Last Monday of the Month | McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton Street | Free
Join the South Street Seaport Museum for a recurring maritime-themed book club! You can find information on upcoming book selections below.
In partnership with McNally Jackson Books—located at 4 Fulton Street, just a few doors down from the Museum entrance—Seaport Museum staff and special guests will stir up lively discussions informed by our shared love of literature, history, and preservation. Our literary selections will be announced one month in advance.
The event is free, and advance registration is encouraged. You don’t have to read the full selection to enjoy the event; everyone is welcome!
January 27, 6:30pm: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The January session of the Seaport Museum Book Club takes us back to the classics, with Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 novel, The Old Man and the Sea.
This timeless novella tells the epic story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman, and his relentless, multi-day battle to reel in a massive marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Renowned for its contemporary style and exploration of classic themes like courage, resilience, and personal triumph in the face of loss, The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway’s most celebrated works. Written in 1952, it cemented Hemingway’s literary legacy and played a significant role in his 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Join us for a deep dive into this captivating novel and a lively discussion with fellow book lovers. You don’t have to read the full book to enjoy the book club, all are welcome.
The Old Man and the Sea is available for purchase at most bookstores. Register for this meeting of the Seaport Museum Book Club today to receive a 10% off discount code for online orders of the book at McNally Jackson Books.
February 24, 6:30pm: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
In February, in honor of Black History Month, the Seaport Museum Book Club will read and discuss The New York Times best selling work Between the World and Me.
Throughout the book, author Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding how Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” and explores how this falsehood damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. In this beautifully woven personal narrative, Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder.
Sign up to read and discuss this illumination of the past that bracingly confronts our present and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward. You don’t have to read the full book to enjoy the book club, all are welcome.
Between the World and Me is available for purchase at most bookstores. Register for this meeting of the Seaport Museum Book Club today to receive a 10% off discount code for online orders of the book at McNally Jackson Books.
Enjoy More That the Museum Offers
Access to the Seaport Museum’s historic ships and exhibition galleries is not included with this event. To explore more that the Museum has to offer, book in advance or ask Museum staff about Pay What You Wish admission tickets, available Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 5pm when you check in.
These tickets grant access to the 1885 tall ship Wavertree at Pier 16 and all current exhibitions on view in the introduction galleries inside Schermerhorn Row located at 12 Fulton Street. Timed tours of the 1908 lightship Ambrose at Pier 16 are available separately.
Advance Pay What You Wish tickets for the forthcoming Maritime City exhibition, opening in March 2025 in A.A. Thomson & Co. located at 213 Water Street are now available. Be among the first to explore this exciting new exhibition!
Previous Book Club Picks
November 2024: Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York by Evan T. Pritchard
October 2024: The Witch of New York: The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Cursed Birth of Tabloid Justice by Alex Hortis
August 2024: The Waterworks by E. L. Doctorow
July 2024: Remarkable Creatures: A Novel by Tracy Chevalier
April 2024: Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip
March 2024: The Mad Girls of New York: A Nellie Bly Novel by Maya Rodale
February 2024: Here is New York by E. B. White
January 2024: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
November 2023: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
October 2023: Nothing Else But Miracles by Kate Albus
September 2023: Manhattan Beach: A Novel by Jennifer Egan
June 2023: The Engineer’s Wife: A Novel of the Brooklyn Bridge by Tracey Enerson Wood
March 2023: The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky
February 2023: Soldier, Sailor, Spy: The Story of a Black American Loyalist by Charles Hoffmire
January 2023: Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan
October 2022: Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell
September 2022: Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift by Jessica DuLong
August 2022: Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older
July 2022: The Lost Endeavour by John Masefield
Ready for more?
Head over to our Programs and Events page to see what else is happening at the Museum. Sign up for an upcoming talk, learn more about visiting Wavertree, or explore our virtual offerings.