The West Liberty Public Library hosts two book clubs in the library. In order to join our email list, email Ali at aoepping@wlpl.org to get the information needed before each club meets.
Our book clubs are very easygoing and great for anyone who wants to read diversely, talk about books, or just get together with a fun group of people.
Notes:
- If you want to read the current month's books but don't want to attend the meetings, that is perfectly fine!
- Reading the entire book is not necessary; if you don't finish but still want to attend the meeting, feel free to come! (Just be open to the fact that we will have a full discussion which may include spoilers)
- Join at any time! Whether you only want to attend one meeting to see what it's like, join only one of the clubs, or attend at random, you're more than welcome!
Each book club day (minus Silent Reading Club) will have two sessions; one at 12pm and one at 6pm.
~SEPTEMBER BOOK CLUBS~
Silent Reading Club
This club typically meets on the first Thursday of the month at 5:30pm.
This month's 'meeting' will be on September 7 at 5:30pm on the upper level. Unlike a regular book club, Silent Reading Club is about bringing your own book to read in silence but still being with friends in the comfort of the library! All ages are welcome to join in; no sign-up is required!
The Page Turners
This club typically meets on the second Thursday of the month. There are two sessions you can attend; 12pm or 6pm.
The meeting is on September 14 at 12 p.m. or 6 p.m. in the library.
Every month The Page Turners meet to discuss the latest and greatest works of fiction and non-fiction. Books are available for checkout from the library.
This month we will be reading Crying in the Bathroom by Erika L. Sanchez. According to goodreads.com, growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the '90s, Erika Sanchez was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment—a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy, often laughing so hard with her friends that she had to leave her school classroom. Twenty-five years later, she's now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she's still got an irrepressible laugh, acerbic wit, and singular powers of perception about the world around her.
In these essays, Sanchez writes about everything from sex to white feminism to debilitating depression, revealing an interior life rich with ideas, self-awareness, and perception. Raunchy, insightful, unapologetic, and brutally honest, Crying in the Bathroom is Sanchez at her best—a book that will make you feel that post-confessional high that comes from talking for hours with your best friend.
Short Stories For Busy People
This club typically meets on the fourth Monday of the month. There are two sessions you can attend; 12pm or 6pm.
The meeting is on September 25 at 12 p.m. or 6 p.m. in the library.
Every month Short Stories For Busy People meets to discuss a section of a book of essays or short stories. Books are available for checkout from the library.
This month we will be reading Horizontal Vertigo by Juan Villoro. Please read the first chapter for book club discussion. According to goodreads.com, at once intimate and wide-ranging, and as enthralling, surprising, and vivid as the place itself, this is a uniquely eye-opening tour of one of the great metropolises of the world, and its largest Spanish-speaking city.
Horizontal Vertigo: The title refers to the fear of ever-impending earthquakes that led Mexicans to build their capital city outward rather than upward. With the perspicacity of a keenly observant flaneur, Juan Villoro wanders through Mexico City seemingly without a plan, describing people, places, and things while brilliantly drawing connections among them. In so doing he reveals, in all its multitudinous glory, the vicissitudes and triumphs of the city ’s cultural, political, and social history: from indigenous antiquity to the Aztec period, from the Spanish conquest to Mexico City today—one of the world’s leading cultural and financial centers.
In this deeply iconoclastic book, Villoro organizes his text around a recurring series of topics: “Living in the City,” “City Characters,” “Shocks,” “Crossings,” and “Ceremonies.” What he achieves, miraculously, is a stunning, intriguingly coherent meditation on Mexico City’s genius loci, its spirit of place.
2023 Book Clubs
September
(Sep. 14) Crying in the Bathroom by Erika L. Sanchez
(Sep. 25) Horizontal Vertigo by Juan Villoro / Reading section: first chapter
October
(Oct. 12) The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
(Oct. 23) Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain / Reading section: first chapter
November
(Nov. 9) There There by Tommy Orange
(Nov. 27) White Magic by Elissa Washuta / Reading section: first chapter
December
(Dec. 14) The Soul of a Woman by Isabel Allende
(Dec. 18) Decoding Despacito by Leila Cobo / Reading section: first chapter