July 2026

 

This month we will meet on Friday, July 24th. Sheila will bring book selections, and Denise will lead the discussion. 

We are reading Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett. 

Ann Patchett's domestic tale, a stolen kiss at a christening party in the 1960s leads to a new blended family of six stepsiblings whom the novel follows over 50 years.  

When, in her twenties, one of those stepsiblings begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another. Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak.

This will be the sixth Ann Patchett novel (of ten that she has written) that we have read as a group.

June 2026

This month, we will be reading Typewriter Beach, by Meg Waite Clayton.  Contra Costa Library describes it as 

"Set in Carmel-by-the-Sea and in 1950s Hollywood-in the days of the studio system and McCarthy-era scaremongering about an America "riddled with communists and homosexuals"-Typewriter Beach is the unforgettable story of an unlikely friendship between an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress hoping to be Alfred Hitchcock's new star."

There are copies available in audio, digital, and physical books through Contra Costa Library (and Hoopla too!).

We will be meeting on June 26th.  Denise will provide our book selections and Kim will lead our discussion.  

May 2026

We will meet next on Friday, April 24th, 2026. Same place, Same time. Mae will facilitate and Kim will bring our book choices. 

This month, we will be reading Orbital, by Samantha Harvey.  It is a snapshot of one day in the lives of six women and men on one of the last space station missions.  This book has a lot of accolades: 

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024

**New York Times Book Review Book Club Pick**

**Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show Book Club Pick**

Winner of the 2024 Hawthornden Prize

Shortlisted for the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction

Shortlisted for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction

Shortlisted for the 2024 Climate Fiction Prize

One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2024

And surprisingly, there seem to be plenty of both digital and physical books available through the Contra Costa County Library.