book
DISCUSSIONS
The library has seven book discussion series that meet regularly. Patrons will enjoy lively discussion and connecting to community members at each session.
Books are available at the Adult and Teen Services Desk one month before the discussion, or any time through our catalog or eLibrary. Didn't finish the book? No problem, everyone is welcome to join in!
Real Reads
coffee, doughnuts, and true stories you can't put down
My Home Team
by David Kindred
Tuesday, April 21
9:30 - 11 a.m.
Dave Kindred is among the greatest living chroniclers of sports. But as he looks back on his life, it's a girls' high school basketball team, the Lady Potters of Morton, Illinois, that stands apart from the rest. In this moving and intimate story, Kindred writes about his rise to professional success and the changes that brought him back to his hometown late in life. Tender and honest, Kindred's story reminds readers what sports are really about.
The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between
by Michael Dobbs
Tuesday, May 19
9:30 - 11 a.m.
In 1938, on the eve of World War II, the American journalist Dorothy Thompson wrote that "a piece of paper with a stamp on it" was "the difference between life and death." The Unwanted is the intimate account of a small village on the edge of the Black Forest whose Jewish families desperately pursued American visas to flee the Nazis. Battling formidable bureaucratic obstacles, some make it to the United States while others are unable to obtain the necessary documents. Some are murdered in Auschwitz, their applications for American visas still "pending." Michael Dobbs provides an illuminating account of America's response to the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s.
Black Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore
by Char Adams
Tuesday, June 16
9:30 - 11 a.m.
In Black-Owned, NBC News reporter Char Adams traces the powerful history of Black-owned bookstores as vital centers of activism, culture, and community. From the first abolitionist bookshop in 1834 to the hubs of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements--and today's new generation inspired by Black Lives Matter--Adams reveals how these spaces have fueled liberation through books, ideas, and collective action. Blending rigorous research with vivid storytelling, Black-Owned celebrates resilience, joy, and the enduring power of Black community spaces.
Pages and Pints
join us at Goldfinger Brewing Company to discuss fiction titles.
Ages 21+
Love Forms
by Claire Adam
Tuesday, March 31 or
Wednesday, April 1
7 - 8:30 p.m.
For much of her life, Dawn has felt as if something had been missing. Now, at the age of fifty-eight, with a divorce behind her and her two grown-up sons busy with their own lives, she should be trying to settle into a new future for herself. But she keeps returning to the past and to the secret she’s kept all these years. At just sixteen, Dawn found herself pregnant, and—as was common in Trinidad back then—her parents sent her away to have the baby and give her up for adoption.
More than forty years later, Dawn yearns to reconnect with her lost daughter. But tracking down her child is not as easy as she had thought. It’s an emotional journey that leads Dawn to retrace her steps back home and to question not only that fateful decision she’d made as a teenager but every turn in the road of her life since.
Ages 21+
The Road to Tender Hearts
by Annie Hartnett
Tuesday, May 5 or
Wednesday, May 6
7 - 8:30 p.m.
At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren't for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn't have much time left--he's had three heart attacks already. But when PJ reads the obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again.
Ages 21+
Bog Queen
by Anna North
Tuesday, June 2 or
Wednesday, June 3
7 - 8:30 p.m.
When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. Agnes has always been more comfortable with the dead than the living, but this body is not like any she's ever seen. Though its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved. The mystery of the Iron Age body draws the attention of numerous groups with competing interests. As Agnes is drawn into the controversy stirred by the body and its habitat, she must face not only the deep history of what she has unearthed, but also the relationships she has forsworn in her bid for independence.
Ages 21+
Stellar Reads
explore new worlds and magic in sci-fi/fantasy reads
Blackfish City
by Sam Miller
Wednesday, April 8
7 - 8 p.m.
After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle, a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering, complete with geothermal heating and sustainable energy. Now crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called "the breaks" is ravaging the population. When a strange new visitor arrives--a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side--the city is entranced. She very subtly brings together four people--each living on the periphery--to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves.
Death of the Author
by Nnedi Okorafor
Wednesday, May 13
7 - 8 p.m.
Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. When she's fired from her job and her novel is rejected by yet another publisher, her dreams are crushed, so she decides to write something just for herself: a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the ruins of human civilization. She calls it 'Rusted Robots'. Zelu does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey -- one that will catapult her into literary stardom but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to outer space, 'Rusted Robots' will change the future not only for humanity but also for the robots who come next.
Where Peace is Lost
by Valerie Valdes
Wednesday, June 10
7 - 8 p.m.
At the edge an isolated star system, Kel Gardavros, once a member of an Order whose military arm was disbanded and scattered across the galaxy, finds her past intruding in the form of a long-dormant Pale war machine that is suddenly reactivated, primed to kill every sentient creature on the planet. When two strangers offer to deactivate the machine for a price, Kel and a young friend agree to serve as their guides. The journey through swamps infested with predators and bandits is bad enough, but can they survive more nefarious dangers along the way? And will Kel’s fear of revealing her secrets doom the very people she’s trying to protect?
Celebrity Reads
read books written by or about celebrities and discuss their lives and impact
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts
by Margaret Atwood
Tuesday, April 14
1 - 2 p.m.
How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? The long-awaited memoir from one of our most lauded and influential cultural figures. Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel year that spawned Cat’s Eye to the Orwellian 1980s Berlin where she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. In pages bursting with bohemian gatherings, her magical life with the wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and major political turning points, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood actors and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel.
On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer
by Rick Steves
Tuesday, June 9
1 - 2 p.m.
In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied "Hippie Trail" from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year-old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he documented everything along the way: jumping off a moving train, making friends in Tehran, getting lost in Lahore, getting high for the first time in Herat, battling leeches in Pokhara, and much more. The experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world. On the Hippie Trail contains edited selections from Rick's journal and travel photos with a 45-years-later preface and postscript reflecting on how the journey through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal changed his life.
Black. Single. Mother.: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging
by Jamilah Lemieux
Tuesday, August 11
1 - 2 p.m.
A personal meditation on, examination of, and tribute to Black single motherhood, unapologetically told through poignant essays and candid interviews, by a celebrated cultural critic.Through her signature candid, humorous and yet often biting takes, Lemieux suffers no fools while also courageously revealing the scars of her own parenting journey and search for self-acceptance in a world that doesn’t see the full worth of women like her. Interspersed with beautifully written personal narrative, readers will find cultural and historical analysis, and interviews with single mothers from all walks of life, telling it how it really is.
Armchair Detectives
true crime stories that will keep you looking over your shoulder
The Carpool Detectives
by Chuck Hogan
Thursday, April 16
7 - 8 p.m.
The incredible true story of a group of moms who, united by their love of true crime, attempt to solve a fifteen-year-old cold case.
Walk & Talk Book Club
take a walk around Barth Pond in this book discussion in partnership with the Downers Grove Park District
The Walk & Talk Book Club is on hiatus for the cold season. It will return in later in 2026!
Next Chapter Book Club
literacy program for adults (ages 18+) with intellectual and developmental disabilities
About the Next Chapter Book Club
- Get together to enjoy books, make friends, and have fun
- Books will be read together during the meeting
- All are welcome, regardless of the ability to read
- Books will be provided to all participants
- Meet twice a month online, via Zoom
Meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 6:30 p.m.