Download the 2025 Schedule | Download the List of Previous Books
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, November 12 | 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
Jawbone Holler by Mace Thornton
Perry Adams has hit rock bottom, fed by the demons of too much alcohol and not enough patience. Hard knocks are driving his decision to skedaddle. Perry is the bane of his Indiana hometown and his only choice is to pack a saddlebag. The great-great-grandson of a pirate, Perry desires a fresh start far from the clutches of his abusive father. He steals his father’s mule and trades his bottle of rum for adventure and freedom along a soulful trek of exploration and growth that takes him to the promised land of Kansas Territory. While his quest for self, serenity, and redemption is inspiring, his perils and adventures do not cease after reaching the region known as Bleeding Kansas. Arriving in the new land as an unprepared squatter during a ruthless winter, Perry discovers life in the unfamiliar territory is cruel. Even before the war, beatings, pillage, lynchings, and murder stalk the region as brutal lines are drawn between those supporting and opposing slavery. Perry’s dream of establishing a farm, finding love, and starting a family is beset by dramatic hurdles and soul-wrenching decisions at every turn. As he struggles to carve a successful farm out of the wilderness, he grows through relationships with the local constable, a pair of freed slaves, a bartending couple, a shopkeeper, and a “genie.” He meets the love of his life, an angelic but mysterious young schoolteacher who also plays piano at the bar. Surviving the war and winning her heart become his obsessions.-- Provided by publisher.
selected by Jim R.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, December 10 | 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse | 1212 Third St., Louisburg
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
selected by Holly M.
A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future.
Join us as we watch one of the many film adaptations of the book.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Watch for the 2026 Schedule.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, January 14 | 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse | 1212 Third St., Louisburg
Share a "teaser" about a book you've read recently
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, February 11 | 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
One Book, One Burg: Louisburg Reads
Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Depending on an older sister who protected her when their mother went to prison and their mother's boyfriend committed a terrible act, 10-year-old Della tries to figure out what to do when her older sister attempts suicide.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, March 11 | 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse | 1212 Third St., Louisburg
The Mathews Men by William Geroux
selected by Gene S.
Mathews County, Virginia, is a remote outpost on the Chesapeake Bay with little to offer except unspoiled scenery -- but it sent one of the largest concentrations of sea captains and U.S. merchant mariners of any community in America to fight in World War II. The Mathews Men tells that heroic story through the experiences of one family whose seven sons (and their neighbors), U.S. merchant mariners all, suddenly found themselves squarely in the cross-hairs of the U-boats bearing down on the coastal United States in 1942. From the late 1930s to 1945, virtually all the fuel, food, and munitions that sustained the Allies in Europe traveled not via the Navy but in merchant ships. After Pearl Harbor, those unprotected ships instantly became the U-boats' prime targets. And they were easy targets -- the Navy lacked the inclination or resources to defend them until the beginning of 1943. Hitler was determined that his U-boats should sink every American ship they could find, sometimes within sight of tourist beaches, and to kill as many mariners as possible, in order to frighten their shipmates into staying ashore. As the war progressed, men from Mathews sailed the North and South Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, and even the icy Barents Sea in the Arctic Circle, where they braved the dreaded Murmansk Run. Through their experiences we have eyewitnesses to every danger zone, in every kind of ship. Some died horrific deaths. Others fought to survive torpedo explosions, flaming oil slicks, storms, shark attacks, mine blasts, and harrowing lifeboat odysseys -- only to ship out again on the next boat as soon as they'd returned to safety. The Mathews Men shows us the war far beyond traditional battlefields -- often the U.S. merchant mariners' life-and-death struggles took place just off the U.S. coast -- but also takes us to the landing beaches at D-Day and to the Pacific. "When final victory is ours," General Dwight D. Eisenhower had predicted, "there is no organization that will share its credit more deservedly than the Merchant Marine." Here is the story of those merchant seamen, recast as the human story of the men from Mathews.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, April 8 | 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Starbrooke Clubhouse | 1212 Third St., Louisburg
Title TBA
selected by Dave M.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 13 | 6:00 pm
Timbercreek Bar & Grill | 14 E. Amity St., Louisburg
Title TBA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
