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 14, 2024 – 6:30 PM – The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America

• The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America, by James Wilson
• The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, by David Treuer (Ojibwe)
• Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, by Vine Deloria (Standing Rock)
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown

Tuesday, June 11, 2024 – 6:30 PM –The Empire Builders: Jay Gould, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Robert Moses, and Steve Jobs

• Jay Gould
  • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy, by Charles R. Morris
  • American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street’s Biggest Fortune, by Greg Steinmetz
• Andrew Carnegie
  • Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership that Changed America, by Les Standiford
  • The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie: The Gospel of Wealth, by Andrew Carnegie
• John D. Rockefeller
  • Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., by Les Standiford, by Ron Chernow
• Robert Moses
  • The Power Broker and the Fall of New York, by Robert Caro
• Steve Jobs
  • Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

Tuesday, July 9, 2024 – 6:30 PM – Desegregation of the U.S. Military (Executive Order 9981) and Beyond

• Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII, by Chester Nez and Judith Schiess Avila
  
• Navajo Code Talkers, by Nathan Aaseng
• Red Tails: An Oral History of the Tuskegee Airmen, by John B. Holway
• Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761^st Tank Battalion – WWIIs Forgotten Heroes, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anthony Walton
• A Few Good Women: America’s Military Women from World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, by Evelyn M Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee
• Integrating the US Military: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation Since World War II, by Douglas Walter Bristol Jr. and Heather Marie Stur

Tuesday, August 13, 2024 – 6:30 PM – The Struggles – A Look at American History Through Major Social Movements

• Abolitionism
  • Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight
  • The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights, by Dorothy Wickenden
  • The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina, by Gerda Lerner
  • Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War, by Fred Kaplan
• Prohibition
  • Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent
  • The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition’s Evil Genius, by Bob Batchelor
• Women’s Suffrage/ Women’s Rights
  • The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights, by Dorothy Wickenden
  • Century of Struggle: The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States, by Eleanor Flexner
  • The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan
• Civil Rights
  • His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope, by John Meacham and John Lewis (Afterword)
  • The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
  • Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, by David J. Garrow

Library Hours

Monday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Tuesday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Thursday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday : 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sunday: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.