After-Dark Book Club

The Library’s After-Dark Book Club for adults usually meets on the first Thursday of the month at 7:30 pm. We are currently meeting both at the Library and on Zoom in a hybrid format. This is subject to change so please check back for updates. For meeting dates and selected books, please see below or check out the Library’s events calendar and join us.

The After-Dark Book Club meets every month with the exception of December. In the Spring, members make suggestions and vote on the titles that will be discussed starting in September. At the monthly meetings, participants may pick up the next month’s book for discussion at the Circulation Desk. New members are welcome to join the After-Dark Book Club at any time. We hope you will join us!

The next meeting of the After-Dark Book Club will be on Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. when we will discuss  Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. If you would like more information about the Book Club, or if you would like to join us, send an email to: library@pelhamlibrary.org.  Click on the cover to learn more about our current book:

September 2023 – June 2024

September 7:Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
October 5:West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
November 2:Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
December:No Meeting
January 4: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
February 1:The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
March 7:The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
April 4:Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
May 2:Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
June 6:Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

Previous Titles

We hope that the titles below give you a taste of the types of books our club members enjoy discussing. Looking for a good read? Please see our Book Club Recommendations featuring books we especially enjoyed.

September 2022 – June 2023

September 8:Still Life by Sarah Winman
October 6:Violeta by Isabel Allende
November 3:The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
December:No Meeting
January 5: The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
February 2:Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
March 2:The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan
April 13:The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
May 4:This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
June 1:The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

September 2021 – August 2022

September 9:The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
October 7:The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
November 4:Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
December 2:Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
January:No meeting
February 3:Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
March 3:Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict
April 7:Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
May 5:The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
June 2:The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
July 7:The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
August 11:The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

September 2020 – June 2021

September 3:The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
October 1:The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
November 5:The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
December 3:The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir by Jennifer Ryan
January:No meeting
February 4:The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
March 4:A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
April 1:Station Eleven by Emily Saint John Mandel
May 6:The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia
June 3:The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

September 2019 – June 2020

September The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
October Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight:
An African Childhood
by Alexandra Fuller
November This House is Mine by Dorte Hansen
December Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy,
Paternity and Love
by Dani Shapiro
JanuaryNo meeting
February The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob
March News of the World by Paulette Jiles
AprilThe Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Safak
MayWhite Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht
JuneBecoming by Michelle Obama
JulyAn American Marriage by Tayari Jones
AugustDreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

September 2018 – June 2019

September The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
October The Children Act by Ian McEwan
November A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
December Less by Andrew Sean Greer
JanuaryNo meeting
February Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
March Songdogs by Colum McCann
April Hero of the Empire: The Boer War,
a Daring Escape, and the Making of
Winston Churchill
by Candice Millard
May On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry
June Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

Fall 2017 – Spring 2018

September A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
October The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
November Deafening by Frances Itani
December The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore
JanuaryNo meeting
February Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
March The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
April Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
May Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
June Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Fall 2016 – Spring 2017

September Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
October No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
November The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
December Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Memoir by Charles M. Blow
JanuaryNo meeting
February The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World by David Jaher
March Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
April Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt
May Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
June The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith

Fall – Spring 2016

FebruaryWe Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas
MarchStoner by John Williams
AprilThe History of Love by Nicole Krauss
MayOur Souls at Night: A Novel by Kent Haruf
JuneDead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

2015

FebruaryThe Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
MarchThe Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
April Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
MayThe Submission by Amy Waldman
JuneCaleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
SeptemberAll the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
OctoberMe Before You by JoJo Moyes
NovemberThe Quiet American by Graham Greene
DecemberThe Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner

2014

February The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach
March Please Look After Mom, by Kyung-Sook Shin
April The Sandcastle Girls, by Chris Bohjalian
May The Sense of Ending, by Julian Barnes
June Maine, by Courtney Sullivan
September Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese
October Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour,
by Lynne Olson
November The Island Beneath the Sea, by Isabelle Allende
December My Beloved World, by Sonia Sotomayor

2013

February Wolf Totem, by Jiang Rong
March The Space Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar
April Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, by Anna Quindlen
May Next to Love, by Ellen Feldman
June Runaway, by Alice Munro
September Daughters of the Revolution, by Carolyn Cooke
October Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
November This is How You Lose Her, by Junot Diaz
December Behind the Beautiful Forevers:  Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo

2012

February One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, by Jim Fergus
March The Privileges, by Jonathan Dee
April The Birth of Venus, by Sara Dunant (Also POETRY)
May Nine Stories, by J.D. Salinger
June Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri
September People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks
October Cleopatra:  A Life, by Stacy Schiff
November Half of a Yellow Sun, by Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi
December Paris Wife, by Paula McCain

2011

February Saving the World, by Julia Alvarez
March Who Occupies this House, by Kathleen Hill
April Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay
May The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
June Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
September Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
October Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
November Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
December A Gesture Life, by Chang-Rae Lee

2010

February The Book Theif, by Markus Zusak
March Before You Know Kindness, by Chris Bohjalian
April A Backward Glance, by Edith Wharton
May Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy & Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
June Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert
September No Meeting
October South of Broad, by Pat Conroy
November The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb
December A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster

2009

February Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
March A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest Gaines (the Big Read)
April Nothing Like it in the World, by Stephen Ambrose
May Three Junes, by Julia Glass
June The Full Matilda, by David Haynes
September Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson
October No meeting
November Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates
December The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

2008

February The Looming Tower, by Lawrence Wright
March Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
April Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky
May A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khalid Hosseini
June On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
September One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
October Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
November Say You’re One of Them, by Uwem Akpen
December Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See

2007

February The Lighthouse, by P.D. James
March The Falls, by Joyce Carol Oates
April no meeting
May The Mayor of Lexington Avenue, by James Sheehan
June The City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt
September Digging to America, by Anne Tyler
October no meeting
November Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang
December The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards

 

Thanks to our Book Club members, Joanne Davies, and Claudia Gisolfi for compiling this reading record.

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