BOOK CLUBS

American Lives Book Club

This group meets on the Second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm. The American Lives is a non-traditional book group that focuses on the lives of influential Americans. It will focus on the person rather than the book. Choose to read one or more biographies about our subject, each book on the list presents a different view. This will prompt lively discussions facilitated by Bill Wilson. Remote participation available.

Participants are invited to read additional biographies as well.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025 – 6:30 PM – In One Era and Out the Other: Depression & World War II – 1929 – 1945

• The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, by Amity Shlaes
  
• Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times, by Kenneth Whyte
• FDR, by Jean Edward Smith
• The Coming of the New Deal (The Age of Roosevelt #2), by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
• American Heritage History of World War II, by Stephen E. Ambrose & Cyrus Leo Sulzberger II
• Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, by Jon Meacham
• The Good War, by Studs Terkel
• The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw

Tuesday, June 10, 2025 – 6:30 PM – In One Era and Out the Other: Post-War / Cold War – 1945 – 1960

• Truman, by David McCullough
  
• The Cold War, by John Lewis Gaddis
• The Fiftes, by David Halberstam
• The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, by David Halberstam
• Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy, by Larry Tye
• The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, by Jon Meacham
• Eisenhower in War and Peace, by Jean Edward Smith

Tuesday, July 8, 2025 – 6:30 PM – In One Era and Out the Other: Bay of Pigs to Watergate – 1960 – 1974

• An Unfinished Life: JFK 1917-1963, by Robert Dallek
  
• The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro, and America’s Doomed Invasion of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs, by Jim Rasenberger
• Lyndon Johnson: Portrait of a President, by Robert Dallek
• We’re Taking Fire: A Reporter’s View of the Vietnam War, Tet and the Fall of LBJ, by Peter Arnett
• His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope, by Jon Meacham
• King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig
• Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson – Volume IV), by Robert Caro
• Richard Nixon: The Life, by John Farrell
• All the President’s Men, by Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward

Tuesday, August 12, 2025 – 6:30 PM – End of the “National Nightmare” to the Fall of the Wall – 1974 – 1988

• Gerald R. Ford: An Honorable Life, by James Cannon
  
• Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate, by Bob Woodward
• President Carter: The White House Years, by Stuart Eizenstat
• Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam, by Mark Bowden
• Reagan: An American Journey, by Bob Spitz
• When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan, by Peggy Noonan
• Men of Zeal: A Candid Inside Story of the Iran-Contra Hearings, by William S. Cohen & George J. Mitchell
• Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000, by Stephen Kotkin

Library Hours

Monday: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Tuesday: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Wednesday: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Sunday: 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.