Anna Pilato – founder & chair

Book clubs are where books and friends are a perfect blend.

Please email me if you will not be attending the November 20 book club meeting, and if not attending… please include how you would like to receive book #20.

Please remember to bring your borrowed library book “Sweetness in the Belly”

Unfortunately, I was not able to get copies of Scarborough.  The library had no books; all were checked out. BUT Scarborough will be available for the January 15 2026 meeting.

Because Scarborough was not available, I do have 13 copies of Biram Wood, by Eleanor Catton which we will review at the Thursday January 15 2026.

Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plant crops wherever no one will notice: on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned. But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker–or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other? A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama, and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

I will be providing a list with details of book choices for 2026 at the November meeting.
I would ask that like last year, you provide a list of 2-3 books you would like for the 2026 meetings, and we will follow the same process where most popular choices will be chosen.
Please take the time between November 20 to January 1 2026 (deadline please) to provide your list.

Our members have agreed and decided upon the following books for 2025 as well as January 2026.

Don’t forget that Chartwell Hollandview allows “book swap” overflow – max 2 books per person.

Please use the handy contact form in the sidebar to let me know if you will not be attending this month’s book club meeting and please include how you would like to receive the book.