Book Discussion Groups
The Book (Club)
Was Better
Copies of the book and movie are available at the Elmore Library Circ Desk or on the Libby app as an Ebook
Questions? Email Sierra at
circ@harriselmorelibrary.org
August 6, 2026
10:00 PM
History Room
Join us each month as we discuss books that were adapted into movies and TV shows!
In the reality TV show The Running Man, the only objective is to stay alive.
This “slam-bang action suspense” (Gilbert Cruz, Vulture) from Stephen King is now a major motion picture from Paramount.
Ben Richards has no job, no money, and a young daughter who urgently needs medical attention. Desperate, out of options, he signs up for The Running Man, “the biggest show in the country.” It’s an ultraviolent competition where the stakes could not be higher. Ben must stay alive for thirty days while an elite strike force, trained to kill, hunts for him. If he can survive for a month, he wins a billion dollars. No contestant has ever lasted longer than eight days. Can Ben Richards win this ultimate game of life and death?
You can pick up a copy of the book and movie each month at the Harris-Elmore Library.
Read Between the Wines Book Group
July 13, 2026
10:30 PM
The Portage Inn
Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that 'The Devil in the White City' is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor.
Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison.
The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims.
Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. - John Moe
Copies of the book are available at the Elmore Library Circ Desk and the Genoa Library Book Club Shelf.
eBooks and Audiobooks are free to download from the Libby app.
Questions? Call Bekkir at
(419) 855-3380 ext. 203
Evening Discussion
Genoa Library
Copies of the book are available at the Genoa Library Circ Desk or on the Libby app as an Ebook
Questions? Call Meg at
(419) 855-3380 ext 201.
May 19, 2026
10:00 PM
Thackrey Meeting Room
Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in Toronto. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn't.
At thirty-two, Fern's life doesn't look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern's back home, running her mother's Muskoka lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend's the manager, and Fern doesn't know where to begin.
She needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern's going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern's not sure she wants to know what it is.
But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?
Morning Discussion
Genoa Library
Copies of the book are available at the Genoa Library Circ Desk or on the Libby app as an Ebook
Questions? Call Abigail at
(419) 855-3380 ext 202.
July 16, 2026
1:30 PM
Thackrey Meeting Room
A luminous, spirit-lifting blockbuster that asks: would you choose to find out the length of your life?
Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.
It seems like any other day. You wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and head out.
But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. The contents of this mysterious box tells you the exact number of years you will live.
From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?
As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?
The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.
Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is an ambitious, invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
small town PRIDE!
Traveling Book Group
July 27, 2026
10:30 PM
Birchard Public Library - Fremont, OH
(Optional carpool leaves from the Harris-Elmore Library at 5:45pm)
You don't need to drive hours to find others in the LGBTQ+ community. Join us as we come together from small towns to form a book club with big Pride!
We will travel to local small towns to enjoy and discuss books written by and/or about LGBTQ+ people.
Allies are welcome!
Copies of the book are available at the Elmore Library Circ Desk or on the Libby app as an Ebook
Questions? Call Bekkir at
(419) 855-3380 ext. 203
“Girls Girls Girls floored me. . . . It’s completely extraordinary.” —Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich
A vibrant queer Jewish debut “teeming with heart, angst, love, and self discovery” (Emily Austin) about a young woman who, caught between the expectations of others and her own evolving desires, is forced to make a series of fraught life-altering decisions.
It’s the summer of ’96 and best friends (and secret girlfriends) Hannah and Sam are driving across the country from Long Beach, New York, to the fabled queer paradise of San Francisco, free from the harsh gazes of their neighbors and the stifling demands of Hannah’s devout Orthodox Jewish mother. In San Francisco, they will finally be together as a real couple, out in the open, around other queer people. Even if the move means leaving behind Hannah’s beloved Bubbe.
When the financial strains of West Coast living push the girls to start stripping at The Chez Paree—yet another secret Hannah must keep from her family—Hannah feels trapped. Sam wants her at the club, but Hannah hates stripping nearly as much as she hates disappointing Sam. Then Hannah meets Chris, an older butch lesbian, who is immediately taken with her. Desperate to stay in San Francisco, but away from the leering men at the club, Hannah proposes an escort arrangement.
But as Hannah falls deeper into Chris’ world and Sam starts to meet new queer friends, a rift forms between them. Without Sam, who is Hannah? And what becomes of San Francisco to Hannah alone—a space rich with queer possibility, or an intimidating, unfamiliar place, just as lonely as the one she’d left behind? An achingly tender and resonant story of survival, first love, and growing up queer in the ’90s, Girls Girls Girls is a piercing exploration of the choices we make in the thrilling and often confounding search for ourselves and home.
Book Discussion
Elmore Library
Copies of the book are available at the Elmore Library Circ Desk or on the Libby app as an Ebook
Questions? Call Jen at
(419) 862-2482 ext. 101
July 23, 2026
2:00 PM
Damschroder Meeting Room
From the award-winning author of Chemistry, a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations.
Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,” says her father), while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign” wife.
Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together?
True Crime Tuesdays
Genoa Library
Copies of the book will be available at the Genoa Library Circ Desk or on the Libby app as an Ebook
Questions? Call Meg or Tricia at (419) 855-3380 ext 203.
June 30, 2026
10:30 PM
Thackrey Meeting Room
Ages 18+
Join us at the Genoa Branch Library for True Crime Tuesday!
In Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, Lawrence Schiller thoroughly recreates every aspect of the complex case of the death of JonBenét Ramsey. A brilliant portrait of an inscrutable family thrust under the spotlight of public suspicion and an affluent, tranquil city torn apart by a crime it couldn't handle, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town uncovers the mysteries that have bewildered the nation.
Why were the Ramseys, the targets of the investigation, able to control the direction of the police inquiry?
Can the key to the murder be found in the pen and writing pad used for the ransom note?
Was it possible for an intruder to have killed JonBenét?
Copies of the book are available at the Genoa Branch Library. Copies of the book are available at the Genoa Branch Library. Don't want to read the book? Check out the shows, podcasts and articles about this case linked on our website!
Book Buddies
Book Discussion For
Children Grades 3-5
Join our Google Classroom
for the latest information!
code: bym6yyc
Questions? Email Abby at
genoaclerk2@
harriselmorelibrary.org
April 29, 2026
9:00 PM
Thackrey Meeting Room
The Penderwicks meets The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street in a story about a young girl who gets to know her mom’s side of the family and hunts for hidden treasure over the course of one chaotic summer.
For as long as Ryanna Stuart can remember, her summers have been spent with her father and his new wife. Just the three of them, structured, planned, and quiet. But this summer is different. This summer, she’s received a letter from her grandparents—grandparents neither she nor her dad have spoken to since her mom’s death—inviting her to stay with them at an old summer camp in the Poconos.
Ryanna accepts. She wants to learn about her mom. She wants to uncover the mystery of why her father hasn’t spoken to her grandparents all these years. She’s even looking forward to a quiet summer by the lake. But what she finds are relatives… so many relatives! Aunts and uncles and cousins upon cousins—a motley, rambunctious crew of kids and eccentric, unconventional adults. People who have memories of her mom from when she was Ryanna’s age, clues to her past like a treasure map. Ryanna even finds an actual, real-life treasure map!
Over the course of one unforgettable summer—filled with s’mores and swimming, adventure and fun, and even a decades-old mystery to solve—Ryanna discovers a whole new side of herself and that, sometimes, the last place you expected to be is the place where you really belong.