The Wednesday Night Book Group meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. via Zoom. Conversations center around literary perspectives, personal connections, and application to UU principles. Members vote on the selections for the upcoming year from a wide range of genres. All are welcome to join the meeting – in person and sometimes online. A simultaneous in-person option at the church is generally offered from March through November. Contact Patti Ulwelling for Book Group meeting details.
August 13 – A Great Country by Shiilp Somaya Gowda, fiction, 2024, 256 pages. Named Elle Best Book of 2024 and Best Book of 2024 by Goodreads. A moving story of an Indian-American family’s attempt to assimilate and the challenges they face to protect their child when social class, privilege, and injustice threaten their American Dream.
Upcoming Selections:
September 10 – James by Percival Everett, fiction, March 2024, 320 pages. A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view. Super easy fast read.
October 8 – Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, memoir, April 2022, 364 pages. Inspired by true events in post-segregation Alabama, events that rocked the US. A nurse working in a family planning clinic blows the whistle on terrible injustices done to poor people of color. A stirring story of accountability and redemption and an empathic look at poverty, reproductive rights, personal morality, and systemic racism. Numerous literary recognitions
November 12 – The Women by Kristin Hannah, historical fiction, published Feb 2024, 471 pages. The Women is a story of one idealistic and courageous woman serving as a nurse in the Vietnam War; a page-turner where the reader experiences the destruction of war, the brutal rejection upon returning home and the challenges of life as a female Vietnam vet. It shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country have too often been forgotten.