| Label | Information |
|---|---|
| Dates & times |
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| Category | Book Club |
| Age Groups | Adult |
Historical Fiction book discussion group, meets quarterly
Start time: 7:00 PM – Duration: 1 hour
Location: Wright Library’s Aberdeen Room (unless otherwise noted below)
This book discussion club focuses on nonfiction titles that feature unexplained events and mysteries that have occurred throughout history.
Extra copies of the upcoming book will be available for checkout at the Main Level Information Desk.
2024 titles:
- January 2024 - Polonium in the Playhouse: The Manhattan Project's Secret Chemistry Work in Dayton, Ohio by Linda Carrick Thomas
- April 2024 - Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
- July 2024
- October 2024
Discussion on Thursday, April 25, 2024:
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
by Candice Millard
About the book:
James Abram Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, a renowned congressman, and a reluctant presidential candidate who took on the nation's corrupt political establishment.
But four months after Garfield's inauguration in 1881, he was shot in the back by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Garfield survived the attack, but became the object of bitter, behind-the-scenes struggles for power—over his administration, over the nation's future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care.
Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic brings alive a forgotten chapter of U.S. history.
• Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Books, 2011
• Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime, 2012
• PEN Center USA Award for Research Nonfiction, 2012
• One Book—One Lincoln Award
• Ohioana Award
• Kansas Notable Book Award
Discussion on Thursday, July 18, 2024: Covered with night : a story of murder and indigenous justice in early America
by Nicole Eustace![]()
In the winter of 1722, on the eve of a major conference between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois) and Anglo-American colonists, a pair of colonial fur traders brutally assaulted a Seneca hunter near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, the crime ignited a contest between Native American forms of justice—rooted in community, forgiveness, and reparations—and the colonial ideology of harsh reprisal that called for the accused killers to be executed if found guilty. In Covered with Night, historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the attack and its aftermath, introducing a group of unforgettable individuals—from the slain man’s resilient widow to an Indigenous diplomat known as “Captain Civility” to the scheming governor of Pennsylvania—as she narrates a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations. Taking its title from a Haudenosaunee metaphor for mourning, Covered with Night ultimately urges us to consider Indigenous approaches to grief and condolence, rupture and repair, as we seek new avenues of justice in our own era.
- Winner - 2022 PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY
- Winner - Francis Parkman Prize (Society of American Historians)
- Finalist - National Book Award for Nonfiction
- Best Books of the Year - TIME, Smithsonian, Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews
October: Book Title TBA
Discussion on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024
About Book Title by Author
Book synopsis coming soon...