Folger Book Club: The Weird Sisters
A family story threaded with Shakespearean references, our December book club explores the relationship between three sisters returning to their childhood home.
Booking and details
Dates Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 6:30pm
Tickets Free, Registration required
Duration 6:30pm - 8:00pm (ET)
Our December 2023 Pick
The Weird Sisters
by Eleanor Brown
The beloved New York Times bestseller from acclaimed author Eleanor Brown about three sisters who love each other, but just don’t happen to like each other very much.
Three sisters have returned to their childhood home, reuniting the eccentric Andreas family. Here, books are a passion (there is no problem a library card can’t solve) and TV is something other people watch. Their father—a professor of Shakespeare who speaks almost exclusively in verse—named them after the Bard’s heroines. It’s a lot to live up to.
The sisters each have a hard time communicating with their parents and their lovers, but especially with one another. What can the shy homebody eldest sister, the fast-living middle child, and the bohemian youngest sibling have in common? Only that none has found life to be what was expected; and now, faced with their parents’ frailty and their own personal disappointments, not even a book can solve what ails them…
Why did we choose this?
The Folger Shakespeare Library’s collection explores not only Shakespeare’s life and works, but also the plays’ historical context, source material, critical and performance histories, and the ways in which they inspire and are adapted by contemporary novelists.
This charming story focuses on a family whose interpersonal relationships and history are continuously understood through Shakespeare’s words and Shakespeare-related memories, giving us an opportunity to consider intersections between Shakespeare and family structures and how his works help us process every day life.
About the Book Club
Our informal Book Club is free and open to all. Our picks range from historical fiction to adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, encompassing a wide variety of genres—all sourced from a different local, independent bookstore partner each month.
Each session begins with a guest speaker exploring that month’s pick and highlighting items from the Folger collection related to the plot and themes of the novel. After the presentation, participants will be broken into smaller groups for breakout discussions, moderated by a team of staff and volunteers.
Content transparency
The Weird Sisters includes potentially sensitive subjects. Expand below for a full list of content.
- Cancer
Guest Speaker
Beth DeBold
Beth DeBold is a postgraduate researcher in early modern British social history and culture at Newcastle University in the UK. After a ten-year career in libraries, she now focuses on the human labour of the book and print trades during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Her doctoral project examines the lives and social networks of the apprentices who came to London to learn how to make their living at the press or in the bookshop. She is owned by two cats, John Quincy and Abigail.
This month, we are excited to partner once again with One More Page Books, an independent bookstore in Arlington, VA offering books, wines, and chocolates. Their mission is to provide a place for community to come together to share a love of reading through author events, book clubs, and open conversation. Check them out at onemorepagebooks.com.
Order online or by phone (703.300.9746). Curbside pickup is available at the shop from Tuesday-Sunday and shipping is available.
You can also order this title as an audiobook through Libro.fm.
We would like to thank the following organizations for their generous support of this program
