Book Club Picks, Meetings and Resources
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Book Club Picks
If you’re in need of new selections for your book club, we can help! Our quarterly picks lists below are filled with engaging titles sure to spark lively discussion. For each title, we:
- purchase multiple copies so they’ll be available to book club members
- purchase multiple formats so you can read the way you like best
- commit to keeping the titles for 18 months from the time we pick them so you can plan ahead
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Whatcom READS
Join the 2023 Whatcom READS community discussion by reading The Cold Millions by Jess Walter with your book group. Then watch for upcoming events starting in Fall 2022 that explore themes from the book.
FALL 2022 PICKS
Inspired by the devastating storm that struck the Great Plains in 1888, The Children’s Blizzard is a story of courage and survival, especially of immigrant homesteaders and schoolchildren.
Fiction
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat, a gripping World War II saga of patriotism and resistance, focusing on four Japanese American men and their families, and the contributions and sacrifices that they made for the sake of the nation.
Nonfiction
A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store’s most annoying customer. The Sentence is a darkly funny love letter to readers and booksellers, as well as a compelling story about how we cope with pain and fear, injustice and illness.
Fiction
Being a Human offers a thrilling deep dive through our evolutionary past, and a witty and learned commentary on why we are the way we are–and what wisdom we’ve lost along the way. Funny, moving, and mind-expanding.
Nonfiction
In a town destroyed by chemical pollution, three sisters and their mother fight for a class-action lawsuit. A warm, compelling story about environmental injustice and how people care for each other in a community.
Fiction
This razor-sharp, psychological thriller is about marriage, murder, and the complex ethical choices that scientists face in their work–especially when that work is cloning humans.
Fiction
An urgent and necessary collection of essays about antisemitism. Novelist Dara Horn weaves together history, literature, and her own spiritual experiences to grapple with an ancient hatred and to fight for human dignity.
Nonfiction
Two Alaskan sisters arrive in Scotland to help a team of biologists with a daunting task: reintroduce gray wolves into the remote Highlands. Moving, moody, and a reminder that both humans and animals can break our hearts.
Fiction
Alice Wong’s pushes back against the stereotypes that disability memoirs need to be both inspiring and depressing. A ferocious, fun adventure in the style of ’90s fanzines, Wong provides deep truths about disability with frankness and humor.
Fiction
A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is struggling, and now a rare book has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over–and see everything anew.
Fiction
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