Each month we will read a book selected along with Maine Public Book Club. All books are written by Maine authors. Each book selection will have a live virtual book club featuring an interview with the author streamed on Maine Public's Youtube Channel and Facebook Page on a scheduled date. We will then meet at the Appleton Library to also discuss our thoughts on the book and the virtual meeting featuring the author. The library has multiple copies of each book available for lending to our patrons. Click HERE to see the full schedule.
The Book Club's September selection is The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. Maine Public's "Virtual Book Club" will stream on the Maine Public's YouTube and Facebook page on Wednesday, September 25 at 7pm. Please have the book read by then! Our Appleton Library Book Club meeting for that book will be at the library on Tuesday, October 1 at 10:00 AM.
A four-year-old girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that remains unsolved for nearly fifty years
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, is seen sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a field before mysteriously vanishing. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, who was the last person to see Ruthie, is devastated by his sister’s disappearance, and her loss ripples through his life for years to come.
In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as an only child in an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, while her mother is overprotective of Norma, who is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem to be too real to be her imagination. As she grows older, Norma senses there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she pursues her family’s secret for decades.
A stunning debut novel, The Berry Pickers is a riveting story about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.
About the Author:
Amanda Peters is a mixed-race woman of Mi’kmaq and European ancestry, born and raised in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia.
In 2022, Amanda completed a Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indians Arts (IAIA) in New Mexico. In 2021, Amanda won the Indigenous Voices Award for her work of short fiction, Waiting for the Long Night Moon. She was also selected to participate in the 2021 Writers Trust of Canada Rising Stars Program by Metis poet and novelist, Katherena Vermette.
Her short fiction and non-fiction have been published in The Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Dalhousie Review, and Filling Station Magazine.
Amanda’s first novel, The Berry Pickers, was published this spring by HarperCollins in Canada and by Catapult in the US this autumn. The novel is shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in Canada, and for the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction in the US.
Maine Public/ Appleton Library 2024 Book Club Schedule
*Book Club Meeting Dates/Times Subject to Change
https://www.mainepublic.org/all-books-considered-book-club
September
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
Maine Public Coverage: Wednesday, September 25 at 7pm: Virtual Book Club discussion with author live streamed on Maine Public’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Appleton Library Book Club Meeting: Tuesday, October 1 at 10am.
October
Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
Maine Public Coverage: Wednesday, October 9 at 7pm: Virtual Book Club discussion with author live streamed on Maine Public’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Appleton Library Book Club Meeting: Tuesday, October 29 at 10am.
November
The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker
Maine Public Coverage: Thursday, November 21 at 7pm: Virtual Book Club discussion with author live streamed on Maine Public’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Appleton Library Book Club Meeting: Tuesday, November 26 at 10am.
Maine Humanities Summer Reading List:
https://www.mainehumanities.org/programs-grants/read-me/
Thursday, July 18; 7pm Online Talk: Moon in Full by Marpheen Chann
Thursday, August 15; 7pm Online Talk: The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring
Starting in the month of May, the Appleton Library will be offering a new book club! Together, we will read monthly book selections along with the Maine Public Book Club. We have decided to follow along with the Maine Public Book Club because:
If you have any questions, would like to add your name to the Appleton Library Book Club email list, or would like to reserve a copy of a book club selection, please email Jessica at appletonlibraryme@gmail.com.
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