Share your love of fiction that shapes your views.  Meet new friends.  Enjoy a great discussion where new thoughts and ideas are shared.

Discussing favorite books is a great way to make new friends, but with many book clubs it can be difficult to become a part of the group.  Join us for “Books with Friends” in a monthly exploration of favorite books to share among an inclusive group of Chesapeake Forum friends.  You are welcome to join in for one book, or all.

As we start our third year, “Books with Friends” is proving an easy way to jump in and be a part of a discussion about interesting reads.  Participants in the last semester of the year are asked to recommend books that have been especially memorable and discussion-worthy.

Books discussed so far have included Horse: a Novel, American Dirt; The Paris Architect; March: a Novel; American Ramble; A Gentleman from Moscow; All the Light We Cannot See; Be Mine; Mad Honey; Remarkably Bright Creatures, Lessons in Chemistry, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, The Wager, Lucy by the Sea, and Trust.

Anyone with a love of books and a desire to participate in discussions about the themes raised is welcome at any time, whether for one book, or all.  

We start our 2025 list this Winter semester with:

January book:  This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger.     In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, Odie O’Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.  Over the course of one summer, these four orphans journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.

February book:  The Sequel, by Jean Hanf Kerelitz.  Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of business. That is to say, she’s taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. Now she is living the contented life of a literary widow, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks in perpetuity, but for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller?  But when Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. That it does means something has gone very wrong, and someone out there knows far too much: about her late brother, her late husband, and just possibly… Anna, herself. What does this person want and what are they prepared to do? She has come too far, and worked too hard, to lose what she values most: the sole and uncontested right to her own story. And she is, by any standard, a master storyteller.  With her signature wit and sardonic humor, Jean Hanff Korelitz gives readers an antihero to root for while illuminating and satirizing the world of publishing in this deliciously fun and suspenseful read.

March book:  The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana Chambers.  Single, 6 foot 2, and thirty years old, Julia McWilliams took a job working for America’s first espionage agency, years before cooking or Paris entered the picture. The Secret War of Julia Child traces Julia’s transformation from ambitious Pasadena blue blood to Washington, DC file clerk, to head of General “Wild Bill” Donovan’s secret File Registry as part of the Office of Strategic Services.  The wartime journey takes her to the Far East, to Asia’s remote frontlines of then-Ceylon, India, and China, where she finds purpose, adventure, self-knowledge – and love with mapmaker Paul Child. The spotlight has rarely shone on this fascinating period of time in the life of (“I’m not a spy”) Julia Child, and this lyrical story allows us to explore the unlikely world of a woman in World War II spy station who has no idea of the impact she’ll eventually impart.

Upcoming for 2025:

• April book:  North Woods, by Daniel Mason.
• May book:The Women, by Kristin Hannah.
• June book: The Hobbit, by J. R.R. Tolkien.
• September book: Table for Two, by Amor Towles.
• October book: The Vegetarian, by Han Kang.
• November book: White Noise, by Don DeLillo

What to Expect:  Course leader Lynn Randle moderates each session of “Books with Friends” in an in-depth and lively exploration of the insights developed in each book. Reading the book in advance of each session is strongly recommended so we can enjoy the most meaningful discussion.  Background material and discussion questions are sent out prior to each session.  You will meet readers from all over the Delmarva Peninsula and as far away as Williamsburg.  Pick and choose the books you wish to read and participate in, or choose to read them all and enjoy the monthly discussions with book friends!

Be sure to register for “Books with Friends” each semester so you continue to get updates and reminders of the books we are reading and reminders of the discussion dates and links.

Feedback from earlier sessions:

“Love it.  Lynn does a great job in leading the discussions.  Makes great points.  Enjoy the people in the book club.  It’s making me read more – especially books I might now have tried!”

“I felt that the moderator, Lynn Randle, did extensive research on the books that spurred more discussion.  Very enjoyable.”

“Thank you for the engaging conversation!”

3 sessions | Thursdays | Jan 23, Feb 27, Mar 20 | 1:30 – 3 pm | ZOOM (no recording) | $10