Do you love books? Are you interested in hearing from the author and looking behind the curtain at what the author was thinking while writing? Perhaps have the author respond to a question or two that has been on your mind about a particular scene or character.
Look no further than the Maine Public Book Club! Hosted by Bill Nemitz, the Maine Public Book Club takes on eight or so books a year in a series of virtual book club events.
Maine Public Book Club: All Books Considered is made possible by the generous support of:
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Not a member? Take a moment to sign up! It’s a free and great way to satisfy one’s love of books and to connect with authors of books you’ve enjoyed.
2025 Book Club Selections
Thursday, March 27 at 7:00 pm
Waiting for the Long Night Moon by Amanda Peters
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Author Bio:
Amanda Peters is a mixed-race woman of Mi’kmaq and European ancestry, born and raised in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. In 2022, she completed a Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indians Arts (IAIA) in New Mexico. In 2021, Amanda won the Indigenous Voices Award for her work of short fiction, Waiting for the Long Night Moon. She was also selected to participate in the 2021 Writers Trust of Canada Rising Stars Program by Metis poet and novelist, Katherena Vermette.
Her short fiction and non-fiction have been published in The Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Dalhousie Review, and Filling Station Magazine.
Reviews:
Thursday, April 17 at 7:00 pm
The Buoyant Letters of Mimsy Bell by Laurel Dodge
Author Bio:
Laurel Dodge graduated from the environmental studies department at Bowdoin College and got her master’s degree at Antioch. She has worked as a naturalist for a nature center, a land trust, and a zoo, and lives on an old farm with a big white barn in Midcoast Maine with her husband, kids, cats, and dog. The Buoyant Letters of Mimsy Bell, published by Littoral Books in 2023, is her first novel. It was awarded the bronze medal for literary fiction by the Independent Publishers Book Awards (the IPPY), an international award for books published in English by independent publishers.
Reviews:
Thursday, May 22 at 7:00 pm
Where the Forest Meets the River by Shannon Bowring
Author Bio:
Shannon Bowring’s work has appeared in numerous journals and has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. Her debut novel, The Road to Dalton, published by Europa Editions, was chosen as one of NPR’s Books We Love in 2023 and won the Maine Literary Book Award for Fiction in 2024. The second installment of the Dalton Novels, Where the Forest Meets the River, was published in September 2024. The third book in the series, IN A DISTANT VALLEY, is forthcoming from Europa Editions. Shannon resides in Maine.
Reviews:
Thursday, June 19 at 7:00 pm
Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Author Bio:
Jennifer Finney Boylan is the author of 19 books, including Mad Honey, co-authored with Jodi Picoult. Her memoir, She’s Not There, was the first bestselling work by a transgender American. Since 2014, she has been the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University; she is also on the faculty of the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference of Middlebury College and the Sirenland Writers’ Conference in Positano, Italy. She is the President of PEN America, and from 2011 to 2018 she was a member of the Board of Directors of GLAAD, including four years as national co-chair. In 2022-23 she was a Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
She graduated from Wesleyan University and Johns Hopkins and holds doctorates honoris causa from Sarah Lawrence College, the New School, and Wesleyan University. For many years she was a Contributing Opinion Writer for the opinion section of the New York Times. Her work has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, LitHub, Downeast, and many other publications. She lives in Maine and New York with her wife Deirdre. They have two children, a daughter, Zai, and a son, Sean.
Reviews:
Thursday, July 24 at 7:00 pm
Granite Harbor by Peter Nichols
Author Bio:
Peter Nichols is the author of the bestselling novel The Rocks, the nonfiction bestsellers A Voyage for Madmen, Evolution's Captain, and three other books of fiction, memoir, and non-fiction. His novel Voyage to the North Star was nominated for the Dublin IMPAC literary award. His journalism has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Peter has an MFA degree from Antioch University Los Angeles and has taught creative writing there and at Georgetown University, Bowdoin College, and New York University in Paris. Before turning to writing full-time, he held a 100-ton USCG Ocean Operator’s license and was a professional yacht delivery captain for 10 years. He also worked in advertising in London, as a screenwriter in LA, a shepherd in Wales, and sailed alone in a small boat across the Atlantic. He is a member of the Explorers Club of New York.
