NOTE for summer schedules we will meet on the 5th Monday in July and skip August 

July 29 we will discuss Andrew Jackson 

American Lion by John Meacham (print, large print, e-book, e-audio or CD audio) or alternatives are Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times By: HW Brands (print, large print, CD audio) or Jacksonland by Steve Inskeep (print or CD audio)

The Presidential Book Group is reading biographies of each President in chronological order.  Join us anytime along this journey.  

The group meets on the 4th Monday of the month at 6:30 PM EST, which you can attend in person in the Coolidge Museum or on Zoom. Discussions will be facilitated by Bill Scher, vice president of the Coolidge Museum Committee.

Email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org to join the email list and receive the zoom link.

Respectful, queer/LGBT-friendly, easy-going bunch who want an excuse to get out more and talk about books. And have some snacks. Meetings take place on the first Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. You can reach our group at paradisecityreaders@gmail.com. 

This month's discussion will be about Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. 

About the book: 

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the feeling took root—that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible. But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

Anyone interested in Science Fiction or Fantasy is welcome. Although we focus on this month’s selection, we will discuss any topics related to Science Fiction or Fantasy, books or movies.

This month's discussion will cover Babel by R. F. Kuang. 

About the book: 

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence? 

Get your Happily Ever After fix from the [Springfield City Library] Romance Book Club!

ONLINE via Zoom Saturdays once a month | 10:00-11:00 AM | Adults

Join us for the Romance Book Club!

We read as many romance genres as we can, sharing our thoughts and expanding our romance reading experience. As long as it has a Happily Ever After, it’s fair game.

Each month we choose the book for the following month.

For more information, this month's pick, and to register (optional), visit our friends at Springfield City Library

Future dates:
September 7
October 5
November 2
December 14

We'll be reading If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery. Request a copy of this book by placing a hold. 

About the book: 

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what the younger son, Trelawny, calls “the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive.”Masterfully constructed with heart and humor, the linked stories in Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You center on Trelawny as he struggles to carve out a place for himself amid financial disaster, racism, and flat-out bad luck. After a fight with Topper, Trelawny claws his way out of homelessness through a series of odd, often hilarious jobs. Meanwhile, his brother, Delano, attempts a disastrous cash grab to get his kids back, and his cousin Cukie looks for a father who doesn’t want to be found. As each character searches for a foothold, they never forget the profound danger of climbing without a safety net.Pulsing with vibrant lyricism and inimitable style, sly commentary and contagious laughter, Escoffery’s debut unravels what it means to be in between homes and cultures in a world at the mercy of capitalism and whiteness. With If I Survive You, Escoffery announces himself as a prodigious storyteller in a class of his own, a chronicler of American life at its most gruesome and hopeful.

Literary minded discussion. Open to new members. Join us in person or join via Zoom!

--

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 914 8618 6242
Passcode: 939659

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Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

The Nature and Environment Book Club is devoted to the best of nature writing and environmental reporting with discussions on the second Wednesday of each month. Readers and writers interested in books ranging from such classics as Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to topical reportage like Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction will want to join the conversation.

This month's book is The Devil's Element by Dan Egan. 

Get a copy from the library by placing a hold.

About the book:

The story of phosphorus spans the globe and vast tracts of human history. The race to mine phosphorus took people from the battlefields of Waterloo, which were looted for the bones of fallen soldiers, to the fabled guano islands off Peru, the Bone Valley of Florida, and the sand dunes of the Western Sahara. Over the past century, phosphorus has made farming vastly more productive, feeding the enormous increase in the human population. Yet, as Egan harrowingly reports, our overreliance on this vital crop nutrient is today causing toxic algae blooms and "dead zones" in waterways from the coasts of Florida to the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes and beyond. Egan also explores the alarming reality that diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the food system worldwide--which risks rising conflict and even war.

NO MEETING THIS MONTH

The Coolidge Museum at Forbes Library is starting a new book group in 2024 to focus of reading women's history and social history.  

As her husband John met in Philadelphia to discuss forming a new nation, Abigail Adams wrote to implore him, 'I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.' Alas, it would be another 150 years before they even got the right to vote. But women were neither silent nor passive then or now.

To elevate the voices of women in American history, a new book club is being offered by the The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum. The inspiration for the club, Herstory: Women in American History, came from some members of the museum's Presidential Book Club, who expressed a desire to read more about the context of historical figures, and to hear from and about the women involved in the building of our nation. 

Selections in the book club will include biographies of women interspersed with texts on significant periods in American history. This way, book club members can place the women they read about in context and gain a fuller understanding of their challenges and achievements.

This group meets on Zoom on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7:00 PM 

This group is moderated by Coolidge Museum Committee members Leslie Skantz-Hodgson (Smith Vocational School Librarian) and Rob Weir (retired professor of history).  

