Shorewood Reads is a committee focused on endorsing books, creating a book club-like environment for the participants, and forming a space for multiple different generations to interact. Unlike other book clubs, Shorewood Reads does various events surrounding topics discussed in the book during the reading period. After the participants have finished the book, the author of the book is invited to come and speak about their work, giving readers a new perspective on what they read.
Recently, Shorewood Reads has partnered with the Shorewood High School Book Club, providing an intergenerational experience for all those involved.
Throughout March and April, participants in the book club read bestselling novel Happiness Falls, written in 2023 by Angie Kim. It takes place during the pandemic and follows a Korean-American family’s lives after the mysterious disappearance of their father. The coming-of-age mystery novel delves into the deepest secrets and emotions of each of the family members, revealing past traumas and secret hopes as they attempt to uncover what happened to their father. Happiness Falls explores themes of love, grief, prejudice, and of course, happiness. Mooney is not only in charge of the Shorewood High School book club but also has worked on the Shorewood Reads committee on multiple occasions. After joining in 2010, Mooney has participated in five out of the six books and attended many events, including a visit from the author of Montana 1948, Larry Watson, a staple in the English I curriculum.
“I think the biggest part is it’s intergenerational,” said Mooney. “So students are participating alongside people their parents’ age, people their grandparents’ age, and everybody’s benefiting from that wide range of voices.”
This year’s Shorewood Reads was able to bring multiple generations together, providing a variety of different perspectives on the book due to the wide range of ages.
“It’s the same thing I get out of talking about books with students; they bring attention to different things,” Mooney said.
In one event, different community members discussed the book together, including published authors and experienced writers.
“The writer in the group, she paid tremendous attention to the verb tenses. Things that, you know, sometimes if you’re reading too quickly you don’t notice,” Mooney said.
The book club is an outlet for book lovers and writers alike to discuss their opinions and reactions to the current book. The discussions serve as an opportunity for comprehension and enjoyment, and it helps to deepen the group’s understanding of the novel and their experience of the story overall. The book talk also helped to foster a sense of community across ages.
“The generation gap disappears when you’re talking about good books,” Mooney said.
Junior and Book Club president Abbie Cashman reflected on her time with Shorewood Reads.
“It’s provided me a chance to talk to people of a bunch of different ages,” Cashman said.
The book itself is beloved by many readers not only because of the suspense of a good mystery novel, but because of the author’s shaping of the family that the plot centers around. The portrayal of the characters and their dynamic with each other is essential to what makes it a compelling read.
“What drew me in were the different family dynamics in the secrets they held from each other and how those dynamics change throughout the book,” Cashman said.
The book provides a different perspective of communication as well, which gave room for readers to reflect on internal biases during discussions.
“I liked the multiple forms of communication in the book. The book has a forward narrative, the book has footnotes, the book has text messages, journals, logic gates,” Mooney said.
For example, one character has Angelman syndrome, he can’t speak. The book highlights this by its use of different forms of communication, showcasing the fluid writing.
“It has Korean and English, the book has all these different ways of communicating, and part of the point of the book is that there are different ways of communicating and the kid who can’t speak doesn’t mean he can’t think,” Mooney said.
Through the duration of the club, many different events were hosted to get readers involved and make the book club more interactive. The combination of Shorewood Reads and the Shorewood High School book club gives students who participated excellent experience.
“I led an event last Thursday. Me and Ms. Mooney led a panel that was essentially a book club,” Cashman said.
All of the events relate to the book in some way. On March 12 and 25, escape rooms were hosted at the library to give readers a suspenseful time, much like the anticipation of paging through a mystery novel. On March 25, an officer from the Shorewood Police Department named Greg Geniesse spoke about operations by the department that gave listeners a unique understanding of their procedures. This includes missing person investigations, similar to the type of investigations that are essential to the story. Because a character with Angelman syndrome is an important part of “Happiness Falls”, Shorewood Reads hosted “Behind the Smiles: Understanding Angelman Syndrome” on April 14 to give readers a deeper understanding.
This event included a screening of the 20 minute film “Behind the Mystery of Angelman Syndrome” and a moderated conversation with Amanda Moore, the CEO of the Angelman Syndrome Foundation. Other specific events include visits from Psychotherapist Philip Chard, who explores how the attitudes and behaviors done by humans impact our happiness and a panel with local authors that explained their processes that led them to success. These events are a huge part of Shorewood Reads and examples of the book club building community within Shorewood residents and families.
“There are lots of things [the librarians] organize to bring the community closer via reading a book,” Cashman said.
The final part of the cycle is the author visit, which occurred on April 23. This gave readers a chance to meet Angie Kim, who led events through the day called “Becoming a Writer Later in Life”, “Overcoming the Bias of Equating Verbal Fluency with Intelligence”, and “An Evening with Angie Kim”. The author visit marks the finale of each Shorewood Reads cycle and is an exceptional experience for all readers.
Although the type of interactive reading program through Shorewood Reads only happens every few years, it is an excellent opportunity to get interesting insight on books that it is difficult to get when reading alone. The club is open to all readers and participation is recommended for those who love talking about books, would like to dive deeper into topics relating to the story, and even meet the author of the book.