Palm Desert Reads Book Club

The Palm Desert Reads Book Club is dedicated to fostering a welcoming and intellectually stimulating environment for adults and older adults. Our book club provides a space for lifelong learners to come together, share their love of literature, and engage in meaningful discussions. Through the exploration of diverse genres and authors, we aim to spark curiosity, build connections, and enrich the lives of our members, encouraging both personal growth and social interaction.  

The Library will have a limited number of copies available for the book club to check out. The books are on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, talk to a staff member.

If there are no copies left and you would like to put this item on hold with the library, check our catalog here: 

Physical book: Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

Our March pick is: Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?

What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.

With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.