Library hosts October book discussions

Decorah Public Library staff will host five book discussions in October. The groups are open to the public and newcomers are encouraged to attend.

Anyone interested should call the library at 382-3717 to learn more or to reserve a book.

Those planning to join are asked to email ktorresdal@decorahlibrary.org to be added to any of the five groups’ email distribution lists. Funds for multiple copy sets were generously provided by Friends of Decorah Public Library.

he Happy Hour Book Group will meet at Pulpit Rock Brewing Co. Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 5:15 p.m. to discuss Shelby Van Pelt’s “Remarkably Bright Creatures.” After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tTidying 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. Now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her.

The History Book Group will meet on the second floor of the library Thursday, Oct. 17 at 3 p.m. to discuss the second half of John F. Drinkwater’s “Nero: Emperor and Court.” On its own terms, the Neronian Empire was in fact remarkably successful. Nero’s senior ministers were many and various, but notably they included a number of powerful women, such as his mother, Agrippina II, and his second and third wives, Poppaea Sabina and Statilia Messalina. Using the most recent archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic and literary research, “Nero: Emperor and Court” explores issues such as court-politics, banter and free speech; literary, technological and scientific advances; the Fire of 64, ‘the persecution of Christians’ and Nero’s ‘Golden House’; and the underlying strength, both constitutional and financial, of the Julio-Claudian empire.

The Friday Book Group will meet on the second floor of the library Friday, Oct. 18 at 2 p.m. to discuss James McBride’s “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.” In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing development, the last thing they expected to uncover was a human skeleton. Who the skeleton was and how it got buried there were just two of the long-held secrets that had been kept for decades by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side. Chicken Hill was where Chona Ludlow lived when she ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf Black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill’s residents banded together to keep the boy safe.

The Speculative Fiction Book Group will meet via Zoom Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. to discuss Apex issue 145. Content is free after Oct. 1; Apex link available on the library website under Events. Discussion will focus on Original Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Classic Fiction sections. Discussion Zoom link also available on the library website.

Immediately following the Apex discussion, the group will discuss R.J. Barker’s “Gods of the Wyrdwood” (beginning at 6:30 p.m. using the same Zoom link). The northlands of Crua are locked in eternal winter, but prophecy tells of the chosen child—who will rule in the name of their God, and take warmth back from the South. Cahal du Nahere was raised to be this person: the Cowl-Rai. Taken from his parents and prepared for his destiny. But when he was fifteen, he ceased to matter. Another Cowl-Rai had risen, another chosen one, raised in the name of a different God. The years of vicious physical and mental training he had endured, the sacrifice, all for nothing. Twenty years later, and Cahal lives a life of secrecy on the edges of Crua’s giant forests—hiding what he is, running from what he can do. But when he is forced to reveal his true nature, he sets off a sequence of events that will expose lies which have persisted for generations.

For more information, contact Tricia Crary (Friday Book Group) or Kristin Torresdal (Happy Hour, History, and Speculative Fiction Book Groups) at 563-382-3717.

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