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—Debra Poli, United Spinal Association Chapter Leader

—Angela Beninga, DO, Post-Acute Spinal Cord Injury Physician and Associate Director, Outpatient Rehabilitation, Shepherd Center

—Tim Brown, host of "The Unexpected Journey"

—Sam Apple, Senior Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University

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The Librarians of Lisbon: A WWII Story of Love and Espionage by Suzanne Nelson

WWII rages Europe. Lisbon stands alone as a glamorous city on the brink of chaos, harboring spies trading double-edged secrets. Among them are Selene Delmont and Beatrice Sullivan, Boston librarians turned Allied operatives. Officially enlisted to collect banned books, both women are undercover agents tasked with infiltrating the Axis spy network. Soon, they’re caught up in games of deception with two of Lisbon’s most notorious men --- the outcast Portuguese baron, Luca Caldeira, and the lethal spy, code name Gable.

As Selene charms her way through lavish ballrooms with Luca, the more bookish Bea is plunged into Gable’s shadowy world of informants. But when a betrayal unravels a carefully spun web of lies, everything they’ve fought for is thrown into jeopardy.

July 31, 2025

The heat and humidity have been brutal here. Last weekend, I stood in the pool reading for a couple of hours. It was too hot to float!

I have figured out how I have more time for reading in the summer --- keeping up outside is easier than inside. Outside I bring a drink, a book, a towel and my headset for listening to music as I swim. Inside we manage to make more of a mess and have to straighten pillows and reorganize throw blankets, and I prefer not stressing leaves on the ground over vacuuming.

J. Courtney Sullivan Book Group Event

Rachel Joyce, author of The Homemade God

There is a heatwave across Europe, and four siblings have gathered at their family’s lake house to seek answers about their father, a famous artist, who recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his long-awaited masterpiece. Now he is dead. And there is no sign of his final painting. As the siblings try to piece together what happened, they spend the summer in a state of lawlessness: living under the same roof for the first time in decades, forced to confront the buried wounds they incurred as his children, and waiting for answers. Though they have always been close, the things they learn that summer --- about themselves and their father --- will drive them apart before they can truly understand his legacy. Meanwhile, their stepmother’s enigmatic presence looms over the house.