Join us for book discussions during the month of April at Newton Public Library! These friendly gatherings are open to the public, no registration needed.

Books are available to borrow about a month before each discussion. You’re welcome to check out any or all of the book club picks and read along with us, whether or not you can attend.

To sign up for an email list with the latest book club announcements and reminders, click here and check “Book Discussions” when you fill out the form.

Prime Suspects Book Club – 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 2

The Big Nowhere, by James Ellroy. Los Angeles, 1950 Red crosscurrents: the Commie Scare and a string of brutal mutilation killings. Gangland intrigue and Hollywood sleaze. Three cops caught in a hellish web of ambition, perversion, and deceit. Danny Upshaw is a Sheriff’s deputy stuck with a bunch of snuffs nobody cares about; they’re his chance to make his name as a cop…and to sate his darkest curiosities.

TALK About Literature in Kansas – 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 3

Firekeeper’s Daughter, by Angeline Boulley. Join us for the second installment of our spring TALK series! Thanks to support from Humanities Kansas, the guest leader for our discussion of Firekeeper’s Daughter will be Linda Lewis. For more information on this spring’s TALK series, click here.

Strange New Worlds Book Club – 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 8

Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers. Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has been accepted into the galactic community, but those who have not yet left the fleet’s ships for alien cities fear that their carefully-cultivated way of life is under threat. When a disaster rocks the Exodan community, those who still call the fleet their home can no longer avoide the question: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination?

Nonfiction Book Club – 12 p.m. Friday, April 11

The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson. Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Fort Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”

Big Read Community Discussion – 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17

Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body, by Rebekah Taussig. Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the ’90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous, inspirational, or angelic. None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling. Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit, Rebekah reflects on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life.

Sugar & Spice Book Club – 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24

Part of Your World, by Abby Jimenez. After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come—the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable. Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?

TALK About Literature in Kansas – 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6

The Removed, by Brandon Hobson. Join us for the final installment of our spring TALK series! The guest discussion leader for our discussion of The Removed will be Tim Bascom. For more information on this spring’s TALK series, click here.

Prime Suspects Book Club – 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 7

Celine, by Peter Heller. Establishing an excellent record as a missing-persons tracker who specializes in reuniting families to make amends for a loss in her own past, Celine searches for a presumed-dead photographer in Yellowstone only to be targeted by a shadowy figure who would keep the case unsolved. By the best-selling author of The Dog Stars.

Nonfiction Book Club – 12 p.m. Friday, May 9

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, by Kate Beaton. Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush-part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can’t find it in the homeland they love so much. Katie encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed.