Grown-Up Story Hour is a monthly event held at a local business or other location. Our reading lists include a variety of short stories, poems, and essays. For information on the next scheduled Grown-Up Story Hour, see our events calendar.
March 24, 2024 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “After the Storm” from Cold to the Bone by John Bates
- Select March entries from The Wit and Wisdom of the Great Outdoors by Jerry Wilbur
- “Wilderness,” from Walden by Henry David Thoreau
- Selections from Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis
- Selections from Mysterious Beasties of the Northwoods: Creatures from North American Folklore by Monica Farrier
- “Stuck With Strangers” from In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal
- Dorrie and the Blue Witch by Patricia Coombs
February 18, 2024 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “The Ransom of Red Chief,” from O. Henry’s Short Stories
- “The Hot Sauce Debacle,” from Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
- “Who are you?” and “My Life as a Meatloaf,” from I Remember Nothing: and other reflections by Nora Ephron
January 30, 2023 – Mercer Senior Center
- “Inspector Calls” by Helen MacDonald, from Vesper Flights
- Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
- “Sven and Ole Go To Hell“
- “The Sauna” by Sigurd Olson, from Runes of the North
- “The Haunting of 26 Bleeker Street” by Simon Rich, from Man Seeking Woman: Love is strange
- “The Knowers” by Helen Phillips
December 5, 2022 – Mercer Senior Center
- “The Egg Boiler” from The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks
- “Winter Wonder” from the Saturday Evening Post Christmas Book
- “Sagittarius” from Born on a Rotten Day
- “How the Angel Came to be on top of the tree”
- “Bobsled” from Heart Throbs and Hoofbeats
- Selections from Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis
- “With Apologies to a Year Gone By” from Deck Us All with Boston Charlie
- Stories from the Oxford Book of Humor, including “Seasonal Sermon for Party Goers”
- “The Little Match Girl” from Anderson’s Fairy Tales
- Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore
November 7, 2022 – Mercer Senior Center
- “The School” by Donald Barthelme
- Excerpts and stories from U.P. Magazine
- “Damaged Goods” and “Six Times I’ve Lost My Shoes While Wearing Them” from Broken (in the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson
- Essays from No Time to Spare: thinking about what matters by Ursula LeGuin
August 25, 2021
- “A Note about the Cover” from Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson
- Selections from the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
- “Investing in Boys” – a short pamphlet
- “Smoke Signals” from The Little Book of Bathroom Crime Puzzles by M Diane Vogt
- Selection from Managing Your Headaches by Mark W. Green
- “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
- “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
July 28, 2021 – River’s Edge Outfitters
- Excerpt from Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
- “The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill” by Robert Service
- “The World’s Largest Ball of Paint” from The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
- “Fable” by Robert Fox from Sudden Fiction
- “Speed of Light” by Pat Rushin from Sudden Fiction
- “Winter Moon” by Langston Hughes
- “Wolves” and “When we were young” by Louis MacNiece
June 30, 2021
- “My House is a Garbage Fire Because I Clean It” from Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson
- “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe, found in The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
- “Rainy Day in June” from Never Curse the Rain: a farm boy’s reflections on water by Jerry Apps
- Excerpts from Wisconsin’s Ghosts by Sherry Strub
- “On Seat Belts, Cocaine Addiction, and the Germ Theory of Disease” by Diana Hume George, published in In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal, Judith and Mary Paumier Jones, editors
May 28, 2020
- “So that’s who I remind me of” by Ogden Nash
- “Jump” by Caldwell Turnbull
- Excerpts from The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
- “The Wanderer’s Nightsong” by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
- “The Lady or the Tiger” by Frank Stockton, published in Best Shorts: Favorite short stories for sharing
- “Tomato on Board” from The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
February 27, 2020
- “The Squirrel and the Chipmunk” by David Sedaris, published in Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: a modern bestiary
- “To Patrick: We were good buds,” an original story by Wendy Thiede
- “Footprints in the Sand” by Mary Stevenson
- The Constitution of the United States of America – selections from the preamble and census section
- “Your Pain in my Heart” by Rabbi Sidney Greenberg, published in Say Yes to Life
- “I am fortunate to be the mother of three sons…” from A Cup of Comfort for Mothers and Sons
- “Janis” by Ann Beattie
- “Wants” by Grace Paley
- Love you forever by Robert Munsch
January 30, 2020 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “The Sleep” by Caitlin Horrocks, from Here: Women Writing on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
- “Let it Snow” by David Sedaris, published in The New Yorker, December 15, 2003
