Fairfield Matinee Book Club to meet Wednesday

The Fairfield Public Library's Matinee Book Club will meet from 1-3 p.m. Wednesday at 51 1/2 North Court Street, which is on the east side of the town square. Masks are required, and facilitator David Patterson says there is ample space for social distancing.

This month's thought-provoking fiction selection is 'This Is How It Always Is” by Laurie Frankel. To register for this book club meeting, call the library's front desk at 641-472-6551 x2. As of Dec. 28, the library had three interlibrary loan copies of the book remaining at a cost of $2 per person.

This is Claude. He's five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.

When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.

Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They're just not sure they're ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude's secret. Until one day it explodes.

Laurie Frankel's 'This Is How It Always Is” is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it's about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don't get to keep them forever.