Decorah Public Library staff will host five book discussions in September. All groups are open to to the public, and newcomers are encouraged to attend. Anyone interested should call the library at 563-382-3717 to learn more or to reserve a copy of the book. To join any of the groups’ email distribution lists, contact ktorresdal@decorahlibrary.org. Multiple copy sets are generously provided by Friends of Decorah Public Library.
The Happy Hour Book Group will meet at Pulpit Rock Brewing Co. on Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 5:15 p.m. to discuss West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow.
The History Book Group will meet on the second floor of the library on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 3 p.m. to discuss The World After Gaza: A History by Pankaj Mishra. The World After Gaza uses the current war—and the strong, divided reactions to it—as a starting point to rethink two dominant 20th-century stories: the Global North’s tale of defeating totalitarianism and spreading liberal capitalism, and the Global South’s vision of racial equality and freedom from colonialism. As global power shifts and the North loses its unquestioned dominance, Mishra suggests that it’s vital to understand why these two worlds are struggling to communicate.
The Friday Book Group ill meet on the second floor of the library on Friday, Sept. 19 at 2 p.m. to discuss Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks. Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz, suddenly collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf. Three years later, Brooks booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. There, she pondered the various ways in which cultures grieve and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony’s death.
The Speculative Short Fiction Group will meet via Zoom on Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 6 p.m. to discuss She’s Always Hungry: Stories by Eliza Clark. From Eliza Clark comes a fierce, visionary and darkly comic story collection.
A woman welcomes a parasite into her body. A teenager longs for perfect skin. A scientist tends to fragile alien flora. A young man takes the night into his own hands. Unsettling, revelatory, and laced with her signature dark humor, Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.
The Speculative Fiction Book Group will follow at approximately 6:30 p.m. via the same Zoom link to discuss The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. In the near future, a civil servant lands her dream salary—only to learn she’ll be working for a new government ministry testing the limits of time travel. Her job is to be a “bridge,” living with and monitoring an “expat” plucked from history: Commander Graham Gore, presumed dead in 1847 on Sir John Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition.
Gore struggles to adjust to modern life—washing machines, Spotify, the collapse of the British Empire—but his curiosity and a lively circle of fellow expats help him settle in. What starts as an awkward roommate arrangement grows into something entirely different. When the Ministry’s real agenda is revealed, the bridge must decide if what they’ve found together can survive—and whether her next choice could change the future itself.
Zoom links for the speculative groups are available on the library website.
For more information, contact Tricia Gunderson (Friday Book Group) or Kristin Torresdal (Happy Hour, History, and Speculative Fiction Book Groups) at 563-382-3717.