Next Chapter Society Book Club

Join Next Chapter Society Book Club on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Crazy Gnome as we meet to discuss "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" by James McBride, the NPL 2024 Literary Award Honoree. Visit the Nashville Public Library's online catalog at nashville.overdrive.com to get your copy!

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive.
Winner of the 2024 Library of Congress prize for American fiction; one of former President Barack Obama's favorite books of 2023; named a best book of the year by NPR/Fresh Air, The Washington Post, The New Yorker and Time Magazine.

What's on the menu: If there's not a food truck on-site that evening, Crazy Gnome offers a variety of chips and minimal hot food options. Outside food is both welcome and encouraged; feel free to bring food in or order delivery!
Accessibility: Street level building.
Where can I park?: street parking on McFerrin, across the street on Main or at Main Street Liquor. The Gym 5 parking lot is unavailable during the week.

Gather with some of Nashville's fellow book lovers and learn more about the Next Chapter Society, the Nashville Public Library Foundation's emerging leaders group. Even if you haven't read the book, you are still welcome to join us!

Join Next Chapter Society Book Club on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 6:30 p.m. as we meet to discuss "Let Us Descend" by Jesmyn Ward. Visit the Nashville Public Library's online catalog at nashville.overdrive.com to get your copy!

"Let Us Descend" describes a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Annis leads readers through the descent, hers is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • Instant New York Times Bestseller • Named one of the best books of 2023 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, Time, The New Yorker and more.

What's on the menu: Menu here!
Alcohol: Yes! Love and Exile is a working winery and they have other beverages as well.
Parking: Street level parking, all along the front
Outside?: Maybe!!

Gather with some of Nashville's fellow book lovers and learn more about the Next Chapter Society, the Nashville Public Library Foundation's emerging leaders group. Even if you haven't read the book, you are still welcome to join us!