Nonfiction Book Group | Germantown Community Library

The Nonfiction Book Group meets on the third Friday of the month at 1:00. No registration is required, all are welcome. A limited supply of books is available for checkout at the circulation desk.

Selections for 2023:

January 20: The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet / John Green
February 17: The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness / Susannah Cahalan
March 17: Mud Season: How One Woman’s Dream of Moving to Vermont Raising Children, Chicken and Sheep & Running the Old Country Store Pretty Much Led to One Calamity After Another / Ellen Stimson
April 21: Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Empire / Patrick Radden Keefe
May 19: The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London / Christopher Skaife
June 16: Fire in the Sky: Cosmic Collisions, Killer Asteroids, and the Race to Defend the Earth / Gordon L. Dillow
July 21: Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest / Suzanne Simard
August 18: What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets / Michael J. Sandel
September 15: Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole / Susan Cain
October 20: Tastes Like Chicken: A History of America’s Favorite Bird / Emelyn Rude
November 17: Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life / Louise Aronson
December 15: Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure / Rinker Buck

Selections for 2022:

January 21: The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked An Atheist Revolution / Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett
February 18: Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey / Stephen Kuusisto
March 18: Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters/ Steven Pinker
April 18 (closing early April 15): Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook / Alice Waters
May 20: Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting/ Lisa Genova
June 17: The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir / Justine Cowan
July 15: Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing / Pete Davis
August 19: The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe / Josh Mitchell
September 16: Waking the Spirit: A Musician’s Journey Healing Body, Mind and Soul / Andrew Schulman
October 21: The Amur River: Between Russia and China / Colin Thubron
November 18: The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art / Sebastian Smee
December 16: A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings / Helen Jukes

PAST SELECTIONS

2021:

January 15: Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love / Dani Shapiro
February 19: Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission / Bret Baier
March 19: My Life in France / Julia Child
April 16: In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette / Hampton Sides
May 21: They Called Us Enemy / George Takei
June 18: Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language / Gretchen McCulloch
July 16: Vesper Flights / Helen Macdonald
August 20: Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World / Timothy Brook
September 17: Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir / Natasha Tretheway
October 15: The Splendid and the Vile / Erik Larson
November 19: No Beast So Fierce: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History / Edward Huckelbridge
December 17: The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey / Rinker Buck

2020:

January 3: The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit / Michael Finkel
February 7: The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine and Murder Most Foul /Eleanor Herman
March 6: The Genius of Birds / Jenifer Ackerman
April 3: Cancelled
May 1: Cancelled
June 5: Cancelled
July 3: The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain / Bill Bryson
August 7: Lab Girl / Hope Jahren
September 4: Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military / Neil deGrasse Tyson
October 2: In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History / Mitch Landrieu
November 6: Underland: A Deep Time Journey / Robert MacFarlane
December 4: Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know / Malcolm Gladwell

2019:

January 4: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness / Peter Godfrey-Smith
February 1: An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic / Daniel Mendelsohn
March 1: Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor / Virgina Eubanks
April 5: Walking Home Ground: In the Footsteps of Muir, Leopold, and Derleth / Robert Root
May 3: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence / Michael Pollan
June 7: American Nomads: Travels with Lost Conquistadors, Mountain Men, Cowboys, Indians, Hoboes, Truckers, and Bullriders / Richard Grant
July 5: Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures / Bill Schutt
August 2: The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State / Nadia Murad
September 6: The Death and Life of the Great Lakes / Dan Egan
October 4: How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization / Mary Beard
November 1: How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them / Jason Stanley
December 6: Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science, and Evolution / David Rothenberg

2018:

January: Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, a Family’s Genetic Destiny, and the Science that Rescued Them / Gina Kolata
February: The First Love Story: Adam, Eve, and Us / Bruce Feiler
March: Lost City of the Monkey God / Douglas Preston
April: The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between / Hisham Matar
May: A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols / Time Marshall
June: Mozart’s Starling / Lyanda Lynn Haupt
July: The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer / Kate Summerscale
August: Champagne Baby: How One Parisian Learned to Love Wine – and Life – the American Way / Laure Dugas
September: Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy / Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
October: Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student and a Life-Changing Friendship / Michelle Kuo
November: Your Atomic Self: The Invisible Elements That Connect You to Everything Else in the Universe / Curt Stager
December: Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening / Manal Al-Sharif

2017:

February: My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past / Jennifer Teege & Nikola Sellmair
March: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating / Elisabeth Tova Bailey
April: I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives / Dr. Roberto Canessa
May: The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World / Peter Wohlleben
June: Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl / Stacey O’Brien
July: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts / Joshua Hammer
August: The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World / Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu
September: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End / Atul Gawande
October: Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland by Dan Barry
November: Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter / David Sax
December: Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places / Bill Streever