Erie Reader Book Club selection for July 2024

Erin Phillips

Join members of the Erie Reader Book Club on the last Sunday in July as we discuss “Normal People” by Sally Rooney as part of our “40 Under 40” edition.

SUNDAY, JULY 28

In keeping with our issue 40 under 40, the members of the Erie Reader Book Club have chosen a coming-of-age story in Normal people by Sally Rooney. Rooney, an Irish author, published her second novel Normal people in 2018 and it quickly became an international bestseller. The novel was adapted into a television series (available on Hulu), and both the book and the series will be topics of conversation at our next book club meeting.

Normal people and Rooney have won countless literary awards, including: winner of the British Book Award, Costa Book Award, An Post Irish Novel of the Year, Sunday News Young Writer of the Year Award and has been nominated and shortlisted for a number of other literary prizes and awards. The book was awarded New York Times Book ReviewThe 100 most remarkable books of 2019.

Normal people follows two characters, Connell and Marianne, through childhood and into early adulthood as they navigate their individual social worlds and differing personalities – and how the two continually intertwine. “Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the intricacies of class, the electricity of first love and the complex intertwining of family and friendship.” The guard notes that it is surely a “future classic,” calls it “structurally clever,” and describes Rooney’s dialogue as the pinnacle of “the self-deluding awkwardness of turn-of-the-millennium dialogue—her quirky, candid one-liners, her ability to tease both comedy and tragedy out of any simple human interaction, are at once devastatingly contemporary and delightfully timeless.”

The Erie Reader Book Club is open to anyone who would like to discuss the selections – attendance at future book club meetings is not required. We meet on the last Sunday of every month at 1 p.m. at Werner Books and Coffee. Participation in the discussion is free.

1 p.m. // Werner Books and Coffee, 3608 Liberty St. // Free, book not included // More information: wernerbooks.com