Stonington Public Library

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-09-28 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom, Virtual
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood • Selected by Laura Watson
Winner: Giller Prize (1996)
“Alias Grace has all the pacing of a commercial novel and all the resonance of a classic.” –The Washington Post Book World
Find Alias Grace in MILS
“It’s 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress.
Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders. An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories?” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-10-26 18:30 - 19:30
Three Junes by Julia Glass • Selected by Ellen Shockro
Winner: National Book Award (2002)
“Enormously accomplished….rich, absorbing, and full of life.” –The New Yorker
Find Three Junes in MILS
“In June of 1989 Paul McLeod, a newspaper publisher and recent widower, travels to Greece, where he falls for a young American artist and reflects on the complicated truth about his marriage.
Six years later, again in June, Paul’s death draws his three grown sons and their families back to their ancestral home. Fenno, the eldest, a wry, introspective gay man, narrates the events of this unforeseen reunion. Far from his straitlaced expatriate life as a bookseller in Greenwich Village, Fenno is stunned by a series of revelations that threaten his carefully crafted defenses.
Four years farther on, in yet another June, a chance meeting on the Long Island shore brings Fenno together with Fern Olitsky, the artist who once captivated his father. Now pregnant, Fern must weigh her guilt about the past against her wishes for the future and decide what family means to her.” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-11-23 18:30 - 19:30
Settled in the Wild: Notes from the Edge of Town by Susan Hand Shetterly • Selected by Kendra Chubbuck
Winner: Maine Literary Award for Nonfiction (2011)
“Shetterly’s penetrating observations resonate with an undeniable sense of what matters most in life: the preservation of self, the protection of wilderness, and appreciation for the passage of time…” –Booklist
Find Settled in the Wild in MILS
“Settled in the Wild takes us into the woods and along the shorelines, mudflats, and paths of rural Maine, where Susan Hand Shetterly has lived and written about nature for the past thirty years. Now, she turns her attention to the ways humans and animals share the land, especially as our mutual habitat is changing. Her observations start small, looking out her window at the many living things in just one dead tree in her yard, at the wild turkeys and coyotes in the field. Then she expands to the surrounding forest, to the seaside, and to the lives of her neighbors, many of whom have always made a living off the land or sea.
Whether writing about a displaced garter snake, witnessing the paving of a beloved dirt road, catching a cricket with her young son, rescuing a fledgling raven, or rejoicing with the town at the return of the alewife migration, Shetterly pays tribute to the resilience that abounds. She argues for a consciousness that honors the values of wilderness, protects the beauty and vigor of rural communities, and teaches our children to love the gifts of the land.” –From the dust jacket
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-12-14 18:30 - 19:30
March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell • Selected by Pat Dobbs
Winner: RFK Book Award (2014)
“A riveting and beautiful civil-rights story…Lewis’s gripping memoir should be stocked in every school and shelved at every library.” –The Washington Post
Find March in MILS
“March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.
Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1958 comic book ‘Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story.’ Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations.” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.
