Offered in partnership with the McLean County Museum of History, the History Reads Book Club is perfect for readers wanting to learn more about the natural, social, cultural, and political history of Illinois. Titles may include fiction, nonfiction, biographies, and books by Illinois authors. History Reads meets quarterly in February, May, August, and November. Meetings are at 7pm and are typically* offered both in the Conference Room at the library and online via Zoom. People can join a book club at any time and do not have to attend previous book club meetings to participate. We are happy to have you whenever you can attend!
Those wishing to attend via Zoom need to register in order to receive the Zoom link. Those attending in person do not need to register. Upcoming book club meetings are listed to the right. Click on the date you would like to attend to register online. You may also register by calling 309.590.6168 or by visiting us in person at the library Help Desk on the second floor.
The Library receives extra print copies of book club books leading up to the date of the meeting. To reserve one of the extra print copies of the next title to be discussed, contact the Help Desk by phone at 309.590.6168 or by email to reference@bloomingtonlibrary.org. Digital copies of each title (eBook or eAudiobook) may also be available through the Libby or Hoopla Apps.
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*The August 2025 meeting will be offered in person in Community Rooms 1-3 at the library, and will be offered as a live stream on YouTube. This meeting is receiving special treatment because spotlight title for that month is "Reasonable Doubt" by local author Steve Vogel. "Reasonable Doubt" focuses on a true crime event which occurred in Bloomington, IL, in 1983.
February 3, 2026
Fifty-nine in '84 tells the dramatic story of the Providence Grays pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn, who won an astounding fifty-nine games—more than anyone in major-league history. This book also details what baseball was like two decades after the Civil War—a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.
May 5, 2026
Jurgis Rudkus, a young Lithuanian immigrant in search of a better life, faces instead an epic struggle for survival. His story of factory life in Chicago in the early twentieth century is a saga of barbarous working conditions, crushing poverty, crime, disease, and despair.
August 4, 2026
When John Wesley Powell became the first person to navigate the entire Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon, he completed what Lewis and Clark had begun nearly 70 years earlier--the final exploration of continental America. The son of an abolitionist preacher, a Civil War hero (who lost an arm at Shiloh), in 1869 Powell tackled the vast and dangerous gorge carved by the Colorado River and known today as the Grand Canyon. Though he supported irrigation and dams, his warnings forecast the 1930s Dust Bowl and the growing water scarcities of today.
November 4, 2026
Wednesday meeting due to midterm elections
Onward to Chicago charts the evolution of the northeastern Illinois freedom network and shows how, despite its small Black community, Chicago emerged as a point of refuge. While traditional histories of the Underground Railroad in Illinois start in 1839, and focus largely on the romanticized tales of white men, Larry A. McClellan reframes the story, not only introducing readers to earlier freedom seekers, but also illustrating that those who bravely aided them were Black and white, men and women
History Reads Book Club Meetings
