The Bookies is the Goodwin Library’s book club! Join us in September to discuss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith!
We have multiple copies available to check out – stop by to pick up your copy! New members are always welcome. You don’t even have to have read the book to attend!
This program can be attended in person or online. If you would like to attend on Zoom, please email Joyce at jwhite@goodwinlibrary.org. If you are attending in person, please try to arrive before 6:50pm, as that is when we close our doors for the evening. Thank you!
Summary: From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior―such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce―no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are raw with honestly and tenderly threaded with family connectedness. Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life―from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry.
