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Shelf Conscious Book Club

at Maxville Branch Library

Whether you’re an avid reader or struggle to find the time to complete just one book, we welcome you to attend Shelf Conscious! Join us the fourth Tuesday of every month at our Maxville Branch Library book club where we explore various fiction and nonfiction titles and chat about our selection of the month. We’d love to see you!

Tuesday, October 24, 2023: Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive Kitteridge is "a compelling life force" (San Francisco Chronicle). The New Yorker has said that Elizabeth Strout "animates the ordinary with an astonishing force," and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire us--in Strout's words--"to bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can."

Tuesday, November 28, 2023: Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure by Rinker Buck 

Seven years ago, readers around the country fell in love with a singular American voice: Rinker Buck, whose infectious curiosity about history launched him across the West in a covered wagon pulled by mules and propelled his book about the trip, The Oregon Trail, to ten weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, Buck returns to chronicle his latest incredible adventure: building a wooden flatboat from the bygone era of the early 1800s and journeying down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. A modern-day Huck Finn, Buck casts off down the river on the flatboat Patience accompanied by an eccentric crew of daring shipmates. Over the course of his voyage, Buck steers his fragile wooden craft through narrow channels dominated by massive cargo barges, rescues his first mate gone overboard, sails blindly through fog, breaks his ribs not once but twice, and camps every night on sandbars, remote islands, and steep levees. As he charts his own journey, he also delivers a richly satisfying work of history that brings to life a lost era.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023**: The Motion Picture Teller by Colin Cotterill

Thailand, 1996: Supot, a postman with the Royal Thai Postal Service, hates his job. The only bright light in his life is watching classic movies with his best friend, Ali, the owner of a video store. These cinephiles adore the charisma of the old Western stars, particularly the actresses, and bemoan the state of modern Thai cinema -- until a mysterious cassette, entitled Bangkok 2010, arrives at Ali's store. Bangkok 2010 is a dystopian film set in a Thailand run by chauvinistic Security Council officers -- and Supot and Ali, immediately obsessed, agree it's the most brilliant Thai movie they've ever seen. But nobody else has ever heard of the movie, the director, the actors, or any of the crew. Who would make a movie like this and not release it, and why? Feeling a powerful calling to solve the mystery of Bangkok 2010, Supot journeys deep into the Thai countryside and discovers a curse around the motion picture, one that keeps Bangkok 2010 from ever being viewed. But does that mean its story can never be told? Colin Cotterill, author of the award-winning Dr. Siri Paiboun series, presents a complex, captivating narrative, interposed with fascinating flashes of Bangkok 2010's gritty screenplay, as the two intertwined tales of a Thailand in deep conflict begin to meet in the middle."-- Provided by publisher.

Registration is required for this event, and must be completed two hours prior to the start time. A library card and PIN is required for registration. If you do not have a card, click HERE to obtain one.

Accommodations for persons with disabilities are available upon request. Please ask for Learning Services at 255-2665 or email JPLprograms@coj.net. 

**Note: December’s book club date is the third Tuesday of the month, due to Christmas holiday closures on the fourth Tuesday of the month.

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