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.
May 14 – Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James W. Loewen, nonfiction, originally published in 1995, updated 2018, 480 pages. “Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in itself.”
Upcoming Selections:
June 11 – Crying in H Mart a memoir by Michelle Zauner. 2021 paperback, 236 pages. It is a fascinating book about the author’s Korean identity and “it is a candid, moving tribute to her mother….and to our collective desire for connection in this often-alienating world… I laughed, cried, and want to reread it!
July 9 – How To Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley, fiction, June 2024, 352 pages. This is a comedy about a group of seniors and their unconventional efforts to save their community center from being sold by the city council. The book explores themes of aging, love, crime, friendship, and life’s complexities…”a delightful romp that’s funny, heartwarming, and thought-provoking.”
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.
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.