FFL Book Discussion Group: Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party Online
Join other readers at this virtual discussion - on Zoom - of Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party by Edward Dolnick
Contact: Barbara Shatara at bshatara@burlingtonvt.gov to register and to obtain Zoom info.
About This Month's Book: Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party
In the early 1800s the natural world was a safe and cozy place, or so people believed. But then a twelve-year-old farm boy in Massachusetts stumbled on a row of fossilized three-toed footprints the size of dinner plates—the first dinosaur tracks ever found. Soon, in England, scientists unearthed enormous bones that reached as high as a man’s head. Outside of myths and fairy tales, no one had even imagined that creatures like three-toed giants had once lumbered across the land—nor dreamed that they could all have vanished, hundreds of millions years ago.
In Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party, celebrated storyteller and historian Edward Dolnick leads us through a compelling true adventure as the paleontologists of the early 19th century puzzled their way through the fossil record to create the story of dinosaurs we know today. The tale begins with Mary Anning, a poor, uneducated woman who had a sixth sense for finding fossils buried deep inside cliffs; moves to William Buckland, an eccentric geologist who filled his home with specimens and famously pieced together a prehistoric scene from the fossil record inside a cave; and then on to the controversial Richard Owen, the era’s best-known scientist, and the one who coined the term “dinosaur.”
Limited copies of the book are available for checkout at the Main Desk.
- Date:
- Wednesday, June 10, 2026 Show more dates
- Time:
- 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Branches:
- Main Library
- Online:
- This is an online event.
- Event URL:
- https://fletcherfree.org/book-discussion-group
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Featured