2026 BOOK DISCUSSION GROUPS

Monday, January 12th, 6:30 pm

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

The first in a quartet, this novel traces the deep, complicated friendship of two girls growing up in post-war Naples - rick in emotion, social insight and the power of female bonds.

Monday, February 9th, 6:30 pm

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

A novel inspired by true events: a young woman becomes obsessed with Agatha Christie's 1926 disappearance, leading into a tale of fandom, secrets and literary intrigue.

Monday, March 9th, 6:30 pm

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

A striking exploration of vanity, morality and eternal youth: a portrait absorbs the sins of a young man, leaving his outward appearance unspoiled while his soul decays.

Monday, April 13th, 6:30 pm

TBD: Reading Across Rhode Island title

This title will be announced in January countless others weren’t.

Monday, May 11th, 6:30 pm

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Set in 1930's small-town Pennsylvania, this novel tells of a Black business-owner and his seven-year-old daughter as they contend with injustice, hope and the complexities of faith and race.

Monday, June 8th, 6:30 pm

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

Inspired by a true story, this novel chronicles the life of one of the first people to undergo gender-affirming surgery - exploring identity, love and the courage to live one's truth.

Monday, July 13th, 6:30 pm

The Women by Kristin Hannah

Set during the Vietnam War, this powerful story follows a young nurse who enlists in the Army Nurse Corps and must face trauma, camaraderie, and the often-untold sacrifices of women at war.

Monday, August 17th, 6:30 pm

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

The seemingly perfect Delaney family is shattered when the mother disappears - sibling loyalties, buried secrets and tennis-academy rivalries turn into domestic suspense with plenty to talk about.

Monday, September 14th, 6:30 pm

Yellowface: A Novel Bright Creatures by R.F. Kuang

A sharp, provocative novel about authorship, cultural appropriation and ambition: when one writer steals another's manuscript, reputations and identities collide in a modern thriller.

Monday, October 19th, 6:30 pm

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Spanning decades and multiple generations, this epic novel traces a Korean family's struggles and resilience in Japan, exploring identity, loyalty, and survival in the face of prejudice and change. 

Monday, November 9th, 6:30 pm

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Armed Four retirees in a quiet English town meet weekly to solve cold cases - but when a real murder turns up on their doorstep, they find their hobby has unexpected consequences.

Monday, December 14th, 6:30 pm

The Maid by Nita Prose

A charming hotel maid with a social-world awkwardness becomes entangled in a murder case at the luxury hotel where she works - endearing, clever and full of suspense.  

Wednesday, January 14th, 10:00 am

The River by Peter Heller

When best friends Wynn and Jack decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey.

Wednesday, February 11th, 10:00 am

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson 

The Devil in the White City intertwines two true stories from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair: the architectural and logistical triumphs of building the fair's "White City" under architect Daniel Burnham, and the parallel story of serial killer Dr. H.H. Holmes, who used the fair as a lure for his victims. Burnham and his team overcame immense challenges to create the fair, while Holmes built a nearby "World's Fair Hotel" that contained secret rooms, gas chambers, and a crematorium to facilitate his murders. The book contrasts the fair's dazzling, idealistic spectacle with the horrifying reality of Holmes's crimes occurring just blocks away.

Wednesday, March 11th, 10:00 am

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz., lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well. The crime was never solved and has had an enduring voyeuristic pull for the public. When Ebby's high profile romance falls apart without any explanation, she flees to France, only for her past to follow her there. And as she tries to process what's happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on the that day eighteen years ago - the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor. But little does she know that the handcrafted piece of pottery held more than just her family's history - it might also hold the key to unlocking her own future.

Wednesday, April 8th, 10:00 am

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

Nora When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. When a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing ack. Is she paranoid, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?

Wednesday, May 13th, 10:00 am

This is How it Always is by Laurie Frankel

Titus Claude is five-years-old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches He also loves wearing a dress and dreams of being a princess. When he grows up, Claude says he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude is. They're just not ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude's secret. Until one day it explodes.

Wednesday, June 10th, 10:00 am

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau

The In 1970's Baltimore, 14-year-old Mary Jane gets a summer job nannying for the daughter of a local psychiatrist, Dr. Cones. Away from her traditional, "proper" household, Mary Jane enters the Cones' world of sex, drugs, and rock & roll and begins to imagine a new life for herself outside of her strict family.