To join the email list or for more information, email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org 

This month's book is Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning. You can request a copy of the book from the library catalog. 

About the book: 

Set in early 1900s Colorado, the unforgettable tale of a young woman who bravely faces the consequences of speaking out against injustice.In a voice spiked with sly humor, Sylvie Pelletier recounts leaving her family’s snowbound mountain cabin to work in a manor house for the Padgetts, owners of the marble-mining company that employs her father and dominates the town. Sharp-eyed Sylvie is awed by the luxury around her; fascinated by her employer, the charming “Countess” Inge, and confused by the erratic affections of Jasper, the bookish heir to the family fortune. Her fairy-tale ideas of romance take a dark turn when she realizes the Padgetts’ lofty philosophical talk is at odds with the unfair labor practices that have enriched them. Their servants, the Gradys, formerly enslaved people, have long known this to be true and are making plans to form a utopian community on the Colorado prairie. Outside the manor walls, the town of Moonstone is roiling with discontent. A handsome union organizer, along with labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The editor of the local newspaper—a bold woman who takes Sylvie on as an apprentice—is publishing unflattering accounts of the Padgett Company. Sylvie navigates vastly different worlds and struggles to find her way amid conflicting loyalties. When the harsh winter brings tragedy, Sylvie must choose between silence and revenge. Drawn from true stories of Colorado history, Gilded Mountain is a tale of a bygone American West seized by robber barons and settled by immigrants, and is a story infused with longing—for self-expression and equality, freedom and adventure.

This is a hyrbid meeting -- so you can either join us on Zoom or in the Watson Room this month!

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 835 3287 2599
Passcode: 188946
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We are taking July and August off. See you in September!

Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

This month's selection is Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis.  You can place a hold on this book from the catalog. 

About the book: 

George F. Babbitt, a conniving, prosperous real estate man from Zenith, Ohio, revels in his popularity, his success, and, especially, in the material rewards they bring. He bullies his wife, flirts with other women, and patronizes the less successful. But when his best friend is sent to prison for killing his wife, Babbitt's middle-class complacency is shattered, and he rebels, seeking a more "meaningful" life. His small revolt is quickly defeated, however, by public opinion and his own need for acceptance. Babbitt captures the flavor of America during the economic boom years of the 1920's, and its protagonist has become the symbol of middle-class mediocrity, his name an enduring part of the American lexicon.

The Great Books discussion is structured so that the evening’s selected reading is discussed in a think tank environment with the intention of gaining insight from other readers that one would not have by reading alone. The seminar facilitator asks questions of the participants about the reading selection and helps the discussion stay focused. Our main goal is to have fun and take many interpretations from the group in order to enjoy a greater understanding of a selected reading.

Discussions are open to everyone and free of charge.  For a list of past and future discussion books and to contact the group visit, http://mail.salticid.com/mailman/listinfo/forbes_great_books_salticid.com.

About the facilitator:

Hilary Caws-Elwitt has her BA in English & American Literature from Harvard, MLS from University of Arizona, and ran Susquehanna County Reads for its first 4 years. But mostly she loves reading and discussing the books!

NO MEETING THIS MONTH 

The group meets on the 4th Monday of the month at 6:30 PM EST, which you can attend in person in the Coolidge Museum or on Zoom. Discussions will be facilitated by Bill Scher, vice president of the museum’s Standing Committee.

Email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org to join the email list or for more information.

This month's selection is Deer Season by Erin Flanagan. 

About the book: 

It’s the opening weekend of deer season in Gunthrum, Nebraska, in 1985, and Alma Costagan’s intellectually disabled farmhand, Hal Bullard, has gone hunting with some of the locals, leaving her in a huff. That same weekend, a teenage girl goes missing, and Hal returns with a flimsy story about the blood in his truck and a dent near the headlight. When the situation escalates from that of a missing girl to something more sinister, Alma and her husband are forced to confront what Hal might be capable of, as rumors fly and townspeople see Hal’s violent past in a new light. A drama about the complicated relationships connecting the residents of a small-town farming community, Deer Season explores troubling questions about how far people will go to safeguard the ones they love and what it means to be a family.

The Mystery Book Discussion Group meets monthly for a casual discussion. New members are always welcome. Pick up a copy of this month's discussion book at the library. Email Maureen Carney, the facilitator, for updated virtual meeting info.

Respectful, queer/LGBT-friendly, easy-going bunch who want an excuse to get out more and talk about books. And have some snacks. Meetings take place on the first Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. You can reach our group at paradisecityreaders@gmail.com. 

This month's discussion will be about Western Lane by Chetna Maroo. 

