Book Club: Stranger Than Fiction

Love nonfiction? Join our nonfiction book club! Copies will be available for checkout at either library location. Meetings are held virtually or in person at the Eastgate Branch Library on the 1st Tuesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 pm. Please see our program schedule for more details on individual meeting locations.

Stranger than Fiction (09/01/2020): In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences

August 5, 2020
Stranger than Fiction (09/01/2020): In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Stranger than Fiction (09/01/2020): In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences

In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences by Truman Capote

The most famous true crime novel of all time and one of the first non-fiction novels ever written; In Cold Blood is the bestseller that haunted its author long after he finished writing it.

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.

Next Meeting:
September 1st @ 6:30 PM at Virtual Library

Register for online meeting here

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Stranger than Fiction (08/04/2020): Running the Books: the Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian

July 8, 2020
Stranger than Fiction (08/04/2020): Running the Books: the Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian
Running the Books: the Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian (cover)

Running the Books: the Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg

Avi Steinberg is stumped. After defecting from Yeshiva to Harvard, he has only a senior thesis essay on Bugs Bunny to show for his effort. While his friends and classmates advance in the world, he remains stuck at a crossroads, unable to meet the lofty expectations of his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. And his romantic existence as a freelance obituary writer just isn’t cutting it. Seeking direction—and dental insurance—Steinberg takes a job as a librarian in a tough Boston prison.

The prison library counter, his new post, attracts con men, minor prophets, ghosts, and an assortment of quirky regulars searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. There’s an anxious pimp who solicits Steinberg’s help in writing a memoir. A passionate gangster who dreams of hosting a cooking show titled Thug Sizzle. A disgruntled officer who instigates a major feud over a Post-it note. A doomed ex-stripper who asks Steinberg to orchestrate a reunion with her estranged son, himself an inmate. Over time, Steinberg is drawn into the accidental community of outcasts that has formed among his bookshelves — a drama he recounts with heartbreak and humor. But when the struggles of the prison library — between life and death, love and loyalty — become personal, Steinberg is forced to take sides.

Running the Books is a trenchant exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest attempt to find his place in the world while trying not to get fired in the process.

Next Meeting:
August 4th @ 6:30 PM at Virtual Library

Register for online meeting here

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Stranger than Fiction (07/07/2020): Mrs. Sherlock Holmes

June 8, 2020
Stranger than Fiction (07/07/2020): Mrs. Sherlock Holmes
Stranger than Fiction (07/07/2020): Mrs. Sherlock Holmes

Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca

Mrs. Grace Humiston was an amazing lawyer and a traveling detective during a time when no women were practicing those professions. She focused on solving cases no one else wanted and advocating for innocents. The first female U.S. District Attorney, she made groundbreaking investigations into modern-day slavery, and the papers gave her the nickname of fiction’s famous sleuth. One of her greatest accomplishments was solving the cold case of a missing eighteen-year-old girl, Ruth Cruger. Her work changed how the country viewed the problem of missing girls, but it came with a price: she learned all too well what happens when one woman upstages the entire NYPD. In the literary tradition of In Cold Blood and The Devil in the White City, this true-crime tale is told in spine-tingling fashion and has important repercussions concerning kidnapping, the role of the media, and the truth of crime stories. But the great mystery of this book-and its haunting twist ending-is how one woman became so famous only to disappear.

Next Meeting:
July 7th @ 6:30 PM at Virtual Library

Register for online meeting here

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
AUDIOBOOK

Stranger than Fiction (05/12/2020): Liar, temptress, soldier, spy : four women undercover in the Civil War

April 30, 2020
Stranger than Fiction (05/12/2020): Liar, temptress, soldier, spy : four women undercover in the Civil War
Liar, temptress, soldier, spy : four women undercover in the Civil War (cover)

Liar, temptress, soldier, spy : four women undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

Karen Abbott illuminates one of the most fascinating yet little known aspects of the Civil War: the stories of four courageous women–a socialite, a farm girl, an abolitionist, and a widow–who were spies. After shooting a Union soldier in her front hall with a pocket pistol, Belle Boyd became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds cut off her hair and assumed the identity of a man to enlist as a Union private, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The beautiful widow, Rose O’Neale Greenhow, engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians to gather intelligence for the Confederacy, and used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring, right under the noses of suspicious rebel detectives. Using a wealth of primary source material and interviews with the spies’ descendants, Abbott seamlessly weaves the adventures of these four heroines throughout the tumultuous years of the war.

