The Evening Book Group meets the first Monday of each month (with some exceptions) at 7 p.m., October through June in person and via Zoom. Titles are chosen every three months by consensus of the group. Contact Brittany Tuttle (btuttle@minlib.net) for more details. And watch this space for upcoming titles!
Meeting dates are in bold italics.
October 6 at 7 p.m.
To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck’s goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years. With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. Along the way he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, the particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and the unexpected kindness of strangers.
More information about this book.
November 3 at 7 p.m.
A historical fiction novel set in 1920s America, following two women, Charlotte and Billie, who become waitresses for the Fred Harvey Company on the Santa Fe railroad to escape their difficult lives. The story explores their unlikely friendship as they navigate the challenges of the job, their own secrets (Charlotte fleeing an abusive husband, Billie hiding her age), and the historical backdrop of the American West, including the Grand Canyon and the suppression of Native American culture. It’s a story of female empowerment, independence, and loyalty, praised for its strong characters and historical detail.
More information about this book.
December 1 at 7 p.m.
The book follows the story of Chicky Starr as she turns a dilapidated mansion in coastal Ireland into a winter inn, Stone House, which hosts a diverse group of guests, each with their own secrets and stories, leading to unexpected connections and personal transformations over the course of a single week.
More information about this book.
January 5 at 7 p.m.
The historical fiction novel about Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a young nursing student who enlists in the Army Nurse Corps and serves in Vietnam during the war, following her brother. The book explores her experiences in the chaos of war, the deep bonds she forms with fellow nurses, and her difficult readjustment to a divided America that often ignores the contributions and trauma of its female veterans. It highlights the sacrifices of military nurses and the challenges they faced both during and after their service, often being dismissed or forgotten.
More information about this book.
February 2 at 7 p.m.
Ta-Nehisi Coates grapples with deep questions about how our stories—our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking—expose and distort our realities.
In the first of the book’s three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Then he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on his own book’s banning, but also explores the larger backlash to the nation’s recent reckoning with history and the deeply rooted American mythology so visible in that city—a capital of the Confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. Finally, in the book’s longest section, Coates travels to Palestine, where he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narratives, and the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground.
More information about this book.
March 2 at 7 p.m.
A historical mystery novel inspired by the real diary of 18th-century midwife Martha Ballard in Maine. The story follows Ballard as she investigates the murder of a man found frozen in the Kennebec River, uncovering secrets and challenging a patriarchal legal system in a tale of historical fiction, mystery, and drama.
More information about this book.
April 6 at 7 p.m.
WATCH a new, three-part, three-hour documentary that draws on a rich collection of archival materials, newly filmed cinematography in Concord and beyond, and interviews with scholars, writers, and environmentalists, directed by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers, and executive produced by Ken Burns and Don Henley. Narrated by George Clooney and voices are provided by Ted Danson, Tate Donovan, Jeff Goldblum, and Meryl Streep.
May 11 at 7 p.m. (rescheduled from May 4 due to annual Town Meeting)
A novel that reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved man, Jim, who is renamed James. The book follows James as he escapes slavery and journeys down the Mississippi River with Huck, but centers his story, giving him agency, intelligence, and a voice, while subverting the original narrative with humor, rage, and a focus on his humanity and the brutal realities of slavery.
More information about this book.
June 1 at 7 p.m.
A gripping memoir by poet Javier Zamora detailing his perilous, two-month journey at age nine from El Salvador to the U.S. in 1999. He travels 3,000 miles to reunite with his parents, navigating betrayal, boat trips, and desert treks with a group of strangers who become family.
More information about this book.