Exploring the best of the almost-best! 

2026’s Half Moon Rondout Cafe book club celebrates books that were shortlisted for prestigious literary prizes. While they didn’t take home the top honor, these titles more than earn their spot on your reading list with their exceptional writing and unforgettable stories. 

We meet 1st Saturdays at 2pm at Half Moon Rondout Cafe – 83 Broadway. 

THIS MEETING WILL BE HELD AT KINGSTON LIBRARY – 61 Crown Street

September’s book is New York is Burning by Jill Lepore 

In New York Burning, Bancroft Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore recounts these dramatic events of 1741, when ten fires blazed across Manhattan and panicked whites suspecting it to be the work a slave uprising went on a rampage. In the end, thirteen black men were burned at the stake, seventeen were hanged and more than one hundred black men and women were thrown into a dungeon beneath City Hall. 

Shortlisted 2006 Pulitzer Prize in History 

See all selections here.