2025-2026 Book Club Reading Schedule

 

The Boys in the Boat// Daniel Brown

Hello April! ☔ As promised, we closed the voting for next year's book club reading schedule at  the close of yesterday afternoon's meeting. This year's voting cycle has been the best one yet! So many of you sent in nominations and voted! Thank you! We truly believe we have the best book club members in all the land, we appreciate you!

 

Up next for our May selection is Hudson Bay Bound, by Natalie Warren. We only have a small handful of copies so far, though we do have another handful coming from MN Link that we'll get distributed once they arrive, but if you don't need a copy of this title, would you please take a minute to leave a comment down below to let me know? It helps us maximize our efficiency!

 

 

Onward!

 

It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest. 

This book was very well received by almost everyone in attendance. They really liked Brown's writing, and thought the attention to detail with the character's he did highlight was very well done. We all really liked Joe and found him an inspiration. The final chapter with the short write up about each of the rowing team members was fantastic, as were the included pictures. The historical aspects woven into the book were also widely appreciated and gave members a sense of "what was going on in the world" surrounding the original story of the boys. In fact, it inspired one of our readers to do a little more digging into the time and place for some supplementary details. Nice!

 

On the other hand, for two of us, this book wasn't all that grand. These members agreed that Brown is a great writer and the depth of the handful of characters he shared was fantastic, however, they would have liked him to do the same portrayal of all 8 of the boys and their coaches. Where did each of them come from? What were their interrelationships like? How did they work through their differences, because surly, there were differences. They thought there was far too much time spent/focus on Germany and Hitler, a subject endlessly covered in a countless number of books. They thought all the details from every race that got them to the Olympics was monotonous in places and would have preferred a brief recap of any that weren't all that noteworthy. More or less, they thought the book was about 100 pages too long and a bit of a bore.   

What are your thoughts? Let us know down below! 👇

Did you enjoy The Boys in the Boat? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, The Women, by Kristin Hannah (coming up in June!), and The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read?  YES

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?  Yes

                                                                                                                                             Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:  3.75 stars

 

The 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle// Stuart Turton

 

 

Hello March!🍀Yesterday we met to discuss The 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton. Up next for April's selection is The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown. We have a good handful of copies, but we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you do not need a copy, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave a comment below to update us? Thanks so much in advance!

 

Lastly, we collected the last of the nominations for this year's reading list last night, and we are busy bee's getting them sorted and organized onto the ballot. We'll get the finished ballot out to you most likely by the end of this week, and we'll plan to vote in our next 12 books at the April 8th book club meeting. I believe Susan will also be adding an online voting option for anyone who would prefer to vote that way, or anyone who can't make April's meeting. We'll get the word out when the link it up and running. In the meantime...

 

 

To the book!

 

 

Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let's begin...

Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others.

 

This book, for everyone present, was a bust. We could all appreciate the premise, and were intrigued with the alternate concept of the prison system. We liked Turton's character development, and his writing in general, but so many of us were either hopelessly lost, or just surrendered altogether long before the halfway mark. We all agreed the book was a touch predictable, and far too long, with far too many characters and plot lines to try to keep straight. One member counted 42 different characters~ whew. It was said that one could read the first 100 pages, and then skip to the last 100 pages, and be better off than reading the book in its entirety. 

 

In the end, we discussed book nominations and wrapped things up early~ sometimes that's just the way it goes when we are all in agreement about a book, good or bad. 

Did we get it wrong? Let us know below! 👇

 

Did you love The 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, by Benjamin Stevenson, How to Solve Your Own Murder, by Kristen Perrin, and The Midnight Feast, by Lucy Foley. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read?  Unanimously, NO!

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?  Again, unanimously, NO! 

                                                                                                                                             Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:  1.5 stars

 

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes// Caitlin Doughty

 

💓Happy Valentine's Day!💓 February's read was Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, by Caitlin Doughty. Coming up next for March's meeting is The 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton. We have a good handful of copies, but we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you do not need a copy, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave a comment below to update us? Thanks so much in advance!

