Book Discussions

This group meets monthly at the library. Books are available at the library approximately one month before the discussion date. All are welcome to join. Groups may be meeting remotely; contact the book group coordinator to find out the plan for their upcoming discussion.

Discussions are on Thursdays at 7:00 pm.

​​​​​​​2023

​​​​​​​January 19: Snow by John Banville
February 16:  The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro
March 16:  Ratking by Michael Dibdin
April 20:  Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer
May 18:  Field of Blood by Denise Mina
June 15:  Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
July 20:  Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance by Gyles Brandreth
August 17: Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
September 21:  The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
October 19:  The Case of the Missing Servant (Vishnu Puri #1) by Tarquin Hall
November 16:  A Death in Vienna by Frank Tallis
No meeting in December.

Mystery book group coordinator: Maureen Parent, 802-434-2055, msparent@ gmavt.net

This group meets monthly at the library. Books are available at the library approximately one month before the discussion date. All are welcome to join. Groups may be meeting remotely; contact the book group coordinator to find out the plan for their upcoming discussion.

Discussions are on Tuesdays at 6:00 pm.

2023

January 10:  The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
February 14 21 (date change): The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
March 14:  Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
April 11: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
May 9:  The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
June 13: The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
July 11: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (Postponed)
August 8: The Dutch House ANDThe Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
September 12: Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
October 10: A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
November 14: Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
December 12: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Book group coordinator: Gwen Landis, 802-434-5012, gwennie1972@ yahoo.com

A collaboration between the Richmond Climate Action Committee and the library, this group discusses books that focus on climate and environmental issues and stories.

Books discussed so far:

• Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson (November 2022)
• We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast, by Jonathan Safran Foer (February 2023)
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (May 2023)

Upcoming discussion information:

Wednesday, November 15, 7:00 pm
The Nutmeg’s Curse, by Amitav Ghosh

In this ambitious successor to The Great Derangement, acclaimed writer Amitav Ghosh finds the origins of our contemporary climate crisis in Western colonialism’s violent exploitation of human life and the natural environment.
The Nutmeg’s Curse frames climate change and the Anthropocene as the culmination of a history that begins with the discovery of the New World and of the sea route to the Indian Ocean. Ghosh makes the case that the political dynamics of climate change today are rooted in the centuries-old geopolitical order that was constructed by Western colonialism. This argument is set within a broader narrative about human entanglements with botanical matter—spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels—and the continuities that bind human history with these earthly materials. Ghosh also writes explicitly against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests, and international immigration debates, among other pressing issues, framing these ongoing crises in a new way by showing how the colonialist extractive mindset is directly connected to the deep inequality we see around us today

Books are available to borrow from the library. Please join us for conversation on November 15 at 7 pm in the Community Room.