It used to be that book clubs only met at libraries, bookstores or in your friend’s living room.
Today all kinds of small businesses are hosting book clubs, many with unique themes. Here’s where to go in Milwaukee if you want to discuss books and make new friends this spring. Note that these all meet throughout the year.
Milwaukee County Historical Society
History aficionados are the target audience for the historical society’s monthly book club, hosted on Zoom. On March 31 at 6 p.m. the group will meet virtually to chat about From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City by Carl Baehr.
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Milwaukee Public Library
What better place than the library system to organize a book club? Only the Milwaukee Public Library isn’t limited to one book club. Instead, there are two that meet monthly: Art Book Club (aimed at those who appreciate art books, it meets at the Central Library and shares impressions of the library’s reference books about art) and the History Buff Book Club (discusss history-related, non-fiction books). The Art Book Club meets next on Monday, May 5 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m and the History Buff Book Club’s next meeting is Monday, April 21 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Tippecanoe Branch.
Cactus Club
With a goal to generate conversation around social justice, this Bay View bar meets the first Wednesday each month, at 5:30 p.m. There is also a different community partner each month who leads the talk. On April 2, the book choice is All In Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today by Elizabeth Comen, MD, and it’s led by Milwaukee Community Acupuncture.
Woodland Pattern
Designed for those who share an Asian Pacific American identity—tied in location to South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, the Pacific Islands and East Asia—this Riverwest literary center’s Ping Pong Book Club convenes in person, led by Nomka Enkhee, on alternating Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Books range from fiction to non-fiction and are written by female, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors. A recent selection was Look by Solmaz Sharif.
Healium Restore
As a pairing to the yoga and meditation classes this studio teaches, Healium Book Club meets quarterly at its Bay View studio, with the books centered around mindfulness, abundance and sensory awareness. For example, Presence by Tracy Cochran was a recent read. Stay tuned to the studio’s social media for news about the next time the book club will meet.
Lion’s Tooth
Highly thematic, this Bay View bookstore’s three book clubs focus on wine, comix and music. All three meet on Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. On March 20, the music book club will chat about Mia Zapata and the Gits by Steve Moriarty and the Milwaukee Wine Academy, which hosts the wine book club, plans to talk about Cork Dork by Bianca Boster on March 27. The next meeting for the comix book club is on April 10 and focuses on Life Drawing by Jaime Hernandez.
Boswell Book Company
For several years, this East Side indie bookstore has hosted book clubs. There are currently three that meet at the store: the Romance Book Club, In-Store Lit Group and Science Fiction Book Club. They all gather on Monday evenings, with the current selections and dates published on Boswell’s website.
The Well Red Damsel
This pop-up bookstore’s The Well Nourished Book Club meets at Nourish Skin and Sugar Studio in Wauwatosa, hence the book club’s name. The next meeting, on April 11 at 6:30 p.m., will focus on Heartless Hunter by Kristin Ciccarelli, and copies of the book can be bought through The Well Red Damsel’s website, using code BOOKCLUB for 10% off.
