"Off the Shelf" Book Group
January - June 2026

Our book group meets at 7:00 p.m. the first Tuesday of the month downstairs in the Library's meeting room. Copies of discussion books will be available at the front desk one month before the group meets. This year, we are celebrating America @ 250.

1776 by David McCullough
Nonfiction - America @ 0
Tuesday, January 6

The definitive study of America's birth draws on personal correspondence and period diaries to present a history of the American Revolution that ranges from the siege of Boston, to the American defeat at Brooklyn and retreat across New Jersey, to the American victory at Trenton.

The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez
Historical Fiction - 1906 - America@130
Tuesday, February 3

A powerful novel about the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived, loved, and labored there.

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Historical Fiction - 1856 - America @ 80
Tuesday, March 3

In the years before the Civil War, Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, struggles through the miles-long march, seeks comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother, opening herself to a world beyond this world.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Historical Fiction - 1956 - America @ 180
Tuesday, April 7

Young Eilis Lacey dreams of life beyond the confines of her tiny Irish village. She travels to America for a job in New York. Eilis ekes out an existence in the cosmopolitan melting pot that is 1950s Brooklyn, impressing her employer and falling in love. But then a family crisis back home forces Eilis to make a choice between the past and the future, the old world and the new.

Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom
Historical Fiction - 1876 - Native America @ 200
Tuesday, May 5

In 1872, sixteen-year-old Goes First, a Crow Native woman, marries Abe Farwell, a white fur trader. He gives her the name Mary, and they set off on the long trip to his trading post in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan, Canada. Along the way, she finds a fast friend in a Metis named Jeannie; makes a lifelong enemy in a wolfer named Stiller; and falls in love with her husband.

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls
Historical Fiction - 1926 - America @ 130
Tuesday, June 2

Sallie Kincaid, whose mother died under hushed-up circumstances, longs for approval from the Duke, her wealthy, iron-fisted father. But he has remarried and now has a hoped-for son, which leads to the banishment of exuberant daredevil Sallie, who wants to be "the fastest girl in the world."