Book Clubs

MARTHA MERRELL’S BOOK CLUBS

Martha Merrell’s hosts a variety of book clubs and is pleased to offer the following services free-of-charge to area clubs.

We can:

Provide a meeting space for clubs

Provide a selection of books for your club to choose from

Special order club selections

Provide a 15% discount on club selections

Facilitate discussions

No-charge consulting on new books and current trends

Share what other clubs are reading

We invite you to stop by our location at 231 West Main Street in the Avalon Square Building.

Discover what we have to offer!

Contact us to set up your club meeting at the store on a regular monthly basis. If you are interested in using our space on a more occasional basis, feel free to schedule a time with us as well. (New surroundings can be just what your book club needs to invigorate itself.) We will gladly accommodate your group’s needs including light refreshments, lunch or dinner.

UPCOMING BOOK CLUBS

Monday Morning Group meets at 10:30 AM

9/18/23 The Reading List by Sara Adams

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to temple, and worries about his granddaughter Priya who hides in her room reading, while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list. The books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.

10/9/23 Shotgun Lovesongs by Nikolas Butler (BIG READ)

Hank, Leland, Kip and Ronny were all born and raised in the same Wisconsin town–Little Wing–and are now coming into their own (or not) as husbands and fathers. One of them never left, still farming the family’s land that’s been tilled for generations. Others did leave with varying degrees of success: as a rock star, commodities trader, rodeo stud. Into their patchwork is Beth, whose presence among them–both then and now–fuels the kind of passion one comes to expect of lovesongs and rivalries. Now all four are home with a shared memory riddled with culture clashes between people who desperately wish to see themselves as the unified tribe they remember but are confronted with how things have changed.

Wednesday Evening Book Group meets at 5:45 PM

9/11/23 The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother Billy and head to California where they can start their lives anew. When the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. They have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction–to the City of New York.

10/4/23 Shotgun Lovesongs by Nikolas Butler (BIG READ)

Avalon Book Group meets at 2 PM on the first Monday of the month

9/11/23 The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

As the bodies begin to pile up, can this unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?

Monday Afternoon Book Club

9/11/23 Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie Dobbs has been hired to find a wealthy grocery magnate’s daughter who has fled from home. What seems a simple case at first becomes complicated when Maisie learns of the recent violent deaths of three of the heiress’s old friends. Is there a connection between her mysterious disappearance and the murders? Who would kill such charming young women? As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers to all her questions lie in the unforgettable agony of The Great War.

10/9/23 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, a boy is born to a teenage single mother in a single-wide trailer. He has no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Told in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of city life.

Nov 7 The Maid and the Socialite by Lynda Drews (TUESDAY)

At the turn of the 20th century, cities around the world were rife with syphilis, yet no blood test could prove it. Two women in Green Bay, Wisconsin, found their lives destroyed by that simple fact. Mary, an illiterate maid, and Mollie, a college-educated socialite, fell victim to the physical violence and mental abuse of celebrated surgeon Dr. John R. Minahan. To silence them, he claimed they had that shameful and dreaded disease. But as medical science advanced and suffragettes marched for their rights, Mary and Mollie found the courage to stand up for theirs.

This is the only full account written about Dr. John R. Minahan, whose family dominated Green Bay’s professional, business, and political arenas from 1892 to 1954. Dr. Minahan’s wealth built a college stadium, science hall, and six-story office building-all named for him-while history lost, or perhaps erased, Mary’s and Mollie’s heroic stories. Disturbingly, these women’s intimate narratives embody the same battles dominating headlines today: men’s entitlement versus women’s liberty, wealth versus poverty, and false information versus scientific fact. This is a story of power, abuse, and seeking justice.

6/10/24 Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son Erik mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. Marcellus uses every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.