While I have you, it's that time of year again to start getting your nominations in for next year's reading list! We'd like to ask that you turn your nominations into us on or before our March 11th book club meeting. You can email them to either Susan (susanhl@perhamlibrary.org), or myself (amandaschaefer@hotmail.com), or give us a call at the library (346-4892), or leave them in the comments below, or even leave them with us at the front desk! So many options! 

 In an effort to keep our final nomination ballots to a reasonable size, we are putting a limit of 5 nominations total for each of our members. Additionally, we are sticking with the same 5 dedicated categories this year of Young Adult, Memoir, Mystery, Minnesota Author and Classic~ however you do not need to nominate titles into these categories, but you will be required to vote for at least one book from each of these dedicated genres when the time comes. Sound good? Let us know if you have any questions below~ happy nominating!

 

Onward!

 

Caring for dead bodies of every color, shape, and affliction, Caitlin soon becomes an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. She describes how she swept ashes from the machines (and sometimes onto her clothes) and reveals the strange history of cremation and undertaking, marveling at bizarre and wonderful funeral practices from different cultures.

Her eye-opening, candid, and often hilarious story is like going on a journey with your bravest friend to the cemetery at midnight. She demystifies death, leading us behind the black curtain of her unique profession. And she answers questions you didn’t know you had: Can you catch a disease from a corpse? How many dead bodies can you fit in a Dodge van? What exactly does a flaming skull look like?

This is nothing like what we normally read, and it was a total success! (Man, we all really love it when a book we wouldn't pick for ourselves ends up being a winner.) Some of us weren't sure we liked Caitlin in the beginning~ she seemed a bit cheeky and flippant about what we feel is mostly a delicate and solemn subject, but by the end of the book, she grew on us. It was clear by books end that she was really after trying to make death less taboo, give the reader what felt like some updated information on what some of the end-of-life options are (and advocate for a few more ways to handle death and the dead), and to encourage us to preplan our final wishes, or at the very least, make our loved ones aware of them... preferably in writing.  

We were glad we read it, we all learned something along the way. This book can't help but stir up personal stories of loss, and a good portion of our meeting was sharing those stories with the group. We are thankful that there are people in the world who find their fit working in the funeral industry in one form or fashion, and even more so that there are people like Doughty who want to try to make it a little less hands off~ with more options to choose from.   

The few criticisms we could scrape together would be even though this was a shorter read, it still felt about 50 pages too long... but if you asked us where we'd trim it, we can't be sure. Some of us still aren't sure about Caitlin, we found her to be an intelligent misfit, but maybe a little dead inside.. we think we like her, but we probably wouldn't be friends. Lastly, some of the content was hard to read, but we could agree that was to be expected, given the title.  

 

How did this book leave you? Let us know below! 👇

 

Did you really like Smoke Gets in Your Eyes? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Stiff, by Mary Roach, All the Living and the Dead, by Hayley Campbell, and The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read?  YES!

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?  YES! 

                                                                                                                                             Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:  4 stars

The Firekeeper's Daughter// Angeline Boulley

 

We braved the super cold weather yesterday afternoon to meet to discuss The Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley. February's selection is Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, by Caitlin Doughty. As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so, as our copies are limited. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you don't need a copy of The Firekeeper's Daughter, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave us a note down below? Many thanks!

 

Without further ado!

 

As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in—both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother’s hockey team.

After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?

The overwhelming majority of us really liked this book. We liked the writing, and mostly found the characters and the plot believable. We liked learning a bit more about Native American culture, and a few members mentioned they were glad they listened to this book via an audio book, so they could hear the narrator pronounce some of the language. It was said that there is a kind of sequel to this book, entitled Warrior Girl Unearthed (also available in Viking), and a select few said they wouldn't mind reading it. 

