Follett
• The Lace Reader, Brunonia Barry
• People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
• Two Old Women, Velma Wallis
• The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein
• Still Alice, Lisa Genova
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
• The Elegance of the Hedge Hog, Muriel Barberry
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

2008 – 2009

• Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
• Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
• A Parting Gift, Ben Erickson
• The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
• Three Bags Full, Leonie Swann
• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
• Girls of Tender Age, Mary Ann Tirone Smith

2007 – 2008

• Colony, Anne Rivers Siddons
• The Sportswriter, Richard Ford
• Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick
• Le Divorce, Diane Johnson
• Empire Falls, Richard Russo
• Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse
• The Swallows of Kabul, Yasmina Khadra
• My Year of the Meats, Ruth L. Ozeki

2006 – 2007

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
• Sight Unseen, Georgina Kleege
• One Thousand White Women, Jim Fergus
• In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson
• A Good Year, Peter Mayle
• Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
• An Elizabeth Berg book
• Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
• Stone Diaries, Carol Shields

2005 – 2006

• The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman
• Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
• In the Fall, Jeffrey Lent
• The Saving Graces, Patricia Gaffney
• Widow of the South, Robert Hicks
• The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
• The Piano Tuner, Daniel Mason
• The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards
• One Writer’s Beginnings, Eudora Welty

2004 – 2005

• Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson
• The Mapmakers Wife, Robert Whitaker
• Ice Bound, Jerri Nielsen
• A Miracle for St. Cecilia’s, Katherine Valentine
• Fortune’s Rocks, Anita Shreve
• The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
• In the Castle of the Flynns, Michael Raleigh
• The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
• The Black Englishman, Carolyn Slaughter

2003 – 2004

• The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
• A female bio. or autobio.
• Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry
• The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith
• David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
• The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
• Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie
• The Passion of Artemisia, Susan Vreeland
• My Antonia, Willa Cather

2002 – 2003

• Plum Island, Nelson DeMille
• Suspicion of Betrayal, Barbara Parker
• Atonement, Ian McEwan
• Skipping Christmas, John Grissom
• Man and Boy, Tony Parsons
• The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
• Plain Truth, Jodi Picoult
• Power Politics, Arundhati Roy
• A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving

200l – 2002

• The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
• Lord of the Flies, William Golding
• Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
• Peace Like A River, Leif Enger
• Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich
• The Road From Coorain, Jill Ker Conway
• Plainsong, Kent Haruf
• The Language of Threads, Gail Tsukiyama

2000 – 2001

• White Oleander, Janet Fitch
• The Last Hurrah, Edwin O’Connor
• The Dress Lodger, Sheri Holman
• How to Make an American Quilt, Whitney Otto
• The Charm School, Nelson DeMille
• Mr. Perfect, Linda Howard
• Ahab’s Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund

1999 – 2000

• The Reader, Bernhard Schlink
• The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw
• The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
• At Home in Mitford, Jan Karon
• Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom
• The Hungry Ocean, Linda Greenlaw
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
• The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

1998 – 1999

• Wild Swans, Jung Chang
• The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
• Little Altars Everywhere, Rebecca Wells
• We Are Our Mother’s Daughters, Cokie Roberts
• The Color of Water, James McBride
• Trinity, Leon Uris
• Midwives, Chris Bohjalian
• Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
• Charming Billy, Alice McDermott

1997 – 1998

• A Civil Action, Jonathan Harr
• Mystery Writer Presentation by Janice Law
• Songs in Ordinary Times, Mary McGarry Morris
• Map of the World, Jane Hamilton
• The Christmas Box, Richard Paul Evans
• The Pull of the Moon, Elizabeth Berg
• The Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger
• Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
• The Giant’s House, Elizabeth McCracken
• Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
• Charms for the Easy Life, Kaye Gibbons

1996 – 1997                                                                     

• I Was Amelia Earhart, Jane Mendelsohn
• The Paper Boy, Peter Dexter
• Deep End of the Ocean, Jacquelyn Mitchard
• Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
• Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson
• Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
• Stones From the River, Ursula Hegi
• The Giver, Lois Lowry
• Daisy Fay and The Miracle Man, Fannie Flagg
• The Lost Man by Jane Harper.  
• The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris