SCLD Online Book Club
For Readers Like You
Our Online Book Club offers five book selections per year. For each book, you have around two months to read, comment, and interact with others on this online community forum.
We’ll be reading fiction, nonfiction, and other genres. Adults who are interested in lifelong learning, personal growth, or who want to read for relaxation will find additional content related to the book on the online forum. You can participate in discussions or just gather new information and perspectives without interacting.
Start reading right away!
For each book selection, in-district library card holders can download the eBook version on Freading with no waiting or holds. The current book club title is always available on demand from Freading. Other library card holders and those who prefer reading printed books can place a hold for the title in our catalog or, if preferred, purchase a copy from their favorite bookseller.
Anyone can join the book club at no cost. And with your in-district library card, you will get immediate access to the eBook version of book selections.
If you don’t have a library card, you can get your card online.
Our Online Book Club forum is moderated by Professional Book Club (PBC) Guru, which manages book clubs for libraries, alumni associations, and other organizations. PBC Guru provides additional engaging content that you can explore for each book selection.
Current Book Selection
May–July 2024
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women
By Kate Moore
From the Publisher
All they wanted was the chance to shine. Be careful what you wish for…
‘The first thing we asked was, “Does this stuff hurt you?” And they said, “No.” The company said that it wasn’t dangerous, that we didn’t need to be afraid.’
As the First World War spread across the world, young American women flocked to work in factories, painting clocks, watches and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous – the girls shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in dust from the paint.
However, as the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. It turned out that the very thing that had made them feel alive – their work – was slowly killing them: the radium paint was poisonous.
Their employers denied all responsibility, but these courageous women – in the face of unimaginable suffering – refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice.
Drawing on previously unpublished diaries, letters and interviews, The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar.
Reviews
‘The importance of the brave and blighted dial-painters cannot be overstated.’ —Sunday Times
‘A perfect blend of the historical, the scientific and the personal.’ —Bustle
‘Thrilling and carefully crafted.’ —Mail on Sunday
Upcoming Book Selection
August–October 2024
By Meagan Church
From the Publisher
Powerful and affecting, The Girls We Sent Away is a timely novel that explores autonomy, belonging, and a quest for agency when the illusions of life-as-you-know-it fall away.
What happens when the girl-who-has-it-all learns that love is conditional and her future may not be hers for the choosing?
It’s the 1960s and Lorraine Delford has it all – an upstanding family, a perfect boyfriend, and a white picket fence home in North Carolina. Yet every time she looks through her father’s telescope, she dreams of the stars. It’s ambitious, but Lorraine has always been exceptional.
But when this darling girl-next-door gets pregnant, she’s forced to learn firsthand the realities that keep women grounded.
To hide their daughter’s secret shame, the Delfords send Lorraine to a maternity home for wayward girls. But this is no safe haven – it’s a house with dark secrets and suffocating rules. And as Lorraine begins to piece together a new vision for her life, she must decide if she can fight against the powers that aim to take her child or submit to the rules of a society she once admired.
Praise for The Girls We Sent Away
“In this engaging, shocking, heart-wrenching story, readers are pulled along with Lorraine through the ups and downs of her pregnancy, optimistic for her future but saddened by its likely outcome. Fans of Church’s The Last Carolina Girl will be clamoring to read this one.”
— Library Journal
“Church’s story gets deep inside Lorraine’s head with tenderness and compassion… This is a heartbreaking tale of prejudice, shame and secret-keeping within families, and a sincere and moving account of one teenager’s personal grief and inner strength…”
— Historical Novel Society
“Readers will be entranced as author Meagan Church steadily peels away the veneer of the era, revealing the dark underbelly of a secretive and unforgiving society.”
— Tracey Enerson Wood, internationally bestselling author of The Engineer’s Wife and The War Nurse
“Powerful and affecting, The Girls We Sent Away underscores both the worst and best of the human heart, and the resilience and courage of women forced to walk away from their dreams to piece together new ones. Meagan Church’s sophomore novel is another important masterpiece, shining a light on a horrible bit of women’s history that the world would rather keep in a darkened corner.”
— Joy Callaway, internationally bestselling author of What the Mountains Remember
“An important and vital story. With exquisite writing, Church exposes a murky little pocket of history, and a reprehensible practice that surely had a generational impact on families. Through her captivating and thought-provoking scenes, I became wholeheartedly invested in the outcome of her remarkable heroine, Lorraine Delford, cheering for her all the way.”
— Donna Everhart, USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of The Saints of Swallow Hill
Benefits of Joining a Book Club
Connect with others
Share your ideas and learn from others about the books you’re reading and the topics covered. Discover new connections in your community to others from different backgrounds and generations.
Continue learning & growing
Gain new perspectives when exposed to books you might not typically read and engaging and thought-provoking online discussions. You’ll have access to dynamic learning and opportunities for personal growth that you can tap into whenever it fits your schedule.
Uncover the health benefits of reading
Reading can reduce stress, help you sleep better, alleviate depression symptoms, help prevent age-related cognitive decline, and may even help you live longer (healthline.com and experteditor.com.au). Reading can also make you smarter and more empathetic to others, increasing your reasoning ability, vocabulary, emotional intelligence, leadership abilities, and creativity (bigthink.com and Harvard Business Review).
If you have questions about how the book club works, check out the Frequently Asked Questions section provided by PBC Guru.
