The Gales of November// John Bacon

 

Hello October! 🎃

Up next for November is Crooked House, by Agatha Christie. We have several copies, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help! As a reminder, we have voted this year to not read a book during November, for December discussion. Instead, we'll be hosting a small holiday gathering to discuss good books we've read, ones we're looking forward to reading, and maybe even some we didn't particularly care for. 😉 We'll issue the next read, The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon, during that December get together and get back to the reading list! 

 

To the book!

  

For three decades following World War II, the Great Lakes overtook Europe as the epicenter of global economic strength. The region was the beating heart of the world economy, possessing all the power and prestige Silicon Valley does today. And no ship represented the apex of the American Century better than the 729-foot-long Edmund Fitzgerald, the biggest, best, and most profitable ship on the Lakes.

But on November 10, 1975, as the “storm of the century” created 100 mile-per-hour winds and 50-foot waves, the Mighty Fitz found itself at the worst possible place, at the worst possible time. When she sank in Lake Superior, she took with her all twenty-nine men on board. For fifty years the tragedy was shrouded in mystery. 

This book was very well received by almost all of the group! They loved Bacon's writing, and soaked up all of the good bits of history and backstory he provided. Although it was noted a few times that it was a difficult book to get into, we learned a lot we didn't know about the sinking, and spoke at great length about the different facets covered... like the Gordon Lightfoot song (we listened to some of it!), the storm and technology at the time, and safety measures and requirements. 

On the meager other hand, while the few naysayers agreed that they learned a lot, and that the parts about the crew, their backgrounds and their families were probably the best stuff, we got bogged down in all, what we thought, were unnecessary details... the history of the shipping industry, the history of how the ships themselves were made, etc. The sinking alone seemed to drag on and on, spanning many chapters, before finally coming to fruition. It was mentioned by a few that maybe the way to go with this book is to listen to it, instead of read it, but be warned, there was also one member who really didn't care for the narrator's voice, and wasn't positive they'd be able to continue with it.

 

Tell us more below! 👇

 

Did you really like Gales of November? Fans of the book also enjoyed, The Wreck of the Mentor, by Eric Jay Dolan, Family of Spies, by Christine Kuehn, and This Vast Enterprise, by Craig Fehrman. 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

Heretics Anonymous// Katie Henry

 

Welcome September! 🚌

Up next for October is The Gales of November, by John Bacon. We have several copies, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help!  

 

Without further ado....

 

Michael is an atheist. So as he walks through the doors at St. Clare’s—a strict Catholic school—sporting a plaid tie, things can’t get much worse. His dad has just made the family move again, and Michael needs a friend. When a girl challenges their teacher in class, Michael thinks he might have found one, and a fellow nonbeliever at that. Only this girl, Lucy, is not just Catholic . . . she wants to be a priest.

But Lucy introduces Michael to other St. Clare’s outcasts, and he officially joins Heretics Anonymous. After an incident in theology class, Michael encourages the Heretics to go from secret society to rebels intent on exposing the school’s hypocrisies. When Michael takes one mission too far—putting the other Heretics at risk—he must decide whether to fight for his own freedom, or rely on faith, whatever that means, in God, his friends, or himself. 

This one was largely a hit! We liked Henry's writing, we mostly found her characters and the plot believable. We liked this group of outcasts and enjoyed the laugh out loud parts. This book couldn't help but bring about personal discussions for the group about our own high school years and friendships~ and those of our children and grandchildren~ and compare our experiences to the book.  

On the very slight other hand, a select few could agree with all those positives, but also felt a few things weren't quite right. For example, there was a noticeable build up in the book, but what Michael actually did just didn't seem that bad in the end... certainly not bad enough to warrant his friend's reactions. And then the tidy, hallmark style ending where everybody is friends again just doesn't work... for a select few of us. This point was countered with mentions of teenagers sometimes being very hot and cold, and that's fair, but for all of the teenagers in the group to be these hot and cold types, for no real heinous act, was just a little too much.

