The Laid-Back Book Club is our virtual book club for Harvard Diggins Library adult patrons.  There are no meetings, no deadlines, just good books and prizes! We have 12 book selections, one for every month, for our patrons to read and enjoy in a variety of genres. Log your reading in your Beanstack account as “activities” to earn badges and raffle tickets towards the end-of-the-year grand prize and participate in occasional discussions in our private Facebook group.  You can read ahead, read behind, read on-schedule, skip book selections, and read completely at your own pace. A limited number copies of the current reading selection will be available at the library for checkout every month, but you are welcome to request copies on your own PrairieCat account as well.

Here’s how you can participate:

• Read any of our book selections anytime of the year! See below for a list of the book selections.
• Create a Beanstack account or download the app from your device’s app store to track your reading.
• Join our private Facebook group for occasional discussions and announcements about the current book selection.
• NEW! Stop by the Circulation Desk at the Library to pick up a reading guide for the 2024 book selections. The reading guide has space to jot down notes for discussion prompts, quotes, additional reading recommendations, and more. You can choose to pick up a complete booklet, or request individual sheets for the book you are currently reading. Click here to download the complete 2025 reading guide.

Questions? We’re happy to help! Contact Leticia at adultservices@harvard-diggins.org

Earn a raffle entry for every book you read from this list in 2025. Mark your reading as an “activity” in Beanstack to earn your entry.

• January – The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer
• February – The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
• March – The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
• April – Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
• May – A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
• June – The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• July – Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin
• August – Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
• September – Honor by Thrity Umrigar
• October – The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
• November – Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
• December – On Earth as It Is on Television by Emily Jane

The 2025 BONUS Badges

Harvard Diggins Library is a participating member of Illinois Libraries Present, a coalition of libraries planning live, virtual events with famous authors and figures. You can earn bonus badges and raffle entries in Beanstack by attending any of these events and marking them as “activities” in your Beanstack account. List will be updated as new events are added throughout the year.

• Thu, January 9 | 7 PM – Chicago Pizza – Past, Present & Future with Steve Dolinsky
• •  Registration: https://bit.ly/ILP_SteveDolinsky
• Thu, January 23 | 7 PM – Love and Laughs with Michelle Buteau
  • Registration: https://bit.ly/ILP_MichelleButeau
• Tue, February 4 | 7 PM – James McBride
  •   Registration: https://bit.ly/ILP_JamesMcBride
• Wed, February 19 | 7 PM –  Amy Tan
  •  Registration: https://bit.ly/ILP_AmyTan
• Tue, March 4 | 7 PM – Exploring Space with Coralie Adam
  • Registration:  https://bit.ly/ILP_CoralieAdam
• Thu, April 10 | 7 PM – The Art of Foraging with Alexis Nikole Nelson
  • Registration:   https://bit.ly/ILP_AlexisNikoleNelson
• Sat, May 3 | 2 PM – Art and Adventures with Author/Illustrator Dan Santat (Youth Program)
  • Registration:  https://bit.ly/ILP_DanSantat
• Thu, May 15 | 7 PM – Poverty: A Discussion with Matthew Desmond
  • Registration:  https://bit.ly/ILP_MatthewDesmond

2022:

• January – Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• February – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• March – An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
• April – Beartown by Fredrik Backman
• May – Circe by Madeline Miller
• June – Recursion by Blake Crouch
• July – How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
• August – Radium Girls by Kate Moore
• September – The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
• October – Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
• November – The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
• December – An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

2022 BONUS BADGES

• Wednesday January 26, 7pm – Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night
• Wednesday February 16, 7pm – Jasmine Guillory, author of The Wedding Date and The Proposal
• Wednesday March 30, 7pm – Jenny Lawson, author of Broken and Furiously Happy
• Wednesday April 27, 7pm – Nick Offerman, author of Where the Deer and the Antelope Play
• Wednesday June 22, 7pm – Chef Kwame Onwuachi, author of Notes From a Young Black Chef
• Wednesday September 14, 7pm – Marlee Matlin, author of I’ll Scream Later
• Wednesday November 16, 7pm – Caitlin Doughty, Author of From Here to Eternity
• Tuesday December 13, 7pm – Shauna Sever, Author of Midwest Made

• January – The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
• February – Confess by Colleen Hoover
• March – Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
• April – Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
• May – The Dry by Jane Harper
• June – Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik
• July – The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
• August – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
• September – The Escape Room by Megan Goldin
• October – The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
• November – The Unseen World by Liz Moore
• December – Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio