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.

April 28, 2024 – Liberty Way Tap House

• Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood
• “Going to Japan” from Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver
• Excerpts from In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

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