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 July selection is Home Now: How 6000 Refugees Transformed an American Town by Cynthia Anderson. Maine Public's "Virtual Book Club" will stream on the Maine Public's YouTube and Facebook page on Thursday, July 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, July 30 at 10:00 AM.
A moving chronicle of who belongs in America.
Like so many American factory towns, Lewiston, Maine, thrived until its mill jobs disappeared and the young began leaving. But then the story unexpectedly veered: over the course of fifteen years, the city became home to thousands of African immigrants and, along the way, turned into one of the most Muslim towns in the US. Now about 6,000 of Lewiston’s 36,000 inhabitants are refugees and asylum seekers, many of them Somali. Cynthia Anderson tells the story of this fractious yet resilient city near where she grew up, offering the unfolding drama of a community’s reinvention–and humanizing some of the defining political issues in America today.
In Lewiston, progress is real but precarious. Anderson takes the reader deep into the lives of both immigrants and lifelong Mainers: a single Muslim mom, an anti-Islamist activist, a Congolese asylum seeker, a Somali community leader. Their lives unfold in these pages as anti-immigrant sentiment rises across the US and national realities collide with those in Lewiston. Home Now gives a poignant account of America’s evolving relationship with religion and race, and makes a sensitive yet powerful case for embracing change.
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
July
Home Now: How 6000 Refugees Transformed an American Town by Cynthia Anderson
Maine Public Coverage: Thursday, July 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, July 30 at 10am.
August
Hunger Hill by Philip Baker
Maine Public Coverage: Thursday, August 29 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, September 3 at 10am.
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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