Book Group

The St. Peter’s Book Group meets the first Tuesday of each month. The group reads both fiction and nonfiction books, most of which deal with moral or social issues. The list of 2024 books is below.

The St. Peter’s Book Group is set up to encourage readers to come and go as selections attract them. We welcome newcomers, occasional participants, and regular participants alike. To request the meeting location for the St. Peter’s Book Group, click here.

Book Group Choices 2024

1.  “The Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett, for discussion in February. Detective novel featuring Sam Spade, the model for the hard-boiled detective,
2. “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” by Jimmy Carter, for discussion in March. Nonfiction.
3.  “The Future We Choose” by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, for discussion in April. Nonfiction, about climate change, not too doom and gloom.
4. “East West Street” by Philippe Sands. Nonfiction, a family memoir about developing legal theories for Nuremburg trials.
5. “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz” by Lucy Addington. Nonfiction, about a small group of women prisoners in Auschwitz assigned to make fashionable dresses for Nazi elite.
6. “The Man Who Hated Women” by Amy Shon. Nonfiction, about Anthony Comstock, special agent to U.S. Post Office and a driving force behind the Comstock Act, which made dissemination of any information about contraception illegal, and about enforcement of that law.
7. “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan. A novella. Heartwarming Christmas story about an Irish father who grasps the heartlessness of the Magdalene laundries, about importance of kindness.
8. “The Big Oyster” by Mark Kurlansky. Nonfiction, a history of New York City through the lens of the oyster industry.
9. “Burmese Days” by George Orwell. Fiction. Set in 1920’s Burma, illustrating problems with colonialism.
10. “Piranesi” by Susannah Clarke. Fantasy novel, no piranhas, magical realism.
11. “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles. Novel about several boys traveling across the country.