Book Chat: Strange as this Weather Has Been

Important Update Regarding Meeting Usage During Library Renovation

During 2026, we will be undergoing a renovation to better serve the people of Dearborn County. 

During Phase 2 of the renovation access to Youth Services, Genealogy and the Innov812 Workshop will only be available via the High Street entrance.You will still be able to use the Ewbank Meeting Room during Phase 2, but our procedures for using the room have been modified:

  • Please enter the library via the High St. entrance. This entrance provides access to the Ewbank Meeting Room, Youth Services, Genealogy, and the Innov812 Workshop only. To access other areas of the library, you must use the Parking Lot entrance.
  • Once inside, please check in with the Youth Services Department so we can give you the clipboard and key to the room.
  • If you need any assistance at any time during your meeting, please call 812-537-2775 Ext. 1125 and a staff member will come to help.
  • When your meeting has finished, please check out with the Youth Services Department where you can return the clipboard and key.

We are excited to share our upgraded spaces with you once renovations are complete. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to improve your library.

Program Type:

Book Club

Age Group:

Adults
Please note you are looking at an event that has already happened.
  • Registration is required for this event.
  • Registration is no longer available for this event.

Program Description

Book Chat is a monthly book discussion group. June's book is Strange as this Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake.

Set in present day West Virginia, this debut novel tells the story of a coal mining family—a couple and their four children—living through the latest mining boom and dealing with the mountaintop removal and strip mining that is ruining what is left of their hometown. As the mine turns the mountains “to slag and wastewater,” workers struggle with layoffs and children find adventure in the blasted moonscape craters.

Strange as This Weather Has Been follows several members of the family, with a particular focus on fifteen–year–old Bant and her mother, Lace. Working at a motel, Bant becomes involved with a young miner while her mother contemplates joining the fight against the mining companies. As domestic conflicts escalate at home, the children are pushed more and more frequently outside among junk from the floods and felled trees in the hollows—the only nature they have ever known.

But Bant has other memories and is as curious and strong–willed as her mother, and ultimately comes to discover the very real threat of destruction that looms as much in the landscape as it does at home.