Wednesday, July 8th, 10:00 am

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Set in a fictional coal town called Eden, Kentucky, life unfolds amidst hardship for Opal, a young woman struggling to escape poverty. She becomes entangled with the mysterious Starling House, a crumbling Gothic mansion with a dark reputation tied to its history and its reclusive caretaker, Arthur Starling. As Opal takes a job at the house, she begins uncovering secrets about the the house's connection to the town's violent past, the mysterious death of its original owner, and the hidden power it holds - all of which are tied to her own family history.

Wednesday, August 12th, 10:00 am

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim  

Quick-witted, "We didn't call the police right away." Those are the electric first words of this extraordinary novel abut a biracial Korean American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing. Mia isn't initially concerned. By the time Mia's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing. The only witness is Eugene, who has a rare genetic condition and cannot speak. What follow is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of the father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance.

Wednesday, September 9th, 10:00 am

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

College-bound romantic Daniel Bae and Jamaica-born pragmatist Natasha Kingsley meet -- and fall for each other -- over one magical day amidst the fervor and flurry of New York City. Sparks immediately fly between these two strangers, who might never have met had fate not given them a little push. With just hours left on the clock in what looks to be her last day in the U.S., Natasha is fighting against her family's deportation just as fiercely as she's fighting her growing feelings for Daniel.

Wednesday, October 14th, 10:00 am

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patrick Gagne

Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other people did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing” felt. In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a like the madmen and evil villains in pop culture. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

Wednesday, November 4th, 10:00 am

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes

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, an d 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.

Wednesday, December 9th, 10:00 am

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, Odie O’Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own. 

Tuesday, January 20th, 6:30 pm

Full Dark, No Stars

Four unforgettable novellas that explore the dark side of human nature. In "1922," a violence awakens inside a man when his wife proposes selling off the family homestead, setting in motion a grisly train of murder and madness. A mystery writer is brutally assaulted in "Big Driver" by a stranger along a Massachusetts back road and plots a revenge that will bring her

face-to-face with another stranger: the one inside herself. In "Fair Extension," making a deal with the devil not only saves a man from terminal illness but also provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment. Finally, the trust forged by more than twenty years of matrimony is irrevocably shattered when a woman makes a chance discovery leading to the horrifying

implications of just who her husband really is in "A Good Marriage".

Tuesday, February 17th, 6:30 pm              

11/22/63

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, whose life is upended when his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And the dying Al

enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

Tuesday, March 17th, 6:30 pm              

The Wind Through the Keyhole

Between the events of Dark Tower IV and Dark Tower V, this story visits Roland and his ka-tet as a ferocious, frigid storm halts their progress along the Path of the Beam. Roland tells a tale from his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt-ridden year following his mother’s death. Sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape-shifter, Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, a brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast's most recent slaughter.

Tuesday, April 21st, 6:30 pm              

Joyland

College student Devin Jones took the summer job at Joyland hoping to forget the girl who broke his heart. But he wound up facing something far more terrible: the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life - and what comes after - that would change his world forever. A riveting story about love and loss, about growing up and growing old - and about those who don't get to do either because death comes for them before their time. It is at once a mystery, a horror story, and a bittersweet coming-of-age novel, one that will leave even the most hard-boiled reader profoundly moved.

Tuesday, May 19th, 6:30 pm

Doctor Sleep

Years ago, the haunting of the Overlook Hotel nearly broke young Dan Torrance’s sanity. Even though Dan is all grown up, the ghosts of the Overlook—and his father’s legacy of alcoholism and violence—kept him drifting aimlessly for most of his life. But when he unexpectedly meets twelve-year-old Abra Stone, the two find their lives in sudden jeopardy at the hands of the ageless and murderous nomadic tribe known as the True Knot.

Tuesday, June 16th, 6:30pm

Mr. Mercedes

A Mercedes emerges from the predawn fog and plows through a crowd of men and women on line for a job fair. Then the lone driver backs up, charges again, and speeds off, leaving eight dead and more wounded. The case goes unsolved and ex-cop Bill Hodges is out of hope when he gets a letter from a man who loved the feel of death under the Mercedes’s wheels… Brady Hartsfield wants that rush again, but this time he’s going big, with an attack that would take down thousands—unless

Hodges and two new unusual allies he picks up along the way can throw a wrench in Hartsfield’s diabolical plans.

Tuesday, July 21st, 6:30pm

Revival

The new minister came to Harlow, Maine, when Jamie Morton was a boy doing battle with his toy army men on the front lawn. The young Reverend Charles Jacobs and his beautiful wife brought new life to the local church and captivated their congregation. But with Jamie, he shares a secret obsession—a draw so powerful, it would have profound consequences five decades after the shattering tragedy that turned the preacher against God, and long after his final, scathing sermon. Now Jamie, a nomadic rock guitarist hooked on heroin, meets Charles Jacobs again. And when their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, Jamie discovers that the word revival has many meanings.

