TYC Book Club 2021

       We usually gather outside on the clubhouse patio on Sundays once a month from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Our discussions are lively and congenial. We invite you to join us.

Below are this year's book choices as well as the meeting dates.

Hope to see you soon,

Linda Maddigan and Denise David

Meeting #1   March 21, 2021

 

Our first selection is The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. 

 

It follows the lives of twin girls, both light-skinned Black girls, who run away from home at age sixteen and live very different lives. The story does not move in a linear fashion since it is told through the recollections of various characters.

 

An NPR review describes this book as a"... a multi-generational family saga that tackles prickly issues of racial identity and bigotry and conveys the corrosive effects of secrets and dissembling. It's also a great read that will transport you out of your current circumstances, whatever they are."

  

Interesting interview with Britt Bennett

 

Meeting #2   May 16, 2021 at TYC Clubhouse (hopefully)

Our second selection is The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.

Four Winds is Kristin Hannah's most recent book, taking us to the Dust Bowl of the 1930's, a touching story of a harsh time period. Perhaps some of you remember reading The Grapes of Wrath in high school. This book has the same poignancy, but it is a woman's story, a woman, who along with other characters, faces great struggles. 

The Book Club enjoyed two earlier books by Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale and The Great Alone. We think this one might lead to equally good discussions.

Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing has this to say about Four Winds: "Through one woman’s survival during the harsh and haunting Dust Bowl, master storyteller, Kristin Hannah, reminds us that the human heart and our Earth are as tough, yet as fragile, as a change in the wind."

This video gives a quick overview of Dust Bowl Policies: 

 Video on Dust Bowl Policies

 Below is a picture of the daughter who is in the picture in Dorothea Lange's very famous photograph taken in 1936.  Migrant Mother Photograph. 

This is the story of what happened to the woman in the photograph

Florence Thompson the real migrant mother

 

Meeting #3    June 13 at TYC Clubhouse

Our third choice is Hidden Life of Trees: What They feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben 

 

We try to have a variety of books on our list each year, and this one a bit unusual, but we think you will find it intriguing.

It is a science/ecology book, and it is sure to lead to some interesting discussion. The book is beautifully written by an author who has a deep love of forests. He shares his own observations as well as some scientific research. He makes us care about trees, notice them, and think very differently about them. Do they work together? Do they communicate?  We will have some fun discussing all of this.

Meeting # 4  July 18

Our July choice is Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

 

 This novel has been described as  "a portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a hypnotic recreation of a story that inspired one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time. Hamnet is mesmerizing and seductive, an impossible to put down novel from a gifted writer."

(And yes, the masterpiece being referred to is Hamlet.)

The NY Times named it as one of the best books of 2020. 

 

Meeting # 5  August 15

Our August choice is The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

 

August is the time for some summertime reading, and that means stories that we can get lost in.  The book follows three generations of the Milton family. The novel has been described as family saga and American epic. Curl up and get ready for a page-turning read.

Sarah Blake Interview

 Meeting # 6  September 12 

Our September choice is Radium Girls by Kate Moore

A novel based on the  incredible true story of the young women who were conisdered "lucky" to be working with the new wonder drug radium, until they suddenly became very ill. These women worked in the factories where they painted the numbers on the faces of watch dials. They fought an uphill battle against the dangers of the new wonder drug, radium.

Meeting # 7  October 3rd

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

 

 Good Reads describes The Midnight Library as "an enchanting new novel. Nora Seed finds herself faced... with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place."