On the other hand, it was generally felt, to varying degree's, that this book was about 200 pages too long. If you asked us where we'd trim it, the best we can come up with was to cut out some of the teen drama woven in throughout the book. We generally liked Daunis, but we also found her wearing. Almost everyone thought she represented a realistic 18-year-old well (except for a couple unbelievable parts), but following along with her choices, and subsequent emotional tours, got tiresome. We also found it predictable and wondered about the predictability of the YA genre in general, noting that we may have felt this same way about previous YA books we've reviewed as well.

How did this book leave you? Let us know below! 👇

 

Did you enjoy The Firekeeper's Daughter? Fans of the book also enjoyed, The Women, by Kristin Hannah, The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon, and The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"                                                                                                                                    Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:                                                         4 stars

Untamed// Glennon Doyle

 

Happy Holidays! On a cold and blustery December afternoon we met at the library to discuss Untamed, by Glennon Doyle. Up next for January is our YA selection, The Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley. As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of The Firekeeper's Daughter elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so, as our copies are limited. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you don't need a copy of The Firekeeper's Daughter, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave us a note down below? Many thanks!

Onward!

 

Ya'll, the consensus among the 9 attending book club members when we closed the meeting was that this was thee best book club discussion we've had in years! With the exception of only two, this book, to varying degrees, was liked and well received. We liked the flow and the pace of her writing. We liked her honesty and respected her bravery in telling her story. Several members said they wish they would have had this book when they were starting their adult lives, and that some of them knew a young woman in the here and now that they planned to gift the book to. Those same members said they would be buying a copy for themselves to highlight and mark all the good nuggets they found in it's pages. We wondered at the "what might have beens" in her life, like: How much harder could this lifestyle transition have been for her if she wasn't incredibly wealthy? And: If her ex-husband had not have had a previous affair prior to Glennon leaving the marriage, would he have been as gracious as he was about the divorce? 

On the other hand, more than just two could agree that Glennon could be exhausting at times. She is clearly an over-thinker and seems to struggle with her self-esteem periodically. It felt at times like there was a little too much "girl power" being spouted, and we weren't fans of her repeated declarations of "I'm my own #1 and I'll never betray or make myself uncomfortable for anyone else-- ever." How do you lovingly and effectively parent within these parameters? How does a marriage survive? Or a friendship?

In the end, we were able to have respectful conversations about what can be very polarizing topics and still like each other by the meetings end. What a testament to the caliber of our members! Good on you!

How did this book strike you? Keep the conversation going with your insight(s) down below! 👇

 

Did you love Untamed? Fans of the book also enjoyed, You are a Badass, by Jen Sincero, Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown, and Becoming, by Michelle Obama. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"                                                                                                                                    Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:                                                    3.75 stars

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store// James McBride

 

Hello friends! For our November meeting, we met at the library to discuss The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride. Up next for December is Untamed, by Glennon Doyle. As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of Untamed elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so, as our copies are limited. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you don't need a copy of Untamed, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave us a note down below? Many thanks!

 

To the read!

 

Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. 

With the exception of a small few, the group liked this one. They really loved McBride's writing, specifically how intricately he would describe a character, or a scene. They appreciated learning something new about Jewish culture, mixed in with sharing a community with people of color. In the end, they were inspired to read more of McBride's work.

On the other hand, those in favor of the book could agree that there were far too many plot lines and characters to keep track of (even though reading the descriptions of some of the characters was fun). It was said that McBride would go to great lengths to describe a character, then use them for a brief moment in a brief scene, only to never mention them again. We also weren't sure that some of the plot lines were even clear, or necessary. Lastly, a few of us weren't crazy about the ending, it felt rushed and thrown together, unlike all the time and attention McBride gave to the rest of the book.

 

What did you think of the read? Let us know below! 👇

Did you enjoy The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store? We've heard good really good things about McBride's book, Deacon King Kong. Fans of the book also enjoyed, The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters, The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon, and Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"

 

Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 

3.5 stars