This book group, which meets at the library in Northampton, MA, began in January 2003. We meet at 6:30pm on the second Monday of the month, except when there is a Monday holiday. Please check the Forbes calendar for details. Email hcethatsme@gmail.com to be added to the notification list.
May 11, 2026: James by Percival Everett, 302pp, 2024
A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view
June 8, 2026: The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford, 231pp, 1947
The coming-of-age story of a brother and sister spending summers in Colorado, highlighting the loss of innocence
July 13, 2026: The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart, 452pp, 2002
The tale of a young Russian immigrant living in New York City, navigating the absurdities of capitalism and identity.
August 10, 2026: Oreo by Fran Ross, 230pp, 1974
A comedic novel about a young mixed-race girl's journey to find her white Jewish father in New York City.
September 14, 2026: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, 371pp, 2015
A novel about a half-Vietnamese, half-French communist spy during the Vietnam War and his life after the fall of Saigon.
October 5, 2026: Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks, 180pp, 1953
The life and struggles of Maud Martha Brown, a black woman in Chicago, told through a series of vignettes.
November 9, 2026: The Group by Mary McCarthy, 378pp, 1963
A novel about the lives of eight female friends from Vassar College from their graduation in 1933 to post-World War II.
December 14, 2026: Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee, 349 pp, 1995
A novel about a Korean-American industrial spy who struggles with issues of identity and loyalty in New York City.
January 11, 2027: Passing by Nella Larsen, 215pp, 1929
An intensely moving novel about three friends living in political exile and the emotional homeland that friendship can provide.
February 8, 2027: Candy House by Jennifer Egan, 352pp, 2022
Explores a futuristic world where technology allows sharing memories. Bix Bouton, a tech entrepreneur, creates a platform, Own Your Unconscious, raising questions about privacy, authenticity, and human connection. Through interconnected stories, Egan immerses readers in the consequences of this technology.
March 8, 2027: A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor, 209pp, 1986
A novel about a middle-aged man who returns to his hometown of Memphis to preven his elderly father from remarrying.
April 12, 2027: The Contract with God Trilogy by Will Eisner, 498pp, 1978
A graphic novel consisting of four stories about Jewish characters living in a Bronx tenement in the 1930s.
May 10, 2027: The Buddha in the Attic (or The Swimmers) by Julie Otsuka, 144pp, 2011
A group of young women come from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides”... traces the lives of these women, from their arduous journeys by boat, to their arrival in San Francisco and their first nights as new wives; from raising children who would later reject their culture and language, to the arrival of war.
June 14, 2027: We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Rufin, 352 pp, 2020
In a near-future Southern city plagued by ghettos and police violence, residents are turning to an experimental medical procedure…our narrator just wants the best for his son, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is getting bigger by the day. The darker he becomes, the more frightened his father feels.
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
NOTE: In 2020 we met through March when the Forbes Library closed in-person meetings due to COVID; our group switched to using Zoom in April for Angle of Repose, then took a break from May through September. We resumed Zoom meetings in October for the rest of 2020, all of 2021, and most of 2022 when we switched to a hybrid version in late summer.
2020
---hiatus May-September---
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
February 10, 2025: Just Like You by Nick Hornby, 368 pp, 2020
Nearly divorced and 41 years old, Lucy meets Joseph who works at the butcher counter where she shops. He’s of a
different class and a different culture. But sometimes it turns out that the person who can make you happiest
is the one you least expect.
March 10, 2025: The End of Drum Time by Hanna Pylvainen, 368 pp, 2023
An epic love story about a young reindeer herder and a minister’s daughter in the nineteenth century Arctic Circle.
April 14, 2025: Possession by A.S. Byatt, 576 pp, 1991
A pair of young scholars research the lives of two Victorian poets, uncover their
letters, journals, and poems, and track their movements from spiritualist séances
to the far west of Brittany.
May 12, 2025: Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop, 256 pp, 2023
In French colonial Senegal, a young, soon-to-be-eminent French botanist
becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman sold into slavery who escaped to
freedom.
June 9, 2025: Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, 256 pp, 2009
Eilis Lacey comes of age in Ireland following World War II and goes to America,
leaving her mother and sister behind. She finds work in a department store and
falls in love, but then receives devastating news from Ireland that threatens her
future.
July 14, 2025: Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone by James Baldwin, 484 pp, 1968
Leo Proudhammer, a successful African American actor, suffers a heart attack on
stage and reflects on his life and identity as a Black man in America. The themes
of racial identity, discrimination, and the search for self-acceptance remain
relevant today.
August 11, 2025 Sandwich, by Catherine Newman (local author), 229 pp, 2024
A moving, hilarious story of a family summer vacation full of secrets, lunch, and learning to let go.
September 8, 2025: A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr, 111 pp, 1980
Haunted by his experiences in the trenches of World War I, Tom Birkin accepts a
job restoring a medieval mural in a rural English church and learns to live again.
October 6, 2025 (Second Monday is Indigenous People's Day): My Friends by Hisham Matar, 416 pp, 2024
An intensely moving novel about three friends living in political exile and the
emotional homeland that friendship can provide.
November 10, 2025: Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly, 487 pp, 2016
Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this remarkable debut novel
reveals the power of women to change history in their quest for love, freedom,
and second chances.
December 8, 2025: The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, 176 pp, A coming-of-age story about a young girl's fascination with her brother's wedding.
2026
January 12, 2026: The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, 535 pp, 1995
A pianist arrives in a European city to perform a concert. He is entangled in a web
of appointments and promises he can’t remember, struggling to fulfill his
commitments before his performance, frustrated with his inability to take control.
February 9, 2026: Orbital by Samantha Harvey, 207 pp, 2023
Snapshots one day in the lives of six astronauts traveling through space as they
behold and record their silent blue planet. Profound and contemplative, Orbital is
a moving elegy to our environment and planet
March 9, 2026: Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, 336 pp, 2024
An eloquent indictment of the devastating long-term effects of the massacre, dislocation and forced assimilation of Native Americans.
April 13, 2026: Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?, Lizzie Blackburn, 373 pp, 2022
The novel revolves around Yinka, a British-Nigerian Oxford graduate who is being
pressured into getting married.