Reviews:
Thursday, August 28 at 7:00 pm
Love & Lobsters by Shannon M. Parker
Author Bio:
Shannon M. Parker is the author of three novels, including critically-acclaimed The Girl Who Fell and The Rattled Bones, which explores the history and cultural erasure of Maine’s Malaga Island. Set in midcoast Maine, Love & Lobsters is her adult debut and was immediately optioned for film.
Shannon has a deep reverence for kindness and laughter, wide and wild philanthropy, and leaving a quiet, impactful footprint. She’s traveled to 38 countries across 5 continents and is always honored to call Maine home. As an author and educator, she holds degrees in English Literature, Applied Linguistics, and Educational Leadership from Saint Michael's College, UMass Boston, and University of Southern Maine respectively. She currently attends Harvard University because she thought it was about time to study creative writing. She can usually be spotted kayaking or venturing to the water in her happy, blue 1972 pick-up.
Reviews:
Thursday, September 25 at 7:00 pm
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
Author Bio:
Monica Wood is a novelist, memoirist, and playwright; the 2024 recipient of the Sarah Josepha Hale Award for excellence in the arts in New England; the 2019 Constance Carlson Prize for contributions to the public humanities in Maine; and the 2018 Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance Distinguished Achievement Award for her contributions to the literary arts.
Her newest novel, How to Read a Book, has already secured translation rights in five countries. Her previous novel, the bestselling The One-in-a-Million Boy, was translated into 20 languages in over 30 countries. She is also the author of When We Were the Kennedys, a New England bestseller and winner of the May Sarton Memoir Award. Her other fiction, Any Bitter Thing, Ernie’s Ark, and My Only Story, have also won awards and made bestseller lists. Her short stories have been widely anthologized and featured on Public Radio International. Her nonfiction and reviews have appeared in O, the New York Times, Literary Hub, Down East, the San Francisco Chronicle, Martha Stewart Living, Parade, and many other publications. She is also the author of several books for aspiring writers and three plays, Papermaker, The Half-Light, and Saint Dad.
She lives in Portland with her husband, Dan Abbott, and their cat, Susie.
Reviews:
Wednesday, October 22nd at 7:00 pm
The Children in the Lake by Mark Edward Hall
Author Bio:
Mark Edward Hall was born in Maine and grew up there. He is the author of more than twenty books including the bestselling Blue Light Series. He successfully crosses many genre boundaries; mystery, thriller, suspense, romance, horror, science fiction and matters of the heart, drawing compelling characters whom readers are sad to leave behind when the book is finished. He lives in Maine and Florida with his wife Sheila.
Mark is also a musician. While in Maine, his band “The Maniacs” have a regular weekend gig at the Lobster Wharf in Boothbay Harbor.
"Mark Edward Hall writes like a master. I'm one of his fans." ~Kiana Davenport, Internationally bestselling author of SHARK DIALOGUES, and THE SPY LOVER
"Hall has an uncanny knack for blending vivid, almost poetic prose with visceral images of jaw-dropping horror to great effect." ~Bram Stoker Award-Winning Editor, Vince Liaguno
"Poetic and eerily seductive, Hall pushes you to the edge, until you get lost in the beautiful madness of his creations." ~Midwest Book Review
"Hall is rapidly climbing the ladder to stake a claim as one of the dark fiction elite." ~Morpheus Tales
"Original! Captivating! Powerful! Look out world, Mark Edward Hall is re-writing the expectations of supernatural thrillers and he's here to stay." ~Book Monster
Reviews:
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Maine Public Book Club Meeting Archive
