The Library

From the Book Swap Podcast

by Kelly Barnhill
Alex Green is a young girl in the world much like ours, except for a seminal event: the mass disappearance of thousands of wives and mothers in 1955. This wonderful and imaginative speculative novel explores what it means to be a woman in the world, back then and even now. A beautifully written novel that would spark fascinating book club discussions. Cassandra describes it as a cross between Harry Potter books and Lessons in Chemistry. It’s that good!!
Recommended by Johannah Blackman Kiley

by Monica Wood
There’s a reason why this novel has become a big word-of-mouth hit with book clubs across the country. It’s a charming tale about second chances and the power of literature. The story centers on three main characters, Harriet, a retired English teacher running a prison book club, Violet, one of the young inmates, and Frank, a widower and handyman. Their unlikely friendships will captivate readers and reveal human’s capacity for redemption.
Recommended by Amanda Tobier

by John Williams
This book is truly one of the Great American Novels. William Stoner, a poor boy from a small Missouri farm, goes to university to study agriculture. Instead he discovers Shakespeare, awakening a passion for literature, and he decides to become an English professor. This deeply powerful novel follows the quiet course of Stoner's life and his unyielding fortitude and integrity in the face of unrelenting personal and professional disappointments. It's exquisitely written and beautifully renders the best principles of the American ethos in its portrait of Stoner's small quotidien life. This is one of Cassandra's all-time favorites