Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

Tuesday, July 19th, 7:00 pm

With the subtitle “Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm during the Great Depression,” this charming memoir was voted one of the 10 Best Books of 2007 by the New York Times. Kalish lived with her siblings, mother and grandparents both in a town home and, in warmer weather, out on a farm. The lifestyle was frugal in the extreme, but in spite of the austere conditions, Kalish's memories are mostly happy ones. Simple, detailed and honest, this is a refreshing and informative read for anyone interested in the struggles of average Americans in the thick of the Great Depression.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

Tuesday, June 21, 7:00 pm

If Washington, D.C. housewife Eliza Benedict sometimes seems preoccupied, it's easy to imagine why: As a teenager a quarter century ago, she was kidnapped by a serial rapist and murderer. That maniac is now sitting on death row and he is making one last macabre effort to reach out to her. Can she ignore it? And what will happen to her children if she does? I’d Know You Anywhere is a crime story, but it’s not a whodunit. Rather, it’s an exquisitely sensitive story about the psychological impact of crime on its victims. It’s a story about shame, about anger, about survivor’s guilt.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveria

Tuesday, May 17, 7:00 pm

In this stunning first novel, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, head­strong midwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine-and eager to run away from her recent heartbreak- Mary leaves home and travels to Washington, D.C. to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Rich in historical detail and full of the tragedies and challenges of wartime, My Name is Mary Sutter is an exceptional novel. Robin Oliveria has created a truly unforgettable heroine whose unwavering determination and vulnerability will resonate with readers everywhere. 

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

Tuesday, April 19, 7:00 pm

In the years preceding the United States' entrance into World War II, radio journalist Frankie Bard broadcasts from London during the air raids. Among her listeners are several residents of a small Cape Cod town. Writing in starkly descriptive prose, novelist Blake offers a revealing and intimate look at this moment in history, moving back and forth between small-town America and war-torn Europe and intertwining the narratives of three unique women along the way.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Tuesday, March 22, 7:00 pm

Joan Didion's memoir The Year of Magical Thinking is about grieving for her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne. The couple had been married since 1964 when Dunne died of a heart attack at the end of 2003. His death came suddenly, just as the couple was sitting down to dinner after visiting their gravely ill daughter in the hospital. In her memoir, Didion contemplates how the rituals of daily life are fundamentally altered when her life's companion is taken from her. Her impressions, both sharply observed and utterly reasonable, form a picture of an intelligent woman grappling with her past and future.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout

Tuesday, February 22, 7:00 pm

Olive Kitteridge, the 2008 “novel in stories” by Elizabeth Strout won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The title character appears in all thirteen stories in the book in a variety of ways following the flow of her life from middle age into old age. At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her. As the townspeople grapple with their problems: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. 

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Tuesday, January 18th, 7:00 pm

The Corrections is a 2001 novel of social criticism by American author Jonathan Franzen. The satirical family drama drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The book revolves around the troubles of the Lambert family, an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children and their attempts to get together for one last Christmas.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org