New Narrative Nonfiction Book Club Books!

Spring – Summer 2024 Book Picks

Check out the Falmouth Public Library’s new Narrative Nonfiction Book Club picks for the Spring and Summer ’24 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 or info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org.

May 2, 2024
The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger

“This extraordinary, never-before-told story of WWII follows two U.S. Marine Corps regiments, comprised of some of the greatest football talent, as they played each other in a football game in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal known as “The Mosquito Bowl” before they faced the darkest and deadliest days at Okinawa.”

 

 

June 6, 2024
Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond

“Drawing on history, research and original reporting, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted  reimagines the debate on poverty, revealing there is so much poverty in America not in spite of our wealth but because of it, and builds a startingly original case for eliminating poverty in our country.”

 

 

 

July 11, 2024
The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach by Sarah Stodola

“Weaving together firsthand travel notes with her exacting journalism in an enthralling report on the past, present and future of coastal culture, which has become central to our globalized world, while at the same time grappling with the darker realities of resort culture.”

 

 

 

August 1, 2024
Fly Girl: A Memoir by Ann Hood

“The best-selling novelist shares funny, moving and sometimes shocking stories of life as a TWA flight attendant during the 1970s and 1980s as the airline industry underwent a huge transformation.”

 

 

 

September 5, 2024
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

“In this tale of shipwreck, survival and savagery, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the events on His Majesty’s Ship The Wager, a British vessel that left England in 1740 on a secret mission, resulting in a court martial that revealed a shocking truth.”

 

 

New Narrative Nonfiction Book Club Picks!

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.

April 6, 2023:
The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry that Built America’s First Subway by Doug Most.

“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.”

 

May 4, 2023:
Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

“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.”

 

June 1, 2023:
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard

“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.”

 

July 6, 2023:
Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy by Damien Lewis

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.”

 

August 3, 2023:
18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb

“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.”

 

September 7, 2023:
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong 

“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.”