Book Club books are chosen by various members. Find who’s picking what next. The group generally meets at the Library, now on the 4th Wednesday of the month, with a few exceptions. Why the 4th Monday – so as not to conflict with ICB and the FIS BOE meetings.
How to become a Fishers Island Library Book Club member?
Just come to a meeting, and you will be added to the contact list, or contact Abby McCall or Ann Banks, Easy! “Bring a friend who’s read the current book or someone who is interested in joining us. There’s always room for more readers at the library.” — Abby
For May, I [Abby] was challenged to find a book that was not too serious or too much of a downer. Not that the books we’ve chosen are, but most of them lately have been about difficult stories and serious subjects. It is quite a challenge to come up with a “happy” book – in line with Tolstoy’s quote about unhappy families – but we think we found one that is more upbeat and cozy than intense and serious. Please join me in reading this wonderful book by an extremely talented author who died too young:
Title: Happy All The Time by Laurie Colwin
Book Club Date: Wednesday, May 27th
Time: 5:30 pm
Pages: 224
Selected by: Abby McCall
A novel about two couples who come together in the ’70’s, it follows the story of cousins and their relationships with the women they love. A theme might be just how difficult it is to sustain a happy relationship over time. A romantic story of four intelligent characters, I hope we can start the busy season with a book we all enjoy, but which sparks a vibrant conversation. — Abby
Title: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Date: Wednesday, June 24th
Time: 5:30 pm
Pages: 256
Seleted by: Sarah Malinowski
“I’ve picked a meditative escape for June. As we prepare for summer on Fishers and navigate the complexities of today’s world, let’s enjoy a tale of friendship set amidst the stark beauty of the Southwest.” ~ Sarah Malinowski
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) is a masterpiece of historical fiction. The action takes place after the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded more than 50% of its territory to the United States (all of California, Utah, Arizona and Nevada; large parts of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming).
It is based on the true-life experiences of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Priest Joseph Projectus Machebeuf, two French Catholics who were tasked with establishing a new diocese in the Spanish Southwest.
The themes are friendship, living with purpose, moral integrity, and faith. The two priests navigate cultural challenges amidst the natural world of the Southwest, and its “limitless craggy beauty.”
The Vintage Classic Edition features an introduction by Claire Messud, who considers Cather essential reading and a personal inspiration.
Orange Cover version: Penguin Classics Reprint Edition: November 14, 2023 | Hardback
Exciting Plans for 2026
| Date | Book | Selector | |
| THURSDAY, January 22 | The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater | Jane Ahrens | The author visited us at the Library this evening! |
| Wednesday, March 5 | Master, Slave, Husband, Wife by Ilyon Woo | Staley Sednaoui | Date moved due to the Feb Blizzard |
| Wednesday, March 25 | The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto by Elizabeth Hyman | Rosanna Anderson | 5 courageous Polish Jewish girls – leaders of the resistance to the Nazi oppressors – in their own voices from their journals |
| Wednesday, April 22 | Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Bella Burden | Diane Baker | A true story, this time from Martha’s Vineyard |
| May 27 | Happy All The Time by Laurie Colwin | Abby McCall | A witty, charming story about two best friends, who fall in love with very different women, in 1970s NYC |
| June 24 | Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) | Sarah Malinowski | A tale of friendship set amidst the stark beauty of the Southwest |
| July 22 | |||
| August 26 | |||
| September 23 | |||
| October 28 | |||
| November 25 | Date will be changed for Thanksgiving conflict | ||
| December 23 | Date to be confirmed |
Book Club members volunteer to suggest books one to two months ahead to read in these months. If you want to help pick a book for a month, please contact Abby McCall. Find all our book title selections below in the book galleries. Other book recommendations are at the bottom of this page.
Please be sure to bring your calendars so that everybody can pick a month this year to choose a book that inspires them. As always, the library has copies of the books if needed. As we make our monthly choices, the library has or can get copies of all the books. You can also get them via LIBBY with your library card and on tape. Many are on Audible.
2026 Book Club Choices:
We had so much fun meeting and chatting with author Maggie Stiefvater in January to discuss her book THE LISTENERS and all sorts of things. Thank you all for coming!
Anyone who missed the last meeting – in which we discussed MASTER, SLAVE, HUSBAND, WIFE – missed an intimate and thoughtful discussion of America during the tense years leading up to the Civil War. Critically, this true story was told through the lens of an enslaved couple who escaped captivity in Georgia to travel north to Philadelphia, and eventually Canada and also to England, dressed as a white farmer and her enslaved servant. Their story was truly unbelievable and absolutely riveting. Not to mention terrifying.
March found us discussing THE GIRL BANDITS OF THE WARSAW GHETTO with a few new readers. So nice! An amazing book, written with so much taken directly from the girls’ and others’ own journals and interviews. What tenacity and courage these Polish Jewish women and men showed in the face of their Nazi oppressors!
2025 Book Club Choices:
Library Book Club selections in the past:
Please invite friends who might also be interested.
There are many book lovers on the island, and bringing the group together is so nice. The more readers, the better, and some people are unable to join on any given month. Please feel free to forward this to anyone else you can think of. All are welcome.
- We convene our Book Club on the 4th Wednesday of each month whenever possible.
- Feel free to BYOBeverage and a snack to share if you like.
- For those of you who prefer e-books, please use the library’s app on its website.
- If you want to buy gently used books—as opposed to borrowing from the library or listening to them on tape—you might try ordering from Thriftbooks.com or AbeBooks.com. The BAM bookstore in Waterford also has reduced-price books, many of which are recycled.
Live-brary Card/Libby App
A Fishers Island Live-brary Card and the Libby App allows one (one may need a NYS address) to become a member of the Suffolk County/New York Library system and borrow digital and audiobooks for free. All our book club books thus far have been available to borrow online or in an audible format.
Fishers Island Library website: http://www.filibrary.org
Contact Librarian Ann Banks with Library questions.
Other recommendations by FI Library Book Club members:
A
Bastard Out of Caroline by Dorothy Allison
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
C
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
One Woman Show by Christine Coluson
Eleanor Roosevelt by Lance Wiesen Cook
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
E
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
F
Century Trilogy – historical fiction by Ken Follett
G
All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle
The Pirate’s Wife, The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd by Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos
H
Act of Oblivion, a historical novel by Robert Harris
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Secret Life of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
Verify by Colleen Hoover
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
J
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
K
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
Writers and Lovers by Lily King
Euphoria by Lily King
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
All But My Life by Gerda Weissman Klein
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
Mrs. Queen Takes a Train Ride by William Kuhn
L
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Eric Larsen
Interpreter of maladies stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Spy that Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
M
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel
Eleanor by David Michaelis
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
God of the Woods by Liz Moore
N
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
P
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Franklin & Lucy by Joseph E. Persico
The Shell Seekers by Rosamond Pilcher
A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
R
The Last Night by Luanne Rice
S
Love Story by Erich Segal
Endless Love by Scott Spencer
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Dracula by Bram Stoker
T
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
V
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
W
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Still Life by Sarah Winman
Z
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