All that aside, I think we could also all agree it was a welcome reprieve from the heaviness of the previous month's selection, "When it All Burns"~ thank goodness for a good mix of books on the docket!

 

Give us your thoughts below! 👇

 

Did you enjoy Heretics Anonymous? Fans of the book also enjoyed, American Panda, by Gloria Chao, The Serpent King, by Jeff Zentner, and Let's Call it a Doomsday, by Katie Henry. 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

When It All Burns// Jordan Thomas

 

🏊 Hey August!🩱 

 

Our September selection is Heretics Anonymous, by Katie Henry. We have several copies on the way, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help! 

 

 

 

Onward!

 

 

In When It All Burns, wildland firefighter and anthropologist Jordan Thomas recounts a single, brutal six-month fire season with the Los Padres Hotshots—the special forces of America’s firefighters. Being a hotshot is among the most difficult jobs on earth. Thomas viscerally renders his crew’s attempts to battle flames that are often too destructive to contain. He uncovers the hidden cultural history of megafires, revealing how humanity’s symbiotic relationship with wildfire became a war—and what can be done to change it back.

Overall, this book was well received, how well it was received had us almost exactly divided down the middle. On the side of those who really loved it, it was an eye-opener all around. They enjoyed reading about the rigorous hot shot training, the interrelationships between the crew, and family dynamics. It was tougher to get through the scary working conditions, the exhaustive schedules, and appalling pay and lack of benefits. They really soaked up the outlined wildfire background and the history of the indigenous people, and honestly, would have liked to read more from this author across the board.

While the less enamored half of us agreed with almost all of those points, and certainly felt that the material was important and should have been included in the book, we thought the bits about the history of wildfires, and especially the parts about the indigenous people, got long-winded and repetitive. We would rather have read more about the hot shots themselves, their training, their friendship and families, and how they got on together. We all liked Thomas, and are thankful there are people in the world that are willing to do this terrifying, monumental job.

In the end, we thought it was nice to know that we, as a population, are learning something about wildfires and indigenous people and their timeless traditions of fighting/managing fire. We have so much to learn from one another.

  

 

Did you enjoy When it All Burns? Fans of the book also enjoyed, They Poisoned the World, by Mariah Blake, Wildfire Days, by Kelly Ramsey, and There is No Place for Us, by Brian Goldstone. 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

Salt to the Sea// Ruta Sepetys

 

Hey June! 🌞

Coming up next for July is A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, by Holly Jackson. We have several copies on the way, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help! 

 

To the book!

 

While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known January 30, 1945 sinking in the Baltic Sea by a Soviet submarine of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army. The ship was overcrowded with more than 10,500 passengers — the intended capacity was approximately 1,800 — and more than 9,000 people, including 5,000 children, lost their lives.                                                                                                                                              

Follow four fictionalized but historically accurate voices to convey the real-life tragedy. Joana, a Lithuanian with nursing experience; Florian, a Prussian soldier fleeing the Nazis with stolen treasure; and Emilia, a Polish girl close to the end of her pregnancy, converge on their escape journeys as Russian troops advance; each will eventually meet Albert, a Nazi peon with delusions of grandeur, assigned to the Gustloff decks. 

I'd say this book was unanimously very well received, and even those that were less enthusiastic, still weren't disappointed that they'd read it. We all really liked Sepety's writing, appreciated the shorter chapters, and found it a quick, easy read with a nice ending. We didn't think it read like your average Young Adult book (predictable), and we liked that~ we'd read more of her, some of us already have.

If I had to scratch around for some criticisms, they would be that the book felt like it tended to drag in places, and even though we like the shorter chapters, and were able to keep the ample characters straight, we wondered if all the hopping around made it tricky to really deeply connect with any of the personalities. We felt like we'll remember more about the Wilhelm Gustoff sinking, and 8,000 lives lost, than we will anything about the characters depicted. Also, with all of those good notions listed above aside, it's still a World War II book, and a good handful of us are becoming ever so weary of reading about war... even in the YA market.

