All readers are welcome. Book Club generally meets on the fourth Thursday of the month at 7:00 pm in the church Courtyard.
January 23
Prague Winter A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937–1948, by Madeleine Albright
Memoir: Drawing on her own memory, her parents’ written reflections, interviews with contemporaries, and documents, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recounts a tale that is by turns harrowing and inspiring. Her family’s experiences provide an intensely human lens through which to view the most political and tumultuous years in modern history.
February 27
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman
Fiction: A smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and wit make for an irresistible journey toward wholeness, aided by a deeply unhygienic coworker and a chance encounter with a stranger. This beautifully written, funny story is about the importance of friendship and human connection.
March 26
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson
Memoir: Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice to defend those most desperate and in need. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
April 23
There, There, by Tommy Orange
Fiction: Following twelve characters from Native communities traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize, this novel tells of the plight of the urban Native American—grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.
May 28
The Radium Girls, by Kate Moore
Non-fiction: The Radium Girls tells the story of workers in radium-dial factories who were exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium and its gruesome health consequences. As the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early 20th century and in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come.
June 25 (Special Book Tour at Minneapolis Institute of Art)
Virgil Wander, by Leif Enger
Fiction: Midwestern movie house owner Virgil Wander suffers amnesia when his car skids into icy Lake Superior. Awakening in this new life, he begins to piece together his personal history and the lore of his broken town. Virgil Wander is a swift, full journey into the heart and heartache of an often overlooked American Upper Midwest.
July 23
The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, by Rich Cohen
Non-fiction: A biography of the little-known antihero, Samuel Zemurray (1877–1961), the disgraced mogul of the much hated United Fruit Company who aided the creation of Israel, funded many of Tulane University’s buildings, and had a hand in the rise of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
August 27
The Last Runaway, by Tracy Chevalier
Fiction: Honor Bright, a modest English Quaker, moves to Ohio in 1850 and is drawn into the clandestine activities of the Underground Railroad. The novel illuminates the principles, passions and realities that fueled this extraordinary freedom movement.
September 24
Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover
Memoir: An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.
October 22
North of Dawn, by Nuruddin Farah
Fiction: Set against the backdrop of real events, this is a provocative, devastating story of love, loyalty, and national identity that asks whether it is ever possible to escape a legacy of violence—and if so, at what cost. A Somali couple who have lived in Oslo for decades takes in their son’s family after he suicides in a jihadist attack in Somalia.
November/December (date and place TBD)
A Child’s Christmas in Wales, by Dylan Thomas
This nostalgic recollection of Christmas past by celebrated Welsh poet Dylan Thomas evokes the beauty and tradition of the season at every turn.
At our end-of year gathering we discuss a short story, select the books for next year and share goodies; this meeting will be in a member’s home.
For future consideration:
Evidence of V, by Sheila O’Connor, about MN School for Girls
Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, about current-day African immigration experience
Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah, mixed race memoir
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, by Colin Woodard
