Saturday Breakfast Book Club: "The Secret to Superhuman Strength"

Join us for our Saturday Breakfast Book Club! Each month, we'll read one of the novels & memoirs the New York Times designates as its "Most Notable Books" from the preceding year while enjoying coffee and refreshments.

Our September 2nd selection will be the acclaimed graphic novel The Secret To Superhuman Strength by renowned cartoonist Alison Bechdel. In this comic memoir, Bechdel delivers a deeply layered story of her fascination, from childhood to adulthood, with every fitness craze to come down the pike: from Jack LaLanne in the 60s ("Outlandish jumpsuit! Cantaloupe-sized guns!") to the existential oddness of present-day spin class. But the more Bechdel tries to improve herself, the more her self appears to be the thing in her way. This gifted artist and not-getting-any-younger exerciser comes to a soulful conclusion. The secret to superhuman strength lies not in six-pack abs, but in something much less clearly defined: facing her own non-transcendent but all-important interdependence with others.

Copies of the book will be made available at the library's Circulation Desk. Please sign up below to participate in this month's discussion!