Every First Saturday of the Month at 3pm, we invite you to join us at Half Moon Rondout Café (36 Broadway in the Rondout) for coffee, donuts, and conversation.
For each date, we’ve chosen a book that was written by an author following the success of that author’s viral bestseller. As readers, many of us scan the Bestseller Lists to find a new, noteworthy book…and then forget to keep track of the author’s career.
Together, we’ll revisit some of these books and decide if we’ve stumbled on an overlooked gem, or if that author was simply a flash in the pan. Either way, we’ll all enjoy donuts, so there’s nothing to lose.

June’s book will be It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (best known for Arrowsmith).
A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler’s aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press. Called “a message to thinking Americans” by the Springfield Republican when it was published in 1935, It Can’t Happen Here is a shockingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and contemporary as today’s news.