2023 Schedule
This schedule is subject to change as deemed necessary.

The Fall of Richard Nixon: A Reporter Remembers Watergate by Tom Brokaw
"The last year of the Nixon presidency was filled with power politics, legal jiu-jitsu and high-stakes showdowns, with head-shaking surprises every day. Tom Brokaw, the NBC News White House correspondent during the final year of Watergate, gives us a close-up, personal account of the players, the strategies, and the highs and lows of the scandal that brought down a president. Brokaw writes, 'Even now, almost half a century later, I am astonished by what the country went through, and I wanted to share press stories from the inside looking out -- what it was like to be on call 24/7, the twists and turns, the laughs and tensions during this historic time.'"-- Provided by publisher.
Wednesday, December 13  |  7:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse  |  1212 Third Street, Louisburg
Book selected by Dave M.

2024 Schedule
(This schedule is subject to change as deemed necessary.)

Share a Teaser about a book you've recently read
The holidays can be busy.  Don't stress about book club.  Read something you'll enjoy then share it with the group.
Wednesday, January 10  |  7:00 pm  |  Louisburg Library
Book selected by Holly M.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
One Book, One Burg: Louisburg Reads
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.The lieutenant's name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
Wednesday, February 14  |  7:00 pm  |  Louisburg Library

The Age of A.I. by Henry Kissinger
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming human society fundamentally and profoundly. Three of our most accomplished and deep thinkers come together to explore how A.I. could affect our relationship with knowledge, impact our worldviews, and change society and politics as profoundly as the ideas of the Enlightenment.
Wednesday, March 13 |  7:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse  |  1212 Third Street, Louisburg
Book selected by Jim G.

Title TBD
Description to come
Wednesday, April 10 |  7:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse  |  1212 Third Street, Louisburg
Book selected by Catherine B.

Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne
"New York Times bestselling author Kevin Hearne returns to the world of his beloved Iron Druid Chronicles in a spin-off series about an eccentric master of rare magic solving an uncanny mystery in Scotland. Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails-and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae. But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse. But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective-while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice's death will take him through Scotland's magical underworld, and he'll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he's to survive"-- Provided by publisher.
Wednesday, May 8 |  4:00 pm
Headquarters Winery & Mercantile |  100 W. Pearl St, Harrisonville
Book selected by Royce M.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, a classic of our time, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond dismantles racist theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for its broadest patterns. The story begins 13,000 years ago, when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Around that time, the developmental paths of human societies on different continents began to diverge greatly. Early domestication of wild plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and other areas gave peoples of those regions a head start at a new way of life. But the localized origins of farming and herding proved to be only part of the explanation for their differing fates. The unequal rates at which food production spread from those initial centers were influenced by other features of climate and geography, including the disparate sizes, locations, and even shapes of the continents. Only societies that moved away from the hunter-gatherer stage went on to develop writing, technology, government, and organized religions as well as deadly germs and potent weapons of war. It was those societies, adventuring on sea and land, that invaded others, decimating native inhabitants through slaughter and the spread of disease.A major landmark in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way in which the modern world, and its inequalities, came to be.Wednesday, June 12  |  7:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse  |  1212 Third Street, Louisburg
Book selected by Chris K.

Last Stand by Michael Punke
In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, an American buffalo herd once numbering 30 million animals was reduced to twelve. It was the era of Manifest Destiny, a Gilded Age that treated the West as nothing more than a treasure chest of resources to be dug up or shot down. The buffalo in this world was a commodity, hounded by legions of swashbucklers and unemployed veterans seeking to make their fortunes. Supporting these hide hunters, even buying their ammunition, was the U.S. Army, which considered the eradication of the buffalo essential to victory in its ongoing war on Native Americans. Into that maelstrom rode young George Bird Grinnell. A scientist and a journalist, a hunter and a conservationist, Grinnell would lead the battle to save the buffalo from extinction. Fighting in the pages of magazines, in Washington's halls of power, and in the frozen valleys of Yellowstone, Grinnell and his allies sought to preserve an icon from the grinding appetite of Robber Baron America. Grinnell shared his adventures with some of the greatest and most infamous characters of the American West - from John James Audubon and Buffalo Bill to George Armstrong Custer and Theodore Roosevelt (Grinnell's friend and ally). A strikingly contemporary story, the saga of Grinnell and the buffalo was the first national battle over the environment. In Grinnell's legacy is the birth of the conservation movement as a potent political force. - Dust jacket.
Wednesday, July 10 |  6:00 pm
Timbercreek Bar & Grill |  14 E. Amity St, Louisburg
Book selected by Gene S.

The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede
When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an overwhelming display of friendship and goodwill. As the passengers stepped from the airplanes, exhausted, hungry and distraught after being held on board for nearly 24 hours while security checked all of the baggage, they were greeted with a feast prepared by the townspeople. Local bus drivers who had been on strike came off the picket lines to transport the passengers to the various shelters set up in local schools and churches. Linens and toiletries were bought and donated. A middle school provided showers, as well as access to computers, email, and televisions, allowing the passengers to stay in touch with family and follow the news. Over the course of those four days, many of the passengers developed friendships with Gander residents that they expect to last a lifetime. As a show of thanks, scholarship funds for the children of Gander have been formed and donations have been made to provide new computers for the schools. This book recounts the inspiring story of the residents of Gander, Canada, whose acts of kindness have touched the lives of thousands of people and been an example of humanity and goodwill.
Wednesday, August 14 |  7:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse  |  1212 Third Street, Louisburg
Book selected by Dave M

Title TBD
Description to come
Wednesday, September 11 |  6:00 pm
Timbercreek Bar & Grill |  14 E. Amity St, Louisburg
Book selected by Jim R.

Title TBD
Description to come
Wednesday, October 9 |  7:00 pm  |  Louisburg Library
Book selected by Bob S.

Title TBD
Description to come
Wednesday, November 13 |  7:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse  |  1212 Third Street, Louisburg
Book selected by Jim G.

A Christmas Memory by Richard Paul Evans
It's 1967, and for young Richard it's a time of heartbreak and turmoil. Over the span of a few months, his brother, Mark, is killed in Vietnam; his father loses his job and moves the family from California to his grandmother's abandoned home in Utah; and his parents make the painful decision to separate. With uncertainty rattling every corner of his life, Richard does his best to remain strong--but when he's run down by bullies at his new school, he meets Mr. Foster, an elderly neighbor who chases off the bullies and invites Richard in for a cup of cocoa. Richard becomes fast friends with the wise, solitary man who inspires Richard's love for books and whose dog, Gollum, becomes his closest companion. As the holidays approach, the joy and light of Christmas seem unlikely to permeate the Evans home as things take a grim turn for the worse. And just when it seems like he has nothing left to lose, Richard is confronted by a startling revelation. But with Mr. Foster's wisdom and kindness, he learns for the first time what truly matters about the spirit of the season: that forgiveness can heal even the deepest wounds, and love endures long after the pain of loss subsides.
Wednesday, December 11 |  7:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse  |  1212 Third Street, Louisburg
Book selected by Holly M.

Watch for the 2025 schedule!