There's nothing better than a great book to transport you to new worlds—whether real, imagined, or simply a much-needed escape from reality. This monthly book group, led by staff at Hummingbird Books, will feature a variety of genres guaranteed to spark lively conversation and connection. If you don’t have a chance to finish the book, that’s okay, come anyway!  Monthly Book Selection forthcoming.

Books can be purchased at Hummingbird Books in Chestnut Hill (or over the phone at 617-487-5101), an independent, local female-owned and operated store with an extensive collection of adult and children’s books. All are welcome. Geared towards adults. Pre-registration is required. Questions: adultprog@jccgb.org.

November Book: Displaced Persons by local author and winner of the 2022 New American Fiction Prize Joan Leegant . 

Set half in Israel and half in the States, the stories in this prize-winning collection explore the experience of exile, belonging, and what it means to call a place home. A visiting professor from Boston forms an unlikely bond with an Israeli born in Iraq. Two teenage tourists are startled out of their naiveté in a restaurant in Jerusalem’s Old City. A gifted yeshiva student spiraling into mental illness takes refuge in the poetry of Walt Whitman. An aged widower returns after sixty years to the Bronx neighborhood of his youth to make amends with a first love he abandoned to go to prison. Shimmering with insight and compassion, Displaced Persons is a profound, exquisite collection that illuminates pivotal moments of transition, longing, and hope.

Photos may be taken at this event and used for promotional purposes, including social media. If you prefer not to have your photo taken, please inform event staff when you arrive.