Book Groups
We love talking about books almost as much as we enjoy reading them. Our book groups cover a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction. Copies of the book in discussion are often available throughout the partnership.
Genealogy Book Group
- Certain Mondays, 1–3pm
- Blackfoot Room
Discussion Titles:
2023
- Oct 16: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
- Nov 13: All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
- Dec 11: Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind by Sarah Wildman
2024
- Jan 8, 2024: Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
- Feb 12: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
- Mar 11: The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning by Ben Raines
- Apr 8: Last Rites: The Evolution of the American Funeral by Todd Harra
- May 13: The Forever Witness: How DNA and Genealogy Solved A Cold Case Double Murder by Edward Humes
- June 10: The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are by Libby Copeland
- July 8: Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast by Joan Dejean
- Aug 12: Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries by Greg Melville
- Sept 9: Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jenkins
2nd Wednesday Book Group
- 2nd Wednesday, 6:30pm
- Blackfoot Room & Virtual Event
Discussion Titles:
2023
January 11, 2023 – Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent
February 8 – The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey
March 8 – The Committed, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
April 12 – *Miss Iceland, by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
May 10 – *To Siberia, by Per Petterson
June 14 – Wish You Were Here: A Novel, by Jodi Picoult
July 12 – The Five Wounds, by Kirstin Valdez Quade
August 9 – The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict
September 13 – *Cold Millions: A Novel, by Jess Walter (Big Read selection)
October 11 – Nomanland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, by Jessica Bruder
November 8 – *Perma Red, Debra Earling
December 13 – The Sentence: A Novel, by Louise Erdrich
2024
January 10 – Libertie: A Novel, by Kaitlyn Greenidge
February 14 – Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, by Patrick Radden Keefe
March 13 – The Maid: A Novel, by Nita Prose
April 10 – Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson
May 8 – Memphis: A Novel, by Tara Stringfellow
June 12 – Night of the Living Rez, by Morgan Talty
July 10 – Women Talking: A Novel, by Miriam Toews
August 14 – Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead
September 11 – To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
3rd Wednesday Book Group
- 3rd Wednesday, 6:30 pm
- Blackfoot Room
We read a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction titles, primarily from the Book Chat Bag collections of MPL and its Partner Libraries. This lively book discussion group is facilitated by a librarian. New members are always welcome! See calendar for upcoming titles.
If you are interested in participating in this discussion, email Pam at with the “3rd Wednesday Book Group” in the subject line.
Discussion Titles:
2023
- January – Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson
- February – The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
March – Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
April – Flight of the Sparrow : a novel of early America by Brown, Amy Belding
May – Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
June – Out Stealing Horses by Per Patterson
July – Oh William by Elizabeth Strout
August – The Midnight Library by Mat Haig
September – Join us for Jess Walter’s author event at 5:30pm in the Cooper Room
October – Aviary Deidre McMamer
November – Hunger : a memoir of (my) body by Roxane Gay
December – The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Philipp Sendker
2024
January – Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
February – Paradise by Abduzazal Gurnah
- March – When Paris Sizzled by Mary Auliffe
Book Group Resources:
Novelist Plus: your one-stop shop for book club resources. Choose Quick Links/Book Club Resources.
Book Kits: make organizing your next book discussion easy.