The Manchester City Library is pleased to offer to our patrons two book clubs. Each club meets once per month.
Do you like talking about books as much as you enjoy reading them? Join our Wednesday Evening Book Club! Selections are chosen by the group, and include fiction, nonfiction and biography. We try to offer titles that are available in a wide variety of formats (large print, audiobook on CD, ebook, etc.) whenever possible. You can borrow a print copy of the current selection by going to the circulation desk at the main library. Call 603-624-6550 x 7620 for more information. Meeting dates and times are subject to change.
Click here to jump to the Brown Bag Book Club list!
Wednesday Evening Book Club: Wednesdays @ 6:30 PM in the Winchell Room and via ZOOM. Email Steve Viggiano for an invitation to join the meeting.
September 11, 2024
Van Pelt, Shelby. Remarkably Bright Creatures. 2022, 360 p. Fiction
A luminous debut novel about a widow's unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium—and the truths she finally uncovers about her son's disappearance 30 years ago.
October 9, 2024
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. 1954, 300 p. Nonfiction
The classic study of human nature which depicts the degeneration of a group of schoolboys marooned on a desert island.
November 13, 2024
Landay, William. Defending Jacob. 2012, 421 p. Fiction
Andy Barber is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But a shocking crime shatters their New England town, and Andy is blindsided when his fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.
December 11, 2024
Eaton, Aurora. The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company: A History of Enterprise on the Merrimack River. 2015, 174 p. Nonfiction
Amoskeag Manufacturing Company’s history is one of engineering genius and invention, enlightened city planning and visionary leadership. It is also the story of the workers, including thousands of eager immigrants who came to Manchester seeking economic opportunity and personal freedom.
January 28, 2025
Christie, Agatha. The A.B.C. Murders. 1936, 252 p. Fiction
A is for Ascher, cudgeled in Andover. B is for Barnard, strangled in Bexhill. C is for Clarke, struck down in Churston. Beside each body is an A.B.C. Railway guide; before each murder Hercule Poirot is notified. In one of Christie's most twisted tales, the meticulous Belgian sleuth must navigate the eerie maze of a serial killers mind.
February 12, 2025
Brooks, Geraldine. Horse. 2022, 401 p. Fiction
A scientist from Australia and a Nigerian-American art historian become connected by their shared interest in a 19th century race horse, one studying its remains, the other uncovering the history of the Black horsemen who were critical to its success.
March 12, 2025
Fairbanks, Amanda. The Lost Boys of Montauk: The Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind. 2021, 336 p. Nonfiction
This immersive account of the 1984 tragedy of the fishing boat Wind Blown--whose repercussions haunt its survivors to this day--explores one of the most important questions we face as humans: how do memories of the dead inform the lives of those left behind?
April 9, 2025
Renkl, Margaret. The Comfort of Crows: a Backyard Year. 2023, 269 p. Nonfiction
New York Times opinion writer and best-selling author presents this stunning literary devotional that follows the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of the year, tracing the passing of the seasons, personal and natural.
May 14, 2025
Garmus, Bonnie. Lessons in Chemistry. 2022, 390 p. Fiction
In the early 1960s, chemist and single mother Elizabeth Zott, the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show due to her revolutionary skills in the kitchen, uses this opportunity to dare women to change the status quo.
June 11, 2025
Boylan, Jennifer Finney. She's Not There: a Life in Two Genders. 2013, 352 p. Biography
A memoir of a person who changed genders chronicles the life of James, a critically acclaimed novelist, who eventually became Jenny, a happy and successful English professor.
The Brown Bag Book Club meets on the last Tuesday of each month from 12:15-1:30.
Call David Basora at 603-624-6550 Ext. 7643 for more information on how to participate.
This group meets in the Hunt Room.
September 22, 2024
Makkai, Rebecca. I Have Some Questions for You. 2023, 438 p. Fiction
When film professor Bodie Kane is asked to teach at her old NH boarding school, she can't help but return to the place of her roommate's tragic murder. A man was convicted, but Bodie finds herself wondering if she knew more about the case than she thought. Could a killer still be on the loose?
October 29, 2024
Clark, Avree Kelly. Malice Aforethought: A True Story of the Shocking Double Crime that Horrified Nineteenth-Century New England. 2023, 404 p. Fiction
In 1874, a schoolteacher is discovered mutilated in the woods in the village of St. Albans, Vermont. A year later, news arrives of a similar crime committed in peaceful Pembroke, New Hampshire. Author Avree Kelly Clark will attend to discuss her theory of the events that occurred, with the group.
November 26, 2024
Garmus, Bonnie. Lessons in Chemistry. 2022, 390 p. Fiction
Elizabeth Zott is a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention in 1960s California where women aren't taken seriously in science. Elizabeth's career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a TV cooking show. Cooking is chemistry after all!
December 30, 2024 (Monday)
Patchett, Ann. Tom Lake. 2023, 309 p. Fiction
This is a novel about love, family, and growing up. It explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.
January 28, 2025
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. 1929, 330 p. Fiction
The story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield, this gripping, semi-autobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.
February 25, 2025
Goolrick, Robert. A Reliable Wife. 2009, 291 p. Fiction
Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman with a troubled past who lives in a remote nineteenth-century Wisconsin town, has advertised for a reliable wife. His ad is answered by Catherine Land, a woman who makes every effort to hide her own dark secrets.
March 25, 2025
Clark, Julie. The Last Flight. 2020, 311 p. Fiction
Two women, distraught by their current lives and unknown to each other, swap tickets in an airport bar. Secrets about another’s life will be revealed.
April 29, 2025
Christie, Agatha. Death on the Nile. 1937, 333 p. Fiction
Linnet Doyle is young, beautiful, and rich. She's the girl who has everything-including the man her best friend loves. Linnet and her new husband take a cruise on the Nile, where they meet the brilliant detective Hercule Poirot. It should be an idyllic trip, yet Poirot has a vague, uneasy feeling that something is dangerously amiss.
May 27, 2025
McLain, Paula. Circling the Sun. 2016, 366 p. Fiction
Beryl Markham finds herself in a love triangle as her understanding of the world crumbles apart, after growing up on an English estate in early 20th century Africa.
June 24, 2025
Stewart, Amy. Girl Waits with Gun. 2015, 408 p. Fiction
A fictionalization of the true story of one of America's first female deputy sheriffs, Constance Kopp.