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Reading Rainbow Book Club
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Time: 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Cost: FREE
The Canmore Public Library, in conjunction with the Bow Valley Safe Spaces working group, is proud to welcome you to the Reading Rainbow Book Club!
At the Reading Rainbow Book Club, everyone belongs. We invite the 2S+LGBTQIA community, along with friends and allies, to join us in reading and discussing books that feature a 2S+LGBTQIA storyline or are written by a 2S+LGBTQIA author.
Reading Rainbow Book Club meetings will be held on the third Tuesday of every other month. We will meet in the Friends Program Room at 7:00pm. Scroll down to see upcoming books and meetings!
Registration is required. Please complete the registration form found here.
Copies of each month's read will be available to registered participants through the Canmore Library.
Upcoming Reads:
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
From the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & the Six—an entrancing and “wildly addictive journey of a reclusive Hollywood starlet” (PopSugar) as she reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Me Talk Pretty One Day
by David Sedaris
Anyone that has read NAKED and BARREL FEVER, or heard David Sedaris speaking live or on the radio will tell you that a new collection from him is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious new pieces, including 'Me Talk Pretty One Day', about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that 'every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section'. His family is another inspiration. 'You Can't Kill the Rooster' is a portrait of his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers of food and cashiers with six-inch fingernails.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the feeling took root--that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.
But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father--despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Proof of Malinda Lo's skill at creating darkly romantic tales of love in the face of danger.--O: The Oprah Magazine
The queer romance we've been waiting for."--Ms. Magazine
Restrained yet luscious.--Sarah Waters, bestselling author of Tipping the Velvet
A National Bestseller
Boy Erased
Garrard Conley
The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality.
When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness.
By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, this memoir is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.
The New York Times bestselling memoir about identity, love and understanding. Now a major motion picture starring Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Lucas Hedges, directed by Joel Edgerton. "Every sentence of the story will stir your soul" (O Magazine).=
Previous Reads:
A History of my Brief Body
by Billy-Ray Belcourt
A slim but electrifying debut memoir about the preciousness and precariousness of queer Indigenous life.
Opening with a tender letter to his kokum and memories of his early life on the Driftpile First Nation, Billy-Ray Belcourt delivers a searing account of Indigenous life that’s part love letter, part rallying cry.
With the lyricism and emotional power of his award-winning poetry, Belcourt cracks apart his history and shares it with us one fragment at a time. He shines a light on Canada’s legacy of colonial violence and the joy that flourishes in spite of it. He revisits sexual encounters, ruminates on first loves and first loves lost, and navigates the racial politics of gay hookup apps. Among the hard truths he distills, the outline of a brighter future takes shape.
Bringing in influences from James Baldwin to Ocean Vuong, this book is a testament to the power of language—to devastate us, to console us, to help us grieve, to help us survive. Destined to be dog-eared, underlined, treasured, and studied for years to come, A History of My Brief Body is a stunning achievement from one of this generation’s finest young minds.
WINNER OF THE HUBERT EVANS NON-FICTION PRIZE, FINALIST FOR THE JIM DEVA PRIZE FOR WRITING THAT PROVOKES, FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NON-FICTION, FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR GAY MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
The Great Believers
by Rebecca Makkai
A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris, by the acclaimed author Rebecca Makkai.
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.
Named a Best Book of 2018 by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, The Seattle Times, Bustle, Newsday, AM New York, BookPage, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Lit Hub, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, New York Public Library, and Chicago Public Library.
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST, NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, A New York Times TOP 10 BOOK OF 2018, LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER, ALA CARNEGIE MEDAL WINNER, THE STONEWALL BOOK AWARD WINNER
Soon to Be a Major Television Event, optioned by Amy Poehler
“A page turner.... An absorbing and emotionally riveting story about what it’s like to live during times of crisis.” (The New York Times Book Review)
Reading Rainbow Book Club 2024
Event dates
- Tuesday, March 19, 2024 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
- Tuesday, May 21, 2024 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
- Tuesday, July 16, 2024 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
- Tuesday, September 17, 2024 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
- Tuesday, November 19, 2024 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
- Tuesday, January 21, 2025 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Reading Rainbow Book Club Registration
7 reserved • 5 open