Brandon Reads 2023

Brandon Reads is a community-wide book club that encourages the entire township to read together. 

Brandon Reads 2023

Brandon Reads is a community-wide book club that encourages the entire township to read one book together. 

Read our second annual Brandon Read’s title Chevy in the Hole by Kelsey Ronan, and join us for a handful of events based on the book.

To join the fun, register for the book club below!

We will discuss the book virtually with weekly book club questions on our website, host an in-person book discussion with other readers and invite author Kelsey Ronan to visit with the readers, as well as a program on Flint’s history and a Motown music program!

Chevy in the Hole is a Michigan Notable Book of 2023 portraying “a gorgeous, unflinching love letter to Flint, Michigan, and the resilience of its people, following multiple generations of two families making their homes there, with a stunning contemporary love story at its center.”

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Chevy in The Hole by Kelsey Ronan

In the opening pages of Chevy in the Hole, August “Gus” Molloy has just overdosed in a bathroom stall of the Detroit farm-to-table restaurant where he works. Shortly after, he packs it in and returns home to his family in Flint. This latest slip and recommitment to sobriety doesn’t feel too terribly different from the others until Gus meets Monae, an urban farmer trying to coax a tenuous rebirth from the city’s damaged land. Through her eyes, he sees what might be possible in a city everyone else seems to have forgotten or, worse, given up on. But as they begin dreaming up an oasis together, even the most essential resources can’t be counted on.

Woven throughout their story are the stories of their families—Gus’s white and Monae’s Black—members of which have had their own triumphs and devastating setbacks trying to survive and thrive in Flint. A novel about the things that change over time and the things that don’t, Chevy in the Hole reminds us again and again what people need from one another and from the city, they call home.

Events

  • Registration Opens: August 21, 2023 
  • Pick up a copy of the book: October 2023
  • Read: October 2023
  • Online Book Discussion: Every Friday in October
  • In-Person Book Discussion: Nov. 1, 2023, 6:30-7 PM
  • Author Talk: Nov. 1, 2023, 7-8 PM
Join pianist David Rodgers for a trip through the 1960s sounds of Detroit, Michigan. Featuring solo piano performances of hits by Smokey Robinson, the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and many more, Rodgers will offer historical background info and stories behind the songs, musical trivia, and a question and answer session.
Join us for an evening of Flint history with Gary Fisher, the President of the Genesee County Historical Society. Flint is often perceived negatively in the headlines but the realities of the city are so much richer and more valuable than the tales of bad water and crime will ever explain. Attend this fascinating and unique presentation and find out why some of the coolest stories in the world are right in your own backyard!
Join us for a book discussion on this year's Brandon Read's title, Chevy in the Hole. From 6:30-7pm, the group will meet for a book discussion and then author of Chevy in the Hole, Kelsey Ronan, will join us from 7-8pm for further discussion, a Q&A, and a book signing.

Read Chevy in the Hole

Waiting FOREVER in Libby?

On HOLD for this title in Midwest Collaborative Library Services? Add our partner Libraries and enjoy less/no wait time on this title!

We have a winner! Check back this fall to see what we shall read together!

Recommendations

Book Recommendations
from Katherine Heiny

Currently reading:
We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman (not published yet, Nov 8, 2022)
*Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close
Worldly Things by Michael Kleber-Diggs (we can inter-library loan this title)

Other books I’ve liked recently:
*Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
+Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford
*Either/Or by Elif Batuman

Books I’ve loved for a long time:
*The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
+We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
*Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
 
*Brandon Library has a physical copy!
+Brandon Library has an electronic copy!
Contact us if you need help with any of these titles!