Book Clubs

American Lives Book Club

This group meets on the Second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm. The American Lives is a non-traditional book group that focuses on the lives of influential Americans. It will focus on the person rather than the book. Choose to read one or more biographies about our subject, each book on the list presents a different view. This will prompt lively discussions facilitated by Bill Wilson. Remote participation available.

Participants are invited to read additional biographies as well.

*PLEASE NOTE DAY CHANGE FOR SEPTEMBER* Monday, September 14, 2026 – 6:30 PM: The Naturalists

• Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of Birds of America by William Souder
• The Strange Wilderness: The Life and Art of John James Audubon by Nancy Plain
• The Birds of America by John James Audubon
• Walden or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau
• Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls
• Nature Writings: The Story of my Boyhood and Youth; My First Summer in the Sierra; The Mountains of California; Stickeen: The Story of a Dog by John Muir
• A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
• Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work by Curt Meine
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
• Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature by Linda Lear

Tuesday, October 13, 2026 – 6:30 PM: Creators of America’s Built Environment

• Early American Architecture: From the First Colonial Settlements to the National Period by Hugh Sinclair Morrison
• Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan: Personal Histories of Two Icons of American Architecture by Trygve Thoreson
• A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and North America in the Nineteenth Century by Witold Rybcznski
• The Autobiography of an Idea by Louis Sullivan
• Henry Hobson Richardson: A Genius for Architecture by Margaret Henderson Floyd
• Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography by Frank Lloyd Wright
• Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography by Meryle Secrest
• The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century by Mark Lamster
• Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry by Paul Goldberger

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 – 6:30 PM: The Artists

• Gilbert Stuart by Carrie Rebora Barratt & Ellen G. Miles
• The Hudson River School: Nature and the America Vision by Linda S. Ferber
• An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art: N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, James Wyeth by James H. Duff
• Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life – The Definitive Biography Revealing the Turbulent Obsession Behind an Iconic American Realist Painter by Richard Meryman
• Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O’Keeffe by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp
• Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography by Gail Levin
• American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon
• Warhol by Blake Gopnik
• The Obama Portraits by Taina Beatriz Caragol-Barreto, Richard J. Powell, and Dorothy Moss

Tuesday, December 8, 2026 – 6:30 PM: The Photographers

• Mathew Brady: Portraits of a Nation by Robert Wilson
• Ansel Adams: A Biography by Mary Street Alinder
• Lewis Hine: Photographer and American Progressive by Alexander B. Goldberg
• Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters by Phyllis Rose
• Dorthea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon
• Robert Capa: A Biography by Richard Whelan
• A Choice of Weapons by Gordan Parks
• A Photographer’s Life by Annie Leibovitz
• Obama: An Intimate Portrait by Pete Souza