The NEPM Book Club
Do you love to read? So do we! That’s why we’ve launched the NEPM Book Club — a quarterly virtual meet-up dedicated to bringing NEPM friends together to chat about new, diverse and interesting fiction.
Our next meeting will be Thursday, April 27 at 7 p.m. We'll be diving into history with "Horse" by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks.
The NEPM Book Club is sponsored by Broadside Bookshop in Northampton.
ABOUT THE NOVEL
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands,Brooks 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.
MEET THE BOOK CLUB HOST
Erin O’Neill is a dedicated bibliophile and NEPM’s digital marketing and social media manager. A lifelong obsessive reader and lover of stories, Erin hosts and organizes NEPM Book Club meetings — and comes up with discussion questions!
GET THE BOOK
Need to get your copy of the latest Book Club selection? Please consider buying from one of our local NEPM Book Club partners:
Broadside Bookshop in Northampton »
Massive Bookshop, an online bookseller in Greenfield »
Olive Tree Books-n-Voices in Springfield »
UPCOMING MEETINGS
Book Club Members can help select books for us to read. Do you have a favorite novel? Is there a piece of fiction that’s on your to-read list? Email your suggestions to bookclub@nepm.org!
Though our first meetings have been on Zoom, we’re looking forward to the time when we may be able to congregate in person. As we like to say at NEPM, “Stay tuned!”