Laurentian Book Club

Participation is free! 

The Laurentian Book Club connects through a private forum where all participants can discuss the current book and network with each other.  Joining is completely free, you just have to get a copy of the book to enjoy. Don't forget to checkout your local library for a copy of each book! The Book Club will read one book every two months so that you'll have plenty of time for each book.

To login, or sign-up and create an online profile, please visit: https://www.pbc.guru/stlawu/ 

Current Book:

We Should Not Be Friends by Will Schwalbe

May - July, 2024
We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship by Will Schwalbe

Book Synopsis: 

A warm, funny, irresistible book that follows an improbable and life-changing college friendship over the course of forty years--from the best-selling author of The End of Your Life Book Club

By the time Will Schwalbe was a junior at college, he had already met everyone he cared to know: the theater people, writers, visual artists and comp lit majors, and various other quirky characters including the handful of students who shared his own major, Latin and Greek. He also knew exactly who he wanted to avoid: the jocks. The jocks wore baseball caps and moved in packs, filling boisterous tables in the dining hall, and on the whole seemed to be another species entirely, one Will might encounter only at his own peril.

All this changed dramatically when Will collided with Chris Maxey, known to just about everyone as Maxey. Maxey was physically imposing, loud, and a star wrestler who was determined to become a Navy SEAL (where he would later serve for six years). Thanks to the strangely liberating circumstances of a little-known secret society at Yale, the two forged a bond that would become a mainstay of each other's lives as they repeatedly lost and found each other and themselves in the years after graduation.

From New Haven to New York City, from Hong Kong and Panama to a remarkable school on an island in the Bahamas--through marriages and a divorce, triumphs and devastating losses--We Should Not Be Friends tracks an extraordinary friendship over decades of challenge and change. Schwalbe's marvelous new work is, at its heart, a joyful testament to the miracle of human connection--and how if we can just get past our preconceptions, we may find some of our greatest friends.

(Synopsis Source: goodreads.com)

Next Book:

August - October, 2024
TBD

Questions?

Please contact our book club moderator, Jared, jared@pbc.guru and he will be happy to help!

The Books So Far...

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

April 29, 2019 - June 30, 2019

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

June 27, 2019 - August 15, 2019

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

August 29, 2019 - October 10, 2019

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

October 17, 2019 - December 5, 2019

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

January 6 - March 5, 2020

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell

March 19 - May 14, 2020

Summer 2020 - Choose Your Own Adventure Book Club

Choose Your Own Adventure: Summer 2020 - Read and discuss one, two or all three book options simultaneously!

May 28 - July 30, 202

  • Contemporary Fiction - Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
  • Historical Non-Fiction - The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
  • Personal Development - The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

August 6 - October 8, 2020

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

October 15 - December 17, 2020

Talking to Strangers by Malcomb Gladwell

Talking to Strangers by Malcomb Gladwell

January 7 - March 11, 2021

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

March 18 - May 20, 2021
 

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

May 27th - July 29th

The Leavers - A Novel by Lisa Ko book cover

The Leavers: A Novel by Lisa Ko

August 5 - October 4, 2021

The Book of Longing by Sue Monk Kidd book cover

The Book of Longing by Sue Monk Kid

October 14 - December 29, 2021

Artcurious - Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History by Jennifer Dasal

Artcurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History by Jennifer Dasal

January 6 - March 10, 2022
 

Book Cover of The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton

March 18 to May 13, 2022

Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by Cheryl Diamond

Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by Cheryl Diamond

May 27 - July 22, 2022
 

Great Circle: A Novel by Maggie Shipstead Book Cover

Great Circle: A Novel by Maggie Shipstead

August 5 - September 30, 2022

Honor by Thrity Umrigar book cover

Honor: A Novel by Thrity Umrigar

October 14 - December 9, 2022 

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams Bookcover

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

January 6 to February 24, 2023

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Trust by Hernan Diaz

March 17 - May 17, 2023

The Lost City of the Monkey God Book Cover

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston

May 26 - July 28, 2023
 

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

August 4 - September 30, 2023

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

This Tender Land: A Novel by William Kent Krueger

October 13 - December 1, 2023

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

January 5 - February 23, 2024

American Eclipse by David Baron

American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World by David Baron

March 15 - May 3, 2024