Book Club
The Woodward Public Library holds a monthly adult book club every third Thursdays of the month at 5 pm in the library. The group reads books of many genres. Some have included historical fiction, mystery, local authors, and nonfiction. Anyone is welcome to attend. Books are distributed at the time of book discussion, to be read and discussed the following month. Suggestions are often welcome.
Teens at this time do not have a book club, but could be started at any time. Any teens wanting to start a book club, stop by the library and discuss your ideas with the library director.
Book Club on September 18, 2025 at 5pm
The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry
The Story She Left Behind In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more her beautiful mother.
By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters—the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.
