OC Reads
OC Reads is a program designed to bring people together through literature by encouraging them to read the same book and participate in discussions and other events centered on that book.
Each year, the OC Reads Committee selects a book and invites community members to read and discuss this book together. The reading experience is supplemented by a series of free programs offered at the library in the form of book discussions, presentations, and activities related to the book’s themes. The series of events culminates in a visit by the book’s author where audience members can engage with the author and have their books signed.
We hope you will join us in this celebration of books, reading, and community.
OC Reads 2026 - Culpability
The OC Reads Committee presents the 2026 OC Reads book selection: Culpability!
A suspenseful family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence, Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.
Join us on Sunday, October 11th at 2:00 PM at the Ocean City Free Public Library for a talk, Q&A, and book signing with author Bruce Holsinger.
About the Author:
Bruce Holsinger is the author of Culpability, the 116th selection of Oprah’s Book Club and hailed by Oprah Winfrey as “a must-read for all generations.” His four previous novels include The Gifted School, a Book of the Month Club selection and winner of the Colorado Book Award; The Displacements, the inaugural title in the United Nations Read for Action Book Club; and The Invention of Fire and A Burnable Book, historical novels set in medieval London. He’s also written many works of nonfiction, most recently On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and many other publications, and he has been profiled on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Here & Now, and Marketplace. He is the editor of the quarterly journal New Literary History as well as a frequent instructor at WriterHouse, a nonprofit in Charlottesville. He teaches English at the University of Virginia and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
OC Reads Previous Titles
2025 - West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
2024 - Remarkably Bright Creatures, opens a new window by Shelby Van Pelt
2023 - The Violin Conspiracy, opens a new window by Brendan Slocumb
2022 - The Butterfly’s Daughter, opens a new window by Mary Alice Monroe
2021 - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, opens a new window by Kim Michele Richardson
2020 - The Only Woman in the Room, opens a new window by Marie Benedict
2019 - Where the Crawdads Sing, opens a new window by Delia Owens
2018 - Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and The Triumph of Trust, opens a new window by Michael Hingson
2017 - One Amazing Thing, opens a new window by Chitra Divakaruni
2016 - The Boys in the Boat , opens a new windowby Daniel James Brown
2015 - Orphan Train , opens a new windowby Christina Baker Kline
2014 - Shadow Divers, opens a new window by Robert Kurson