About the book: 

Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo.But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe. An indelible coming-of-age story, Chetna Maroo’s first novel captures the ordinary and annihilates it with beauty. Western Lane is a valentine to innocence, to the closeness of sisterhood, to the strange ways we come to know ourselves and each other.

Anyone interested in Science Fiction or Fantasy is welcome. Although we focus on this month’s selection, we will discuss any topics related to Science Fiction or Fantasy, books or movies.

This month's discussion will cover . . . 

About the book: 

Get your Happily Ever After fix from the [Springfield City Library] Romance Book Club!

ONLINE via Zoom Saturdays once a month | 10:00-11:00 AM | Adults

Join us for the Romance Book Club!

We read as many romance genres as we can, sharing our thoughts and expanding our romance reading experience. As long as it has a Happily Ever After, it’s fair game.

Each month we choose the book for the following month.

For more information, this month's pick, and to register (optional), visit our friends at Springfield City Library

Future dates:
October 5
November 2
December 14

We'll be reading Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. Request a copy of this book by placing a hold. 

About the book: 

A stunning debut novel by a masterful writer telling the heartwrenching story of a young boy and his alcoholic mother, whose love is only matched by her pride.

Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh “Shuggie” Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher’s policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city’s notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings.

Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good—her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamorous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion’s share of each week’s benefits—all the family has to live on—on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs. Agnes’s older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is “no right,” a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her—even her beloved Shuggie.

A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. Recalling the work of Édouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, it is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell.

Literary minded discussion. Open to new members. Join us in person or join via Zoom!

--

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/91486186242?pwd=K3NYcjEwNlFZckJnNFhNNmhUYXJqUT09

Meeting ID: 914 8618 6242
Passcode: 939659

+16465588656,,91486186242#,,,,*939659# US (New York)
+16469313860,,91486186242#,,,,*939659# US

Dial by your location
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Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

The Nature and Environment Book Club is devoted to the best of nature writing and environmental reporting with discussions on the second Wednesday of each month. Readers and writers interested in books ranging from such classics as Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to topical reportage like Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction will want to join the conversation.

This month's book is Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez. 

Get a copy from the library by placing a hold.

About the book:

No animal has gripped man's imagination as strongly as the wolf. Feared, hated, reviled, he has been regarded as the embodiment of evil. Now, in an age of science, people defend the wolf's role in nature; some have even come to romanticize him. But still we have not seen the whole wolf. This talented and perceptive writer shows us not only the wolf of the scientist but the wolf of the Eskimo and the Indian, the wolf of the wolf killer, the wolf of the imagination--werewolves, feral children, the wolf of folklore and fable--and in so doing creates a compelling picture of both the wolf as animal and the wolf that man has created. Everyone sees a different wolf. The scientist sees an animal as defined by his data. The Eskimo, whose powers of observation closely resemble the wolf's, sees an animal very much like himself--hunter and provider. For the native American the wolf was a spiritual symbol, an animal who lived in a way that would make both individual and tribe strong. For the wolf killer he was often an irrational, frenzied predator that must be annihilated. In the human imagination he has most often been a subconscious scapegoat for the bestiality of men. Barry Lopez draws the reader into the world of the wolf and the ideas that surround him. With the vision of a poet, he sorts truth from untruth to come as close as one can to an understanding of how man creates animals. In reading this book we not only learn a great deal about wolves, but we come face to face with ourselves.

The Coolidge Museum at Forbes Library is starting a new book group in 2024 to focus of reading women's history and social history.  

As her husband John met in Philadelphia to discuss forming a new nation, Abigail Adams wrote to implore him, 'I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.' Alas, it would be another 150 years before they even got the right to vote. But women were neither silent nor passive then or now.

To elevate the voices of women in American history, a new book club is being offered by the The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum. The inspiration for the club, Herstory: Women in American History, came from some members of the museum's Presidential Book Club, who expressed a desire to read more about the context of historical figures, and to hear from and about the women involved in the building of our nation. 

Selections in the book club will include biographies of women interspersed with texts on significant periods in American history. This way, book club members can place the women they read about in context and gain a fuller understanding of their challenges and achievements.

This group meets on Zoom on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7:30 PM 

This group is moderated by Coolidge Museum Committee members Leslie Skantz-Hodgson (Smith Vocational School Librarian) and Rob Weir (retired professor of history).  

To join the email list or for more information, email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org 

Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

This month's selection is The Quiet American by Graham Greene. 

Place a hold on The Quiet American by Graham Greene.

