Join the Intergenerational Book Club
What is the Intergen Book Club?
Bringing readers of all ages together! In the Intergenerational Book Club, older adults living in Arlington meet with students to discuss a designated book each month. This group is a partnership between Arlington High School and the Council on Aging.
Some of our members come to every meeting, others just when the mood strikes, and drop ins are always welcome.
Delicious snacks are generously provided by Food Link, Inc.
Books are made available at Robbins Library (for all) and the AHS Library (for students) circulation desks. Students are eligible to receive community service credit for their participation.
Join Us!
Our Google Classroom code is 7ilr6nl. Please join to get all the latest information!
Our meetings are usually once a month on the third Thursday at 3:30pm-4:30pm. We will begin this year meeting at the new Arlington Community Center located at 20 Academy Street/27 Maple Street.
See below for proposed meeting dates and books (subject to change, so please subscribe to our Google Classroom and/or emails to make sure you have the latest info!).
For more information, please contact AHS library teacher Stacy Kitsis (skitsis@arlington.k12.ma.us) or Council on Aging social worker Marci Shapiro-Ide (mshapiro-ide@town.arlington.ma.us).
We look forward to hearing from you!
What We're Reading Now
September 21: Sharing summer reading
October 19: An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten
November 16: Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
December 21: Flamer by Mike Curato
January 18: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
February 15: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
March 21: Solito by Javier Zamora (Arlington Reads Together)
April 11 (note date change!)
May 16
January 6 or 13 (date TBD)
Past Reading Lists
2021-2022
September 23, 2021: Sharing summer reading
October 21, 2021: Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (available at Robbins and AHS and on Hoopla)
November 18, 2021: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
December 16, 2021: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
January 20, 2022: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
February 17, 2022: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
March 17, 2022: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
April 28, 2022: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
May 19, 2022: Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
June 16, 2022: End of year meeting (summer reading recommendations!)
2022-2023
September 15, 2022: Sharing summer reading picks
October 20, 2022: Animal Farm by George Orwell
November 10, 2022: Don't Ask Me Where I'm From by Jennifer De Leon
December 15, 2022: Maus I by Art Spiegelman
January 19, 2023: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
February 16, 2023: Being Heumann or Rolling Warrior by Judith Heumann and Kristen Joyner
March 16, 2023: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
April 13, 2023: Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose
May 18, 2023: Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
June 8, 2023 or June 15, 2023: Sharing our summer reading plans
2018-2019
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Keep Quiet by Lisa Scottoline
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Refugee by Alan Gratz (Arlington Reads Together)
It's Kind of Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer
Feed by M.T. Anderson
2019-2020
The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer Through Frost edited by Harold Bloom (selections)
Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago (Arlington Reads Together)
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (online)
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (online)
Bull by David Elliott (online)
2020-2021
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
One of Us Is Lying (Karen M. McManus)
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker
Educated by Tara Westover
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Tatum (Arlington Reads Together)
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
2011-2012
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
2014-2015
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon
Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susan Clarke
Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
2017-2018
Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Arlington Reads Together)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild
2008-2009
The Centaur by John Updike
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Martian Chronicle by Ray Bradbury
The End of Faith by Sam Harris
White Fang by Jack London
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
2009-2010
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Rabbit Run by John Updike
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schafer and Annie Barrows
Purple Hibiscus by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
Smoke Signals by Sherman Alexie
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Call of the Wild by Jack London
2010-2011
Candide by Voltaire
Blank Confessions by Pete Hautemen
Witch & Wizard by James Patterson
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
1984 by George Orwell
Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
2005-2006
Snow in August by Pete Hamill
Everything is Illuminated by Jonnathon Safran
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Gavin Marquez
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabakov
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn
Siddhartha by Heran Hesse
The Tin Drum by Gunter Gras
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
2006-2007
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
Bless Me Ultima by Frederico Anaya
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Saving the Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
2007-2008
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Kushner
New Boy by Judge Julian Houston
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky