Label | Information |
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Dates & times |
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Category | Book Club |
Age Groups | Adult |
Historical Fiction book discussion group, meets quarterly
Start time: 7:00 PM – Duration: 1 hour
Location: Wright Library’s Aberdeen Room (unless otherwise noted below)
This book discussion club focuses on nonfiction titles that feature unexplained events and mysteries that have occurred throughout history.
Extra copies of the upcoming book will be available for checkout at the Main Level Information Desk.
2024 titles:
- January 2024 - Polonium in the Playhouse: The Manhattan Project's Secret Chemistry Work in Dayton, Ohio by Linda Carrick Thomas
- April 2024 - Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
- July 2024 - Covered With Night : A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace
- Additional meetings to be determined
July: Covered with Night
Discussion on Thursday, July 18
About the Book
Covered with night : a story of murder and indigenous justice in early America
by Nicole Eustace
In the winter of 1722, on the eve of a major conference between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois) and Anglo-American colonists, a pair of colonial fur traders brutally assaulted a Seneca hunter near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, the crime ignited a contest between Native American forms of justice—rooted in community, forgiveness, and reparations—and the colonial ideology of harsh reprisal that called for the accused killers to be executed if found guilty. In Covered with Night, historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the attack and its aftermath, introducing a group of unforgettable individuals—from the slain man’s resilient widow to an Indigenous diplomat known as “Captain Civility” to the scheming governor of Pennsylvania—as she narrates a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations. Taking its title from a Haudenosaunee metaphor for mourning, Covered with Night ultimately urges us to consider Indigenous approaches to grief and condolence, rupture and repair, as we seek new avenues of justice in our own era.
- Winner - 2022 Pulitzer Prize in History
- Winner - Francis Parkman Prize (Society of American Historians)
- Finalist - National Book Award for Nonfiction
- Best Books of the Year - TIME, Smithsonian, Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews
Next Meeting
To Be Determined