Spring – Summer 2023 Book Picks
Check out the Falmouth Public Library’s new Narrative Nonfiction Book Club picks for the Spring and Summer ’23 session! Come pick up a copy and join us to share your thoughts as we read across the genres of nonfiction, from history to adventure, memoir/biography, and beyond with books that read like a novel.
We meet on the 1st Thursday of every month from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The group will meet in the Hermann meeting room and for those who wish to join us from home, you can join us via Zoom. Registration is required and the Zoom link will be provided upon registration.
To register, click on the date you wish to attend and fill out the registration form. If you have any questions, please contact the Adult Services department at 508-457-2555 x 7, info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org or text 833-209-9922.
“When the great blizzard of 1888 crippled the entire northeast … Two brothers from one of the nation’s great families – Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York – pursued the dream of his city digging America’s first subway, and the great race was on. The competition between Boston and New York played our in an era not unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America’s place in the world.”
“One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With starling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.”
“In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe. Set against the backdrop of the race to exploit Africa by the colonial powers, a story of courage and adventure brings to life the rivalry between two enemies – a decorated soldier and a young aristocrat/Army officer – as they set out to find the mysterious headwaters of the Nile River.”
“Agent Josephine, uncovers this little-know history of the famous singer’s life. During the war years, as a member of the French Nurse paratroopers — a cover for her spying work — Baker participated in numerous clandestine activities and emerged as a formidable spy. Drawing on a plethora of new historical material and rigorous research, Lewis upends the conventional story of Josephine Baker, explaining why she fully deserves her unique place in the French Pantheon.”
“Frances Glessner Lee, born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family in the 1870s, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity. Best known for creating the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, Lee developed a system that used the Nutshells dioramas to train law enforcement officers to investigate violent crimes, and her methods are still used today.”
“The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.”
