Mechanics' Hall Book Discussion Group (March)

The Mechanics’ Hall Book Discussion group meets to chat about books by exceptional thinkers and artists.

Everyone is welcome, and ongoing attendance is not required. The group is free for Mechanics' Hall Members.

Curious about the group but not a Mechanics' Hall member? You're invited to stop by! If you like what you hear, consider becoming a member.

MARCH BOOK SELECTION

English, Charlie, The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature, (2025)

Vivid history of a CIA-funded program to introduce subversive literature to Eastern Europe during the Soviet bloc era.

British author English’s book opens with an image of a simple-looking book, computer scientists on the cover, seemingly a technical manual. Had Polish security agents opened it, however, they would have discovered a copy of George Orwell’s 1984, smuggled into the country from Paris. The French capital served as an entrepôt for books funded by the CIA, which, brought to Warsaw and other Polish cities by travelers to the West during the brief thaw following Stalin’s death, were circulated via a “system of covert lending.” As English writes, the CIA agents providing funds and books were discerning: They sent fashion magazines and books by the likes of John le Carré and Philip Roth but also by East European and Russian writers such as Boris Pasternak, Joseph Brodsky, and Czeslaw Milosz. Eventually the book smugglers became more daring, publishing samizdat editions through a carefully coordinated series of safe rooms scattered across the country. English celebrates homegrown heroes such as Miroslaw Chojecki, trained as a physicist, who had been arrested 43 times by March 1980 but kept it up all the same. Romanian-born George Minden, also honored, concocted a series of ploys to get books and money inside the Iron Curtain, including, daringly, simply mailing banned literature to recipients chosen at random from the phone book. The program was highly effective; as English notes, “By 1962 at least 500 organizations were sending books on the CIA’s behalf.” By the program’s end, thousands of books had been circulated, to the gratitude of their readers, one of whom exalted, “We read poetry and literature. It showed us that there are likeminded people who are above nationality, who we can empathize with, who admire beauty, who admire virtue.”

A well-crafted book about books—and spooks, skullduggery, and a time when ideas mattered.

[Kirkus Reviews]

FULL LIST OF SELECTIONS

October 9: Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality by Deborah Archer (2025)

November 4: How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney(2023)

December 2: The Last Whaler by Cynthia Reeves (2024)

January 6: One Goal: A Coach, a Team, and the Game that Brought a Divided Town Together by Amy Bass (2018)

February 3: James by Percival Everett(2024)

March 3: The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature by Charlie English (2025)

May 5: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2022)

PARKING & TRANSPORTATION

Mechanics’ Hall is located at 519 Congress Street. Our main entrance is between Loquat Shop and the Art Mart. The Greater Portland Metro’s Congress & Casco Street Stop is directly in front of our building, served by routes 1, 7, 8, and 9B.

Parking is available at the Arts District Garage, which has entrances on Casco and Brown Street, with a rate of $5 per hour. Metered street parking is available on Congress, Casco, Cumberland, Free Street, and other nearby streets. Free hourly street parking is available between Parris and Alder Street.

ACCESSIBILITY

To enter our building, patrons will need to navigate a single step. There is a wheelchair-accessible elevator and a ramp available upon request.

If you have a wheelchair or need accessibility accommodations/questions please contact us at programming@mainemechanics.org or 207-773-8396.