About the book: 

It’s 1955 and British journalist Thomas Fowler has been in Vietnam for two years covering the insurgency against French colonial rule. But it’s not just a political tangle that’s kept him tethered to the country. There’s also his lover, Phuong, a young Vietnamese woman who clings to Fowler for protection. Then comes Alden Pyle, an idealistic American working in service of the CIA. Devotedly, disastrously patriotic, he believes neither communism nor colonialism is what’s best for Southeast Asia, but rather a “Third Force”: American democracy by any means necessary. His ideas of conquest include Phuong, to whom he promises a sweet life in the states. But as Pyle’s blind moral conviction wreaks havoc upon innocent lives, it’s ultimately his romantic compulsions that will play a role in his own undoing.
 
Although criticized upon publication as anti-American, Graham Greene’s “complex but compelling story of intrigue and counter-intrigue” would, in a few short years, prove prescient in its own condemnation of American interventionism (The New York Times).

The Great Books discussion is structured so that the evening’s selected reading is discussed in a think tank environment with the intention of gaining insight from other readers that one would not have by reading alone. The seminar facilitator asks questions of the participants about the reading selection and helps the discussion stay focused. Our main goal is to have fun and take many interpretations from the group in order to enjoy a greater understanding of a selected reading.

Discussions are open to everyone and free of charge.  For a list of past and future discussion books and to contact the group visit, http://mail.salticid.com/mailman/listinfo/forbes_great_books_salticid.com.

About the facilitator:

Hilary Caws-Elwitt has her BA in English & American Literature from Harvard, MLS from University of Arizona, and ran Susquehanna County Reads for its first 4 years. But mostly she loves reading and discussing the books!

This month's book is Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. You can request a copy of the book from the library catalog. 

About the book: 

When Mackenzie wakes up with a severed crow's head in her hands, she panics. Only moments earlier she had been fending off masses of birds in a snow-covered forest. In bed, when she blinks, the head disappears.   Night after night, Mackenzie’s dreams return her to a memory from before her sister Sabrina’s untimely death: a weekend at the family’s lakefront campsite, long obscured by a fog of guilt. But when the waking world starts closing in, too—a murder of crows stalks her every move around the city, she wakes up from a dream of drowning throwing up water, and gets threatening text messages from someone claiming to be Sabrina—Mackenzie knows this is more than she can handle alone.Traveling north to her rural hometown in Alberta, she finds her family still steeped in the same grief that she ran away to Vancouver to escape. They welcome her back, but their shaky reunion only seems to intensify her dreams—and make them more dangerous.What really happened that night at the lake, and what did it have to do with Sabrina’s death? Only a bad Cree would put their family at risk, but what if whatever has been calling Mackenzie home was already inside?

This is a hyrbid meeting -- so you can either join us on Zoom or in the Watson Room this month!

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 835 3287 2599
Passcode: 188946
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The Presidential Book Group, recently concluded its first journey, reading biographies of every American president from Washington to Trump.

If you want to embark on the journey, now is your chance! The group will start anew on January 22, beginning with “Washington: A Life” by famed biographer Ron Chernow.  In this group you will deepen your understanding of the American presidency as we trace the history of the presidency, beginning with George Washington, and watching how American democracy evolved in ways the Founders never anticipated. We'll follow how presidents, both celebrated and forgotten, grappled with slavery, economics, executive power and America's role in the world. In doing so, we'll broaden our knowledge of Coolidge and where his presidency fits in the American story. 

The group meets on the 4th Monday of the month at 6:30 PM EST, which you can attend in person in the Coolidge Museum or on Zoom. Discussions will be facilitated by Bill Scher, vice president of the museum’s Standing Committee.

Email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org to join the email list or for more information.

This month's selection is Hideout by Louisa Luna. 

About the book: 

Alice Vega has made a career of finding the missing and vulnerable against a ticking clock, but she's never had a case like that of Zeb Williams, missing for thirty years. It was 1984, and the big Cal-Stanford football game was tied with seconds left on the clock. Zeb Williams grabbed the ball and ran the wrong way, through the marching band, off the field, and out of the stadium. He disappeared into legend, replete with Elvis-like sightings and a cult following. Zeb's cold trail leads Vega to southern Oregon, where she discovers an anxious community living under siege by a local hate group called the Liberty Boys. As Vega starts digging into the past, the mystery around Zeb's disappearance grows deeper, and the reach of the Liberty Boys grows more disturbing. Everyone has something to hide, and no one can cut to the truth like Alice Vega. But this time, her partner Max Caplan has his own problems at home, and the trouble Vega finds might be too much for her to handle. Louisa Luna understands suspense, tension, and character like only the best writers in crime fiction do—and she may well write the best interrogations in the genre. Hideout is pure adrenaline and Luna's most intimate thriller yet, a classic cold case wrapped in a timely confrontation with a terrifyingly real network of white supremacists and homegrown terrorists.

The Mystery Book Discussion Group meets monthly for a casual discussion. New members are always welcome. Pick up a copy of this month's discussion book at the library. Email Maureen Carney, the facilitator, for updated virtual meeting info.

