Groups to Join
Membership is not required to participate in groups at the Athenaeum. All are welcome!
Several groups take summer breaks. Please check the dates under each group.
La Tertulia
Meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesday—online
from 5:00 to 7:00 PM
La Tertulia is a group of people interested in keeping their Spanish speaking skills in practice.
Book Group
Meets the 2nd Saturday
from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM—hybrid
Sign up here for Zoom link only
(Registration for in-person attendance is not required)
Open discussion meeting on wide variety of fiction and non-fiction works, new and classics.
Check out what we’ve read over the years here:
SA Book Group List 2024–2016
Upcoming discussions:
2025
Jan. 11:
Rebecca or Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier (reader’s choice)
Feb. 8:
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith
Mar. 8:
West with Giraffes by Linda Rutledge
Apr. 12:
James by Perceval Everett
May 10:
Heartbeat of the Wild by David Quammen
June 14:
Children of Men by P. D. James
July 12:
Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebecca Taussig
Aug. 9:
Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
No September meeting
Oct. 11:
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Nov. 8:
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Dec. 13:
Persuasion —or reader’s choice— by Jane Austen
Any Book Group
Sign up here
Meets bi-monthly on Third Thursdays
Next meeting: January 18 at 7:00 p.m.—online
An online book discussion group for readers of all genres.
Monday Evening Conversations
Meets the 2nd Monday at 7:00 PM—Online
Sign up here
Topics for discussion are wide open, but must be amenable to good conversation.
Reappraisal Reading Circle
Meets Bi-monthly on Third Wednesdays—hybrid
at 7:00 PM Sign up here
Open meeting discussing the works of a prolific, popular author of the past whose works are held in quantity by the Athenaeum.
2023–24 Discussions:
Sep 18
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)
French founder of realism, novelist and playwright
American novelist, short story writer, poet, local colorist (Maine)Jan 15, 2025
Mary Augusta Ward
(Mrs. Humphrey, 1851-1920)
British novelist, educator, and activist
Mar 19
Lucas Malet (Mary St. Leger Kingsley, 1852-1931)
English novelist of both romances and modern ideas
May 21
Joseph C. Lincoln (1870-1944)
American novelist, poet, short story writer of Cape Cod
June 18
Selection meeting for 2025–26
Upcoming Events
-
Jan. 23:
The New Small Press
7:00 p.m. -
Jan. 25:
Members’ Sketching Class with Slow River Studio
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. -
Feb. 9:
Love Songs from the Great American Songbook with Alexandra Grace
4:00 p.m. - Feb. 12:
-
Feb. 26:
New Members Night
7:00 p.m.