Next Meeting:
May 12th @ 6:30 PM at Virtual Library

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
AUDIOBOOK

Stranger than Fiction (08/06/2019): Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

July 2, 2019
Stranger than Fiction (08/06/2019): Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (cover)

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal

What separates your mind from an animal’s? Maybe you think it’s your ability to design tools, your sense of self, or your grasp of past and future—all traits that have helped us define ourselves as the planet’s preeminent species. But in recent decades, these claims have eroded, or even been disproven outright, by a revolution in the study of animal cognition. Take the way octopuses use coconut shells as tools; elephants that classify humans by age, gender, and language; or Ayumu, the young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame. Based on research involving crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, whales, and of course chimpanzees and bonobos, Frans de Waal explores both the scope and the depth of animal intelligence. He offers a firsthand account of how science has stood traditional behaviorism on its head by revealing how smart animals really are, and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long.

Next Meeting:
August 6th @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
AUDIOBOOK

Stranger than Fiction (07/02/2019): The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House

June 5, 2019
Stranger than Fiction (07/02/2019): The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House
The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House (cover)

The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower

America’s First Families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and heartwarming, The Residence reveals daily life in the White House as it is really lived through the voices of the maids, butlers, cooks, florists, doormen, engineers, and others who tend to the needs of the President and First Family.

These dedicated professionals maintain the six-floor mansion’s 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, three elevators, and eight staircases, and prepare everything from hors d’oeuvres for intimate gatherings to meals served at elaborate state dinners. Over the course of the day, they gather in the lower level’s basement kitchen to share stories, trade secrets, forge lifelong friendships, and sometimes even fall in love.

Next Meeting:
July 2nd @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
E-BOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Stranger Than Fiction: The Monster of Florence

April 4, 2019
Stranger Than Fiction: The Monster of Florence

The Monster of FlorenceStranger Than Fiction: The Monster of Florence

By: Douglas Preston

Date: Tuesday, May 7th, 2019 @Eastgate

Time: 6:30pm

In 2000, Douglas Preston fulfilled a dream to move his family to Italy. Then he discovered that the olive grove in front of their 14th century farmhouse had been the scene of the most infamous double-murders in Italian history, committed by a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence. Preston, intrigued, meets Italian investigative journalist Mario Spezi to learn more.
This is the true story of their search for–and identification of–the man they believe committed the crimes, and their chilling interview with him. And then, in a strange twist of fate, Preston and Spezi themselves become targets of the police investigation. Preston has his phone tapped, is interrogated, and told to leave the country. Spezi fares worse: he is thrown into Italy’s grim Capanne prison, accused of being the Monster of Florence himself.
Like one of Preston’s thrillers, The Monster of Florence, tells a remarkable and harrowing story involving murder, mutilation, and suicide-and at the center of it, Preston and Spezi, caught in a bizarre prosecutorial vendetta.

Stranger Than Fiction: Why You Eat What You Eat

March 26, 2019
Stranger Than Fiction: Why You Eat What You Eat

Stranger Than Fiction: Why You Eat What You Eat

Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationship With Food

By: Rachel Herz

Date: Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019 @Eastgate

Time: 6:30pm

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT IN AUDIO FORMAT ON HOOPLA!

How is personality correlated with preference for sweet or bitter foods? What genres of music best enhance the taste of red wine? With clear and compelling explanations of the latest research, Rachel Herz explores these questions and more in this lively book. Why You Eat What You Eat untangles the sensory, psychological, and physiological factors behind our eating habits, pointing us to a happier and healthier way of engaging with our meals.

Stranger Than Fiction: Year of Yes

March 1, 2019
Stranger Than Fiction: Year of Yes

Stranger Than Fiction: Year of YesYear of Yes

By: Shonda Rhimes

Date: Tuesday, March 5th, 2019 @Eastgate

Time: 6:30pm

She’s the creator and producer of some of the most groundbreaking and audacious shows on television today. Her iconic characters live boldly and speak their minds. So who would suspect that Shonda Rhimes is an introvert? That she hired a publicist so she could avoid public appearances? That she suffered panic attacks before media interviews?

With three children at home and three hit television shows, it was easy for Shonda to say she was simply too busy. But in truth, she was also afraid. And then, over Thanksgiving dinner, her sister muttered something that was both a wake up and a call to arms: You never say yes to anything. Shonda knew she had to embrace the challenge: for one year, she would say YES to everything that scared her.

This poignant, intimate, and hilarious memoir explores Shonda’s life before her Year of Yes—from her nerdy, book-loving childhood to her devotion to creating television characters who reflected the world she saw around her. The book chronicles her life after her Year of Yes had begun—when Shonda forced herself out of the house and onto the stage; when she learned to explore, empower, applaud, and love her truest self. Yes.