Anyone interested in Science Fiction or Fantasy is welcome. Although we focus on this month’s selection, we will discuss any topics related to Science Fiction or Fantasy, books or movies.

This month's discussion will cover . . . 

About the book: 

Get your Happily Ever After fix from the [Springfield City Library] Romance Book Club!

ONLINE via Zoom Saturdays once a month | 10:00-11:00 AM | Adults

Join us for the Romance Book Club!

We read as many romance genres as we can, sharing our thoughts and expanding our romance reading experience. As long as it has a Happily Ever After, it’s fair game.

Each month we choose the book for the following month.

For more information, this month's pick, and to register (optional), visit our friends at Springfield City Library

Future dates:
November 2
December 14

We'll be reading The Pole by J.M. Coetzee. Request a copy of this book by placing a hold. 

About the book: 

Exacting yet unpredictable, pithy yet complex, Coetzee's The Pole tells the story of Wittold Walccyzkiecz, a vigorous, extravagantly white-haired pianist and interpreter of Chopin who becomes infatuated with Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, after she helps organize his concert in Barcelona. Although Beatriz, a married woman, is initially unimpressed by Wittold and his "gleaming dentures," she soon finds herself pursued and ineluctably swept into his world. As the journeyman performer sends her countless letters, extends invitations to travel, and even visits her husband's summer home in Mallorca, their unlikely relationship blossoms, though only on Beatriz's terms. The power struggle between them intensifies, eventually escalating into a full-fledged battle of the sexes. But is it Beatriz who limits their passion by paralyzing her emotions? Or is it Wittold, the old man at his typewriter, trying to force into life his dream of love? Reinventing the all-encompassing love of the poet Dante for his Beatrice, Coetzee exposes the fundamentally enigmatic nature of romance, showing how a chance meeting between strangers--even "a Pole, a man of seventy, a vigorous seventy," and a stultified "banker's wife who occupies her days in good works"--can suddenly change everything.

Literary minded discussion. Open to new members. Join us in person or join via Zoom!

--

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/91486186242?pwd=K3NYcjEwNlFZckJnNFhNNmhUYXJqUT09

Meeting ID: 914 8618 6242
Passcode: 939659

+16465588656,,91486186242#,,,,*939659# US (New York)
+16469313860,,91486186242#,,,,*939659# US

Dial by your location
        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

The Nature and Environment Book Club is devoted to the best of nature writing and environmental reporting with discussions on the second Wednesday of each month. Readers and writers interested in books ranging from such classics as Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to topical reportage like Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction will want to join the conversation.

This month's book is Where the Water Goes by David Owen. 

Get a copy from the library by placing a hold.

About the book:

The Colorado River is a crucial resource for a surprisingly large part of the United States, and every gallon that flows down it is owned or claimed by someone. David Owen traces all that water from the Colorado's headwaters to its parched terminus, once a verdant wetland but now a million-acre desert. He takes readers on an adventure downriver, along a labyrinth of waterways, reservoirs, power plants, farms, fracking sites, ghost towns, and RV parks, to the spot near the U.S.-Mexico border where the river runs dry. Water problems in the western United States can seem tantalizingly easy to solve: just turn off the fountains at the Bellagio, stop selling hay to China, ban golf, cut down the almond trees, and kill all the lawyers. But a closer look reveals a vast man-made ecosystem that is far more complex and more interesting than the headlines let on.

The Coolidge Museum at Forbes Library is starting a new book group in 2024 to focus of reading women's history and social history.  

As her husband John met in Philadelphia to discuss forming a new nation, Abigail Adams wrote to implore him, 'I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.' Alas, it would be another 150 years before they even got the right to vote. But women were neither silent nor passive then or now.

To elevate the voices of women in American history, a new book club is being offered by the The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum. The inspiration for the club, Herstory: Women in American History, came from some members of the museum's Presidential Book Club, who expressed a desire to read more about the context of historical figures, and to hear from and about the women involved in the building of our nation. 

Selections in the book club will include biographies of women interspersed with texts on significant periods in American history. This way, book club members can place the women they read about in context and gain a fuller understanding of their challenges and achievements.

This group meets on Zoom on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7:30 PM 

This group is moderated by Coolidge Museum Committee members Leslie Skantz-Hodgson (Smith Vocational School Librarian) and Rob Weir (retired professor of history).  

To join the email list or for more information, email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org 

This month's book is Maame by Jessica George. You can request a copy of the book from the library catalog. 

About the book: 

Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman. It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting. So when her mum returns from her latest trip, Maddie seizes the chance to move out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts”: She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But when tragedy strikes, Maddie is forced to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils—and rewards—of putting her heart on the line. Smart, funny, and affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.

