Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Tuesday, September 20th, 7:00 pm



Every Last One by Anna Quindlen is a novel about facing every last one of the things we fear most, about finding ways to navigate a road we never intended to travel, to live a life we never dreamed we'd have to live but must be brave enough to try.



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 Lace Reader: A Novel by Brunonia Barry

August 16th, 7:00 pm

Brunonia Barry dreamt she saw a prophecy in a piece of lace, a vision so potent she spun it into a novel. The Lace Reader retains the strange magic of a vivid dream, though Barry's portrayal of modern-day Salem, Massachusetts--with its fascinating cast of eccentrics--is reportedly spot-on. Some of its stranger residents include generations of Whitney women, with a gift for seeing the future in the lace they make. Towner Whitney, back to Salem from self-imposed exile on the West Coast, has plans for recuperation that evaporate with her great-aunt Eva's mysterious drowning. Fighting fear from a traumatic adolescence she can barely remember, Towner digs in for answers. But questions compound with the disappearance of a young woman under the thrall of a local fire-and-brimstone preacher, whose history of violence against Whitney women makes the situation personal for Towner. Her role in cop John Rafferty's investigation sparks a tentative romance. And as they scramble to avert disaster, the past that had slipped through the gaps in Towner's memory explodes into the present with a violence that capsizes her concept of truth.

(From a review by Mari Malcolm)  

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

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