September 2026

We will be meeting on Friday, September 25th. Mae will be bringing book selections, and Fran will facilitate our discussion.

We will be reading The Great Divide, by Cristina Herníquez.  This novel tells the stories of migrant laborers, locals, and others affected by the Panama Canal construction in 1907.  

There are currently four copies available from Contra Costa County Library, and the ebook is available through Hoopla.

August 2026

 This month, we are reading Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather.  This book was written in 1927, about a priest who comes to New Mexico in `1851, when this area was new to the United States. The online description says "American by law, but Mexican and Indian in custom."

We meet on Friday, August 21st, the usual place, the usual time (5:30pm).  Fran will be bringing books to read in September. 

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.