This is a hyrbid meeting -- so you can either join us on Zoom or in the Watson Room this month!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83532872599

Meeting ID: 835 3287 2599
Passcode: 188946
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,83532872599#,,,,,,0#,,188946# US (New York)
+13017158592,,83532872599#,,,,,,0#,,188946# US (Washington D.C)

Dial by your location
        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

This month's selection is A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.

Place a hold on A Passage to India.

About the book: 

Hailed as one of the finest novels of the twentieth century and transformed into an Academy Award–winning film, A Passage to India hauntingly evokes India at the peak of the British colonial era, complete with the racial tension that underscores every aspect of daily life. Into this setting, Forster introduces Adela Quested and Mrs. Moor, British visitors to Chandrapore who, despite their strong ties to the elusive colonial community there, are eager for a more authentic taste of India. But when their fates tangle with those of Cecil Fielding and his local friend, Dr. Aziz, at the nearby Marabar Caves, the community of Chandrapore is split wide open and everyone’s life—British and Indian alike—is inexorably altered.

The Great Books discussion is structured so that the evening’s selected reading is discussed in a think tank environment with the intention of gaining insight from other readers that one would not have by reading alone. The seminar facilitator asks questions of the participants about the reading selection and helps the discussion stay focused. Our main goal is to have fun and take many interpretations from the group in order to enjoy a greater understanding of a selected reading.

Discussions are open to everyone and free of charge.  For a list of past and future discussion books and to contact the group visit, http://mail.salticid.com/mailman/listinfo/forbes_great_books_salticid.com.

About the facilitator:

Hilary Caws-Elwitt has her BA in English & American Literature from Harvard, MLS from University of Arizona, and ran Susquehanna County Reads for its first 4 years. But mostly she loves reading and discussing the books!

The Presidential Book Group, recently concluded its first journey, reading biographies of every American president from Washington to Trump.

If you want to embark on the journey, now is your chance! The group will start anew on January 22, beginning with “Washington: A Life” by famed biographer Ron Chernow.  In this group you will deepen your understanding of the American presidency as we trace the history of the presidency, beginning with George Washington, and watching how American democracy evolved in ways the Founders never anticipated. We'll follow how presidents, both celebrated and forgotten, grappled with slavery, economics, executive power and America's role in the world. In doing so, we'll broaden our knowledge of Coolidge and where his presidency fits in the American story. 

The group meets on the 4th Monday of the month at 6:30 PM EST, which you can attend in person in the Coolidge Museum or on Zoom. Discussions will be facilitated by Bill Scher, vice president of the museum’s Standing Committee.

Email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org to join the email list or for more information.

This month's selection is Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry.

About the book: 

Bestselling thriller writer Tess Harrow is almost at the end of her rope when she arrives with her teenage daughter at her grandfather's rustic cabin in the woods. She hopes this will be a time for them to heal and bond after Tess's recent divorce, but they've barely made it through the door when an explosion shakes the cabin. Suddenly it's raining fish guts and…is that a human arm?

Tess was hardly convincing Gertie that a summer without Wi-Fi and running water would be an adventure. Now she's thrust into a murder investigation, neighbors are saying they've spotted Bigfoot in the woods near her cabin, and the local sheriff is the spitting image of her character Detective Gabriel Gonzales—something he's less than thrilled about. With so much more than her daughter's summer plans at stake, it's up to Tess to solve this case before anyone else gets hurt.

The Mystery Book Discussion Group meets monthly for a casual discussion. New members are always welcome. Pick up a copy of this month's discussion book at the library. Email Maureen Carney, the facilitator, for updated virtual meeting info.

Get your Happily Ever After fix from the [Springfield City Library] Romance Book Club!

ONLINE via Zoom Saturdays once a month | 10:00-11:00 AM | Adults

Join us for the Romance Book Club!

We read as many romance genres as we can, sharing our thoughts and expanding our romance reading experience. As long as it has a Happily Ever After, it’s fair game.

Each month we choose the book for the following month.

For more information, this month's pick, and to register (optional), visit our friends at Springfield City Library

Future dates:
December 14

Anyone interested in Science Fiction or Fantasy is welcome. Although we focus on this month’s selection, we will discuss any topics related to Science Fiction or Fantasy, books or movies.

This month's discussion will cover . . . 

About the book: 

We'll be reading . . . Request a copy of this book by placing a hold. 

About the book: 

Literary minded discussion. Open to new members. Join us in person or join via Zoom!