 

How did Salt to the Sea leave you? Let us know in the comments below! 👇

 

Did you love Salt to the Sea? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi, The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau, by Kristin Harmel, and The River is Waiting, by Wally Lamb. 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

2026-2027 Book Club Reading Schedule

 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold// Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Hello May! 🎕

Up next for June is Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys. We have several copies, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help! 

 

Speaking of June, we may plan to meet at Paul Miller Park for the summer months again, and we may kick that off with our June meeting. We'll keep an eye on the weather as the day gets closer and let you know!

 

A BIG thank you to everyone who nominated and voted this year~ this was our biggest voting year to date!! How fortunate we are to have such a fantastic group of readers! The new reading schedule for 2026-2027 is now ready and finalized~ bookmarks will be available at June's meeting and at the front desk, along with copies of the reading list, thereafter. I'll post it here in the blog as well for easy access and reference.

 

 

 

Onward!

 

 

 

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a cafe where we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-traveling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . . 

 

We all agreed this book was a quick read, and that was nice following James. Kawaguchi breaking the book into 4 different story lines was fun, the segment about the mother and daughter was a favorite. The general sense was that if you could put aside reality and believablity, and go along with the fantasy of it, this had a feel good vibe and was a fun read. We had good conversation about who we would want to visit from the past or future if this sort of cafe really did exist, at least as much as we discussed the book itself.

 

On the other hand, there were several members who either could not get into it, or did not finish it. The writing was cited as disjointed and choppy (though we acknowledge that could be possibly be due to translation), and even long-winded for such a short book. The characters didn't really have any depth or development, and the fantasy genre, for some, just reads strange in and of itself. 

 

Let us know what you think below! 👇

 

Did you enjoy Before the Coffee Gets Cold? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Days at the Morisake Bookshop, by Satoshi Yagisawa, I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman, and If Cats Disappeared from the World, by Genki Kawamura. 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?  No

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

                                                                                                                                             Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:  3 stars

James// Percival Everett

Hello April! ☔

Up next for May is Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. We have several copies, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated?Thank you for your help! 

With all of the nominations in for next year's reading list, I am working to get them organized onto the ballot and out to you real soon. We will still plan to vote at our May 12th meeting, with the top 11 votes being our winners/selections. (We decided to use December's meeting as a time to come together to have a discussion about good books we've read (inside or outside of book club) and get some good recommendations from each other. With that in mind, we'll only vote in 11 books for next year's reading list, and we won't have a book club book to read for November 2026, but will get back to the reading list in December. Sorry if that's confusing~ please let me know if you have any questions!).

 

To the book!

 

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. 

For most of our members, this book was very well received. They really liked a book from Jim's fictional perspective, and very much preferred it, and Everett's writing, to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They liked the part about Jim being a self taught guy, that he shared those teachings with his wife and children, and that he toggled back and forth between the dialects, depending on the company he was keeping. We all liked Jim, we felt for him throughout the book, but we weren't sure what the point was of having him turn out to be Huck's father... especially since there really isn't a emotional, poignant moment of reunion... and the two didn't stick together in the end regardless (which was disappointing). 

On the other hand, those who weren't as charmed by the book, wondered out loud of maybe it was a mistake to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and James back-to-back. At least half of the book felt like the same story all over again, which was tedious. They didn't really feel like the book got interesting until the last few chapters, and then it ended terribly, with all kinds of open ended loose ends and questions. This group preferred James to Huckleberry Finn as well, but not by much.

Let us know your thoughts below! 👇

 

Did you love James? Fans of the book also enjoyed, The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans, My Friends, by Fredrik Backman, and Broken Country, by Clare Leslie Hall. 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