Tuesday, August 18th, 6:30pm

Finder Keepers

Wake up, genius.

The genius is John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel. Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and

then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson must rescue from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris when he’s released from prison after thirty-five years. Not since Misery has King played with the notion of a reader whose obsession with a writer gets dangerous. Finders Keepers is spectacular, heartpounding suspense, but it is also King writing

about how literature shapes a life—for good, for bad, forever.

Tuesday, September 15th, 6:30pm

Bazaar of Bad Dreams

In this collection, Stephen King once again assembles a generous array of unforgettable, tantalizing tales. There are thrilling connections between these works - themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, and what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. Magnificent, eerie, and utterly compelling, these tales are a fine gift to readers everywhere.

Tuesday, October 20th, 6:30pm

End of Watch

Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney—the woman who delivered the blow to Hartsfield’s head that put him on the brain injury ward. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill’s heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city. In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the heart-pounding, supernatural suspense that has been his bestselling trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and chilling suspense

Tuesday, November 17th, 6:30pm

Gwendy's Button Box

The little town of Castle Rock, Maine has witnessed some strange events and unusual visitors over the years, but there is one story that has neverbeen told... until now. There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117,

Pleasant Road, and the Suicide Stairs. Every day in the summer of 1974 twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson has taken the stairs, which are held by strong (if time-rusted) iron bolts and zig-zag up the cliffside. At the top of the stairs, Gwendy catches her breath and listens to the shouts of the kids on the playground. From a bit farther away comes the chink of an aluminum bat hitting a baseball as the Senior League kids practice for the Labor Day charity game. One day, a stranger calls to Gwendy: "Hey, girl. Come on over here for a bit. We ought to palaver, you and me." On a bench in the shade sits a man in black

jeans, a black coat like for a suit, and a white shirt unbuttoned at the top. On his head is a small neat black hat. The time will come when Gwendy has nightmares about that hat...

Tuesday, December 15th, 6:30pm

Sleeping Beauties

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, and the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and

spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place. The men of our world are abandoned, left to their

increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied, or is she a demon who must be slain?

Tuesday, January 27th, 6:30 PM

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

On an idyllic island, 122 villagers and three scientists live peacefully until a scientist is murdered. This triggers the lowering of the island's security system, which keeps a deadly fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will engulf the island, killing everyone.

Tuesday, February 24, 6:30 PM

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

A tale inspired by the "Beauty and the Beast" story follows the experiences of Agnieszka, who becomes the latest girl chosen to serve an immortal wizard who protects their village from the malevolent forces of a nearby forest.

Tuesday, March 25, 6:30 PM

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

When the Moon inexplicably turns to cheese, humanity grapples with the absurd transformation through the

perspectives of astronauts, billionaires, professors, and everyday people, confronting faith, science and survival over a single surreal lunar cycle.

Tuesday, April 28th, 6:30 PM

Piranesi by Susanna Clark

Living in a labyrinthine house of endless corridors, flooded staircases and thousands of statues, Piranesi assists the dreamlike dwelling's only other resident through a mysterious research project before evidence emerges of an astonishing alternate world.

Tuesday, May 26th, 6:30 PM

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

When her husband murders their son and abducts their daughter, Essun pursues him across The Stillness, a vast and dynamic super-continent on the brink of catastrophe that will usher in a "fifth season," of uncertainty and hardship. She is as formidable because she's an orogene, meaning that she can shape the contours of the land

Tuesday, June 23rd, 6:30 PM

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin

A collection of three novellas set almost a century before "A Game of Thrones" and while the Targaryen line

is still in power follows the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, a boy called Egg.

Wednesday, July 28th, 6:30 PM

Feed by M.T. Anderson

In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy

meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble

Tuesday, August 25th, 6:30 PM

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

A story of two young boys who begin to encounter evil secrets when a lightning rod salesman gives them one of his contraptions covered with mystical symbols.

Tuesday, September 22nd, 6:30 PM

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

A dystopian vision of a future where humans are conditioned into social conformity, set in a futuristic London.

Tuesday, October 28, 6:30 PM

(note date change)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

After a cyclone transports her to the land of Oz, Dorothy must seek out the great Wizard in order to

return to Kansas, accompanied on her journey by the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion

Tuesday, November 24th, 6:30 PM

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city--intellectually, technologically, and militarily

superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began. But at what cost?

Tuesday, December 22nd, 6:30 PM

The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders

beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night

magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.