12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Drop-in Group. Members $2, Non-members $5
February Book: – Horse by Geraldine Brooks
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.
New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.
Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse–one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.
Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.
Meets the first Tuesday of the month.
Location: Walnut Creek Main Library
1644 N. Broadway, Walnut Creek
(Next to the Civic Park Community Center)
LAS TRAMPAS CONFERENCE ROOM on the 2nd floor
Hooked on Books has a different discussion leader each month. Books are chosen by group discussion and often by a vote.
2023 BOOK LIST
Feb. 7, 2023 – Horse by Geraldine Brooks.
March 7, 2023 – The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
April 4, 2023 – Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
May 2, 2023 – Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
June 6, 2023 – The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
July 4, 2023 – Lightning Strike by Wm Kent Kreuger
August 1, 2023 – The Paris Library by Janet S. Charles
Sept.5, 2023 – Dinners With Ruth by Nina Totenberg
Oct. 3, 2023 – Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Nov. 7, 2023 – Night Crawling by Leila Mottley
Dec. 5, 2023 – And There Was Light by Jon Meacham
Jan. 2, 2024 – The Revolutionary Sam Adams by Stacy Schiff