10/13/2026
Sorry folks, this one is a little late! We have our lineup for our November book club poll and the theme this time is classics! (Note: East of Eden and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn are longer reads so expect to give more time for them if they're chosen!)
A bit about the books:
The Plague: An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947, The Plague is in part an allegory of France's suffering under the N**i occupation, as well as a timeless story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence. https://bookshop.org/a/99276/9780593082096
Whose Names are Unknown: Sanora Babb's long-hidden novel Whose Names Are Unknown tells an intimate story of the High Plains farmers who fled drought dust storms during the Great Depression. Written with empathy for the farmers' plight, this powerful narrative is based upon the author's firsthand experience. https://bookshop.org/a/99276/9780806137124
The House on Mango Street: The House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting." https://bookshop.org/a/99276/9780679734772
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life—from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Smith has created a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as deeply resonant moments of universal experience. https://bookshop.org/a/99276/9780060736262
East of Eden: In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. https://bookshop.org/a/99276/9780140186390
Dandelion W**e: From one of the 20th century’s most beloved storytellers, a moving evocation of the wonder found on the cusp of adolescence and a powerful depiction of small town American life. https://bookshop.org/a/99276/9798217093977