October 14th, 5:30pm
An Unfinished Love Story
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Highly lauded historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. Dick and Doris were married for forty-two years....and married to American history even longer. Dick was one of the brilliant young men working with John F. Kennedy and then Lyndon Johnson, helping to create the Great Society; he was also a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow where she worked directly for Lyndon Johnson.
September 9th, 5:30pm
Eastbound
Maylis de Kerangal
Shelby Van Meter will lead this book group discussion. The novel is an adventure story of two vibrant inner worlds. In winding sentences gorgeously translated, the prolific French author De Kerangal weaves the story of two unlikely souls entwined in a quest for freedom with a striking sense of tenderness – a sharp contrast to the brutal world. around them. Racing toward Vladivostok on a Trans-Siberian train with other Russian conscripts, we meet the young Aliocha. Soon after boarding, he decides to desert and over a midnight smoke in a dark corridor of the train, he encounters an older French woman, Hélène, for whom he feels an uncanny trust. The complicity and plot thickens from there, as both protagonists struggle with their inner landscapes.
August 12th, 5:30pm
Hotel Ukraine
Martin Cruz Smith
We will be discussing Hotel Ukraine By Martin Cruz Smith
In Memorium. Martin Cruz Smith passed away peacefully last month...on July 12, just days after Hotel Ukraine published on July 8th. This truly is the final Arkady Renko Novel. Martin was 82 years old and had been living courageously with Parkinson’s for 30 years. As his daughter Luisa Cruz Smith said: "His death leaves a silence, but not a void... he will live in our hearts forever." And on our bookshelves. From Gorky Park on, his canon of work will always remain at the top of its genre.
July 8th, 5:30pm
Real Americans
Rachel Khong
This book published last year and I've been waiting for it to come out in paperback. A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK from the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin.
Khong's new novel prompts one to ponder how far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating tale of American identity that spans three generations in one family and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures?
Tuesday, June 10th, 5:30pm
Playground
Richard Power
A cast of characters meet on the history-scarred island in French Polynesia -- a tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea in the world’s largest ocean. This beautifully written book explores the last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, with profound commentary on technology, the environment, our shared humanity in a way. Written by the Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of The Overstory.
Tuesday, April 8th, 5:30pm
Orbital
Samantha Harvey
Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize, this debut novel is "ravishingly beautiful" says the New York Times. Orbital is an eloquent meditation on space and life on our planet through the eyes of six astronauts circling the earth in 24 hours. Writing which will take your breath away.
Tuesday, March 11th, 5:30pm
Lessons In Chemistry
Bonnie Garmus
A laugh out loud, shrewdy observant debut novel about women in the 1960's featuring a fiercely intelligent female chemist who is constantly underestimated.
The novel has already been made into an Apple TV series and is an appropriate read in March -- Women's History Month. We'll be discussing the book as well as women writers and how women have been portrayed in fiction.
Tuesday, February 11th, 5:30pm
James
Percival Everett
A brilliant re-imagining of the classic Huckleberry Finn which is both humorous and harrowing. This new take on the tale is told by "James "(Huck's friend "Jim", the black slave) with scathing and poignant observations on racial injustice, but also tenderness & compassion. One of the best books of 2024 in my opinion -- from a master storyteller.
Tuesday, January 7th, 5:30pm
Hotel Silence
Audur Ava Olafsdottir
Shelby Van Meter will be the discussant
A somewhat dark, but ultimately uplifting novel by an internationally acclaimed Icelandic author, this is a tender story about a recently divorced man on a life-changing journey into a war-torn country, where he finds the tools to mend the lives of those he encounters and himself. Winner of the Icelandic Literary Prize.