--

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/91486186242?pwd=K3NYcjEwNlFZckJnNFhNNmhUYXJqUT09

Meeting ID: 914 8618 6242
Passcode: 939659

+16465588656,,91486186242#,,,,*939659# US (New York)
+16469313860,,91486186242#,,,,*939659# US

Dial by your location
        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

The Nature and Environment Book Club is devoted to the best of nature writing and environmental reporting with discussions on the second Wednesday of each month. Readers and writers interested in books ranging from such classics as Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to topical reportage like Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction will want to join the conversation.

This month's book is . . . 

Get a copy from the library by placing a hold.

[Insert book summary here]

The Coolidge Museum at Forbes Library is starting a new book group in 2024 to focus of reading women's history and social history.  

As her husband John met in Philadelphia to discuss forming a new nation, Abigail Adams wrote to implore him, 'I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.' Alas, it would be another 150 years before they even got the right to vote. But women were neither silent nor passive then or now.

To elevate the voices of women in American history, a new book club is being offered by the The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum. The inspiration for the club, Herstory: Women in American History, came from some members of the museum's Presidential Book Club, who expressed a desire to read more about the context of historical figures, and to hear from and about the women involved in the building of our nation. 

Selections in the book club will include biographies of women interspersed with texts on significant periods in American history. This way, book club members can place the women they read about in context and gain a fuller understanding of their challenges and achievements.

This group meets on Zoom on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7:30 PM 

This group is moderated by Coolidge Museum Committee members Leslie Skantz-Hodgson (Smith Vocational School Librarian) and Rob Weir (retired professor of history).  

To join the email list or for more information, email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org 

This month's book is The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes. You can request a copy of the book from the library catalog. 

About the book: 

Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend’s sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed. . . .Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer.   Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can’t account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer—the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey.   At her mother’s house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father’s book that didn’t stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born, but time keeps running out, and soon, all roads are leading back to Frank’s cabin. . . .   Utterly unique and captivating, The House in the Pines keeps you guessing about whether we can ever fully confront the past and return home.

This is a hyrbid meeting -- so you can either join us on Zoom or in the Watson Room this month!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83532872599

Meeting ID: 835 3287 2599
Passcode: 188946
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,83532872599#,,,,,,0#,,188946# US (New York)
+13017158592,,83532872599#,,,,,,0#,,188946# US (Washington D.C)

Dial by your location
        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

This month's selection is . . .   

Place a hold on . . . 

About the book: 

The Great Books discussion is structured so that the evening’s selected reading is discussed in a think tank environment with the intention of gaining insight from other readers that one would not have by reading alone. The seminar facilitator asks questions of the participants about the reading selection and helps the discussion stay focused. Our main goal is to have fun and take many interpretations from the group in order to enjoy a greater understanding of a selected reading.

Discussions are open to everyone and free of charge.  For a list of past and future discussion books and to contact the group visit, http://mail.salticid.com/mailman/listinfo/forbes_great_books_salticid.com.

About the facilitator:

Hilary Caws-Elwitt has her BA in English & American Literature from Harvard, MLS from University of Arizona, and ran Susquehanna County Reads for its first 4 years. But mostly she loves reading and discussing the books!

The Presidential Book Group, recently concluded its first journey, reading biographies of every American president from Washington to Trump.

If you want to embark on the journey, now is your chance! The group will start anew on January 22, beginning with “Washington: A Life” by famed biographer Ron Chernow.  In this group you will deepen your understanding of the American presidency as we trace the history of the presidency, beginning with George Washington, and watching how American democracy evolved in ways the Founders never anticipated. We'll follow how presidents, both celebrated and forgotten, grappled with slavery, economics, executive power and America's role in the world. In doing so, we'll broaden our knowledge of Coolidge and where his presidency fits in the American story. 

The group meets on the 4th Monday of the month at 6:30 PM EST, which you can attend in person in the Coolidge Museum or on Zoom. Discussions will be facilitated by Bill Scher, vice president of the museum’s Standing Committee.

Email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org to join the email list or for more information.

This month's selection is . . . 

About the book: 

The Mystery Book Discussion Group meets monthly for a casual discussion. New members are always welcome. Pick up a copy of this month's discussion book at the library. Email Maureen Carney, the facilitator, for updated virtual meeting info.

Anyone interested in Science Fiction or Fantasy is welcome. Although we focus on this month’s selection, we will discuss any topics related to Science Fiction or Fantasy, books or movies.

This month's discussion will cover . . . 

About the book: 

We'll be reading . . . Request a copy of this book by placing a hold. 

About the book: 

Literary minded discussion. Open to new members. Join us in person or join via Zoom!

--

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/91486186242?pwd=K3NYcjEwNlFZckJnNFhNNmhUYXJqUT09

Meeting ID: 914 8618 6242
Passcode: 939659

+16465588656,,91486186242#,,,,*939659# US (New York)
+16469313860,,91486186242#,,,,*939659# US

Dial by your location
        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

The Nature and Environment Book Club is devoted to the best of nature writing and environmental reporting with discussions on the second Wednesday of each month. Readers and writers interested in books ranging from such classics as Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to topical reportage like Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction will want to join the conversation.

