Nonfiction Book Group meets the 1st Friday of each month from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. in the library’s small meeting room. Join us for some interesting reading and lively conversation. No registration is required. All are welcome! Free coffee, tea, and hot chocolate provided by the Friends of the Germantown Community Library.
Copies of the selected books are available at the Circulation Desk. Please bring your library card or photo ID to check out a copy.
As of August 2020, in person book discussions are cancelled for the rest of the year. However, each month’s title will still be available for checkout.
Selections for 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
PAST SELECTIONS
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