- “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, published in Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Death and Dementia
- “Why Hummingbird has a Red Throat,” published in The Return of the Light: twelve tales from around the world for winter solstice
- “Winter in Wisconsin,” by an anonymous poet
December 19, 2019 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “It is a good thing to celebrate Chrismas Day…” – a poem from the Saturday Evening Post Christmas Book
- “Rudolph, the Nasally-Empowered Reindeer” from Politically Correct Holiday Stories
- “And Two Eyes Made out of Coal” from You Better Not Cry by Augusten Burroughs
- “The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus” – a poem by Ogden Nash from the Saturday Evening Post Christmas Book
- A letter by William Lever from Letters of a Nation: a collection of extraordinary American letters, edited by Andrew Carrolll
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
- “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Moore
November 20, 2019 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “Sticks“ by George Saunders
- “The Paper Menagerie“ by Ken Liu
- “Why we love kids” newspaper clipping
- “Old Friends” from On a Clear Night by Marnie O. Mamminga
- “Here we are” by Dorothy Parker, published in Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike
October 30, 2019 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “The O Word” by Nora Ephron, published in I Remember Nothing and other reflections
- Excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, published in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete tales and poems
- Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood
- Excerpt from Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
- “The Spectre Bride” published in The Campfire Collection
- “Chilly Night” by Christina Rosetti
September 25, 2019 – Island View Lodge
- “I Remember Nothing” by Nora Ephron, published in I Remember Nothing and other reflections
- “On Being 70” by Wendy Thiede, read by the author
- “Letter to Home” by Kurt Vonnegut, published in Armageddon in Retrospect
- “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
- We Are Our Mothers Daughters by Cokie Roberts, chapter 1
August 21, 2019 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin, published in The Awakening and selected short fiction
- Excerpt from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Longfellow
- Interview of Maurice Sendak by Terry Gross, from Fresh Air – Writers speak with Terry Gross
- “Porgy & Bess” by Maya Angelou, published in Letter to my daughter
- “Little Red Riding Hood” from Politically Correct Bedtime Stories
June 19, 2019 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “Woman who was fed by a duck” by Cecelia Ahern, from Roar
- “Unfarmer” by Michael Perry, from From the top : brief transmissions from Tent Show Radio
- “Deer Reunion” by Michael Perry, from Roughneck Grace
- “I am waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, published in A Coney Island of the Mind
- “Tips for Women: how to have a relationship with a guy” by Dave Barry, published in The 50 Funniest American Writers according to Andy Borowitz
- “Curb Carter Policy Discord Effort” by Veronica Geng, published in The 50 Funniest American Writers according to Andy Borowitz
May 23, 3019 – Liberty Way Tap House
- Serendipity by Stephen Cosgrove
- “Look at this Giraffe” by Jenny Lawson, found in Furiously Happy
- “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, found in Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories
- Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
- “Senior moments” with Jan Flesch
- “Unicorn” by Shel Silverstein, found in Where the Sidewalk Ends
April 25, 2019 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “Letter to my mother” by Barbara Kingsolver, from Small Wonder
- “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury, found in Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories
- The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry, found in The 50 Funniest American Writers
- 10 Questions Children want to Know from The Grandparent Handbook
- The Last Night of the World by Ray Bradbury, found in The Stories of Ray Bradbury
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, found in The Treasury of American Short Stories
- Underwear by Mary Elise Monsell
March 28, 2019 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “The Art of Trailering” by Patrick McManus, from Kerplunk!
- The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service
- New England Weather by Mark Twain
- All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
- Selections from Esquire‘s 79-word Short Story Contest
- Selections from the Bulwer Lytton fiction contest
- “Bessie’s Boil” by Robert Service
- Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen; illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
February 27, 2019 – Liberty Way Tap House
- “This is why I’ll never be an adult” by Allie Brosh, from Hyperbole and a Half
- “The Present” by Simon Rich, from Man Seeking Woman
- “Skinny in Traffic” by Patrick McManus, from The Bear in the Attic
- “It’s all in how you look at it” by Jenny Lawson, from Furiously Happy
- The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles by Michelle Cuevas, illustrated by Erin Stead
- “Wolves” by Louis Macneice, from Collected Poems