This month's book is . . . 

Get a copy from the library by placing a hold.

[Insert book summary here]

The Coolidge Museum at Forbes Library is starting a new book group in 2024 to focus of reading women's history and social history.  

As her husband John met in Philadelphia to discuss forming a new nation, Abigail Adams wrote to implore him, 'I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.' Alas, it would be another 150 years before they even got the right to vote. But women were neither silent nor passive then or now.

To elevate the voices of women in American history, a new book club is being offered by the The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum. The inspiration for the club, Herstory: Women in American History, came from some members of the museum's Presidential Book Club, who expressed a desire to read more about the context of historical figures, and to hear from and about the women involved in the building of our nation. 

Selections in the book club will include biographies of women interspersed with texts on significant periods in American history. This way, book club members can place the women they read about in context and gain a fuller understanding of their challenges and achievements.

This group meets on Zoom on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7:30 PM 

This group is moderated by Coolidge Museum Committee members Leslie Skantz-Hodgson (Smith Vocational School Librarian) and Rob Weir (retired professor of history).  

To join the email list or for more information, email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org 

Get your Happily Ever After fix from the [Springfield City Library] Romance Book Club!

ONLINE via Zoom Saturdays once a month | 10:00-11:00 AM | Adults

Join us for the Romance Book Club!

We read as many romance genres as we can, sharing our thoughts and expanding our romance reading experience. As long as it has a Happily Ever After, it’s fair game.

Each month we choose the book for the following month.

For more information, this month's pick, and to register (optional), visit our friends at Springfield City Library

Please contact facilitator Hilary Caws-Elwitt for updated meeting info.

This month's selection is . . .   

Place a hold on . . . 

About the book: 

The Great Books discussion is structured so that the evening’s selected reading is discussed in a think tank environment with the intention of gaining insight from other readers that one would not have by reading alone. The seminar facilitator asks questions of the participants about the reading selection and helps the discussion stay focused. Our main goal is to have fun and take many interpretations from the group in order to enjoy a greater understanding of a selected reading.

Discussions are open to everyone and free of charge.  For a list of past and future discussion books and to contact the group visit, http://mail.salticid.com/mailman/listinfo/forbes_great_books_salticid.com.

About the facilitator:

Hilary Caws-Elwitt has her BA in English & American Literature from Harvard, MLS from University of Arizona, and ran Susquehanna County Reads for its first 4 years. But mostly she loves reading and discussing the books!

This month's book is Class: A Memoir by Stephanie Land. You can request a copy of the book from the library catalog. 

About the book: 

When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, he called it an “unflinching look at America’s class divide…and a reminder of the dignity of all work.” Later, it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by sixty-seven million households and was Netflix’s fourth most-watched show in 2021, garnering three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Stephanie’s escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions. Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, food insecurity, the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties. Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America’s educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.

This is a hyrbid meeting -- so you can either join us on Zoom or in the Watson Room this month!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83532872599

Meeting ID: 835 3287 2599
Passcode: 188946
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,83532872599#,,,,,,0#,,188946# US (New York)
+13017158592,,83532872599#,,,,,,0#,,188946# US (Washington D.C)

Dial by your location
        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

The Presidential Book Group, recently concluded its first journey, reading biographies of every American president from Washington to Trump.

If you want to embark on the journey, now is your chance! The group will start anew on January 22, beginning with “Washington: A Life” by famed biographer Ron Chernow.  In this group you will deepen your understanding of the American presidency as we trace the history of the presidency, beginning with George Washington, and watching how American democracy evolved in ways the Founders never anticipated. We'll follow how presidents, both celebrated and forgotten, grappled with slavery, economics, executive power and America's role in the world. In doing so, we'll broaden our knowledge of Coolidge and where his presidency fits in the American story. 

The group meets on the 4th Monday of the month at 6:30 PM EST, which you can attend in person in the Coolidge Museum or on Zoom. Discussions will be facilitated by Bill Scher, vice president of the museum’s Standing Committee.

Email Coolidge@forbeslibrary.org to join the email list or for more information.

This month's selection is . . . 

About the book: 

The Mystery Book Discussion Group meets monthly for a casual discussion. New members are always welcome. Pick up a copy of this month's discussion book at the library. Email Maureen Carney, the facilitator, for updated virtual meeting info.

Anyone interested in Science Fiction or Fantasy is welcome. Although we focus on this month’s selection, we will discuss any topics related to Science Fiction or Fantasy, books or movies.

This month's discussion will cover . . . 

About the book: