August Not Fiction Book Discussion

Join us for a virtual discussion of What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forche. Carolyn Forché tells the story of how she came to write some of her most powerful poems of witness. She is twenty-seven when she accepts an invitation from a mysterious stranger from El Salvador to visit and learn about his country, documenting the human rights abuses occurring there.

When? Tuesday, August 4, at 6:30 p.m.

Where? Not Fiction Book Discussion is moving to Zoom! Starting with our discussion next Tuesday, we will hold all of our discussions on Zoom, most likely through the end of the year. 

Here is the invitation to register on Zoom. The meeting code you receive will work for the remainder of the discussions this year.

Hi there,

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: Aug 4, 2020 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAud-2gqjIvE9UoDxD6kM7PgZkdGwWP1FF2

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed July's selection . . .

If you liked Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe, then you might also enjoy these books, movies, and television shows recommended by our discussion group members:

Books

• Milkman: A Novel by Anna Burns 
• This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
• The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar
• The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by John Meacham
• Poems and plays of William Butler Yeats

Movies and TV Shows

• The Crying Game written and directed by Neil Jordan and starring Stephen Rea, who was the husband of Provisional IRA member Dolours Price
• Derry Girls created by Lisa McGee

July Not Fiction Book Discussion

Join us for a virtual discussion of our July title, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe, continuing our look at the genre of true crime as a platform for bearing witness with another example of narrative nonfiction journalism at its best. "O land of password, handgrip, wink and nod," Seamus Heaney wrote in a poem about the Troubles called Whatever You Say, Say Nothing. In 1972, Jean McConville, mother of ten, became one of the "Disappeared" during the violent guerrilla war in Northern Ireland. Keefe uses McConville's story as a lens to focus on the unresolved tensions, silences, and betrayals of this conflict and its lasting effects today.

When? Tuesday, July 7, at 6:30 p.m.

Where? On the CCPL Discord Server
Discord is an application used for chatting on your computer or smartphone. Chats can be done through typing on your keyboard or smartphone or through the audio features of your computer or smartphone. If you wish to participate in the CCPL online book clubs via Discord, you will need to create a free Discord account if you do not already have one, and you will need a code/link to join the CCPL Book Talk Server. You can find step-by-step instructions and the code/link here on CCPL's website: https://www.ccpl.org/book-clubs-adults.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed June's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold, then you might also like these books and films--and art!--recommended by our discussion group members:

• The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization by Vince Beiser
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
• Green Power, the mural by Shepard Fairey on the College Lodge at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC
• Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
• Erin Brockovich, the film written by Susannah Grant and directed by Steven Soderbergh
• The Pelican Brief, the novel by John Grisham, and the film directed by Alan J. Pakula

June Not Fiction Book Discussion

Join us for a virtual discussion of our June title, Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold. "At heart a David-and-Goliath story fit for the movies" (Joann Wypijewski, The New York Times Book Review), Amity and Prosperity draws on seven years of immersive reporting to tell the story of Stacey Haney, a struggling single mom who becomes a renegade environmental and social justice activist during the fracking boom in Pennsylvania.

When? Tuesday, June 2, at 6:30 p.m.

Where? On the CCPL Discord Server
Discord is an application used for chatting on your computer or smartphone. Chats can be done through typing on your keyboard or smartphone or through the audio features of your computer or smartphone. If you wish to participate in the CCPL online book clubs via Discord, you will need to create a free Discord account if you do not already have one, and you will need a code/link to join the CCPL Book Talk Server. You can find step-by-step instructions and the code/link here on CCPL's website: https://www.ccpl.org/book-clubs-adults.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed April and May's selections . . .

If you enjoyed I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara and Furious Hours by Casey Cep, then you might also enjoy these other true-crime books, all available in CCPL's digital collections:

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Helter Skelter: The Shocking Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• Columbine by David Cullen
• Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World's Most Famous Detective Writer by Margalit Fox
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
• The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town by John Grisham
• The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King
• Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker
• Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
• The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
• The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean
• The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
• Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides
• Son of a Gun: A Memoir by Justin St. Germain

The Not Fiction Book Discussion is Going Virtual!

Join us for a virtual discussion of our April and May titles, I'll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara and Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep, both compelling true crime stories, and both moving portraits of writers in pursuit of the truth.

When: Tuesday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m.

Where: On the CCPL Discord Server:

Discord is an application used for chatting on your computer or smartphone. Chats can be done through typing on your keyboard or smartphone or through the audio features of your computer or smartphone. If you wish to participate in the CCPL online book clubs via Discord, you will need to create a free Discord account if you do not already have one, and you will need a code/link to join the CCPL Book Talk Server. You can find step-by-step instructions and the code/link here on CCPL's website: https://www.ccpl.org/book-clubs-adults.