{"id":584097,"date":"2026-08-14T03:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/584097\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T03:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:28:13","slug":"nycs-first-citywide-book-club-comes-to-central-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/584097\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC\u2019s First Citywide Book Club Comes to Central Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New York has plenty of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/news\/this-new-york-reading-retreat-is-rethinking-the-book-club-040326\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">book clubs<\/a>, but most of them don\u2019t end with hundreds of avid readers gathering under the stars in Central Park.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, August 17, the New York Public Library\u2019s first-ever Big Summer Book Club will wrap up with <a href=\"https:\/\/publictheater.org\/productions\/season\/2526\/forums\/summer-book-club-celebration-with-the-new-york-public-library\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a massive celebration at the Delacorte Theater<\/a>, bringing author N.K. Jemisin to the newly renovated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/theater\/shakespeare-in-the-park\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">home of Shakespeare in the Park<\/a> for an evening of readings, performances and bookish conversation. Best of all, free tickets are available to the public.<\/p>\n<p>The event caps off NYPL\u2019s inaugural citywide summer book club, which invited New Yorkers to spend the season reading Jemisin\u2019s The City We Became. The 2020 fantasy novel is an especially fitting pick for a five-borough reading project: It imagines New York\u2019s boroughs embodied as human avatars who have to work together to defend the city from an otherworldly threat.<\/p>\n<p>The grand finale begins on Monday at 8pm at the Delacorte and will include readings, commissioned performances inspired by the novel, and a conversation between Jemisin and WNYC host Alison Stewart.<\/p>\n<p>RECOMMENDED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/books\/best-bookstores-in-new-york-city\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The best bookstores in NYC, including used and specialty bookshops<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While the event itself is free, you\u2019ll still need to snag a ticket. Starting at noon on August 17, tickets will be distributed outside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/news\/first-look-peek-inside-the-newly-renovated-delacorte-theater-in-central-park-071525\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Delacorte in Central Park<\/a>. An in-person lottery will also take place at noon at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/theater\/public-theater\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Public Theater,<\/a> while additional ticket vouchers will be handed out beginning at noon at Clason\u2019s Point Library in the Bronx and St. George Library Center on Staten Island. A digital lottery through TodayTix will remain open until noon that day and a standby line at the Delacorte may begin distributing remaining tickets as early as 6pm, depending on availability. (Public Theater members can also reserve seats in advance by making a $75 or $150 donation.)<\/p>\n<p>Finish those last few chapters\u2014or prepare to nod knowingly if the conversation gets into spoiler territory. New York City\u2019s biggest book club meeting of the summer is taking over one of Central Park\u2019s most beloved stages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York has plenty of book clubs, but most of them don\u2019t end with hundreds of avid readers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[17797,146,85,46,92803,867],"class_list":["post-584097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news-events-festivals","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}