Hi everyone, pasted below are the notes for our May & June 2024 gatherings!

First thought, on an FYI note, here is the information on our July Book Club for Adults Gathering.

Location: Southeast Steuben County Library Conference Room

Date: Friday, July 12, 2024 | Time: 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

July Read: The Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood

And here are the May & June notes!

Post Meeting Notes: May & June 2024  

Our May 2024 read was The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride  

Book club attendees liked our May Read, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.   

The observation was made that the promotional material for the book gives the impression that there is a big mystery to solve in the book; that mystery being, just whose body is discovered at the bottom of an old well in the Chicken Hill section of Pottstown, Pennsylvania? How did he meet his end? Was he murdered? The old skeleton is found at beginning of the novel, which actually starts at the end of the story in June 1972; and just after the skeleton is discovered, and before an investigation can be launched, Hurricane Agnes roars up the coast of the eastern United States and washes away the bones and any residual evidence.  

However, the novel really isn’t a murder mystery; instead, it is a portrait of a community on the fringe, beginning in the 1920s. The old community consisted of African Americans and Jews who weren’t welcome in the white Christian parts of town; and the novel relays the trials and tribulations of several impactful members of the local community including:  

Chona Flohr, the daughter of Rabbi Flohr, owner of the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, who marries Moshe Ludlow and later shields young Dodo from Dr. Roberts and the local Klu Klux Klan.   

Addie and Nate Timblin, a black couple who take in their young, orphaned nephew Dodo. Dodo is very smart but deaf and members of the local Klu Klux Klan think the boy should be institutionalized.  Addie and Nate are devoted to Dodo and work hard to keep him out of the hands of the local Klu Klux Klan arraigning for Dodo to stay with Chona and Moshe Ludlow.   

Dr. Earl Roberts, a member of the local Klu Klux Klan who works on investigating Dodo, as a preamble to having him institutionalized.  Dr. Roberts is an infamous person among the local community as he is known both for his K.K.K. affiliation, for seeing himself as being better than everyone else and treating other people, especially non-whites, accordingly.  

Late in the story, decades in the past, an inebriated Dr. Roberts, is mistaken for someone else, is beaten up and falls into the open well, where the work men attending to the well do not see his body. Thus, there is a murder of sorts, but it is one of mistaken identity and readers can be pleased that the despicable Dr. Roberts got his moral comeuppance.   

And in an attempt at brevity, not something this typist is good at! I should also note; that the number one pillar of the Chicken Hill community, in the days of old was Chona Ludlow who ran the Heaven & Eart Grocery Store, shielded young Dodo from the K.K.K. and grew to love him dearly; she also loved her community and treated other members of the community accordingly.  

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Our June 2024 read was Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward   

 Several members noted that they found the use of metaphysical spirits in the book a bit confusing and/or thought it detracted from the story; and the consensus of book club members was to give the title a “read it!” thumbs up.  

Let Us Descend, is set during the pre-Civil War slavery era, tells both the tale of Annis, the third generation in her matriarchal line to be enslaved in the United States; and gives readers a glimpse of what it was like to be a female slave in United States during that era; when enslaved women not only were directed in what they did during all their lives, but also didn’t even have autonomy over their own bodies, being treated at best as disrespected, disposable property.   

Annis’s grandmother Aza, known as Mama Aza, was born in Africa, was the warrior wife of an African King, was sold into slavery by her husband when her affair with another man was discovered, and taught her daughter Sasha the defensive and survival skills she had learned as a warrior wife.  Sasha in turn, trains Annis in those same skills during private nighttime practice sessions. Annis was repeatedly raped by her owner, and Annis’s biological father, who is referred to in the text only as Annis’s “Sire.”  

Young Annis is an intelligent girl and clandestinely listens to her white half-sister’s lessons with their tutor. She is especially taken with Dante’s Inferno and its description of people going to and climbing out of hell; and it is the descent to hell described in that story, from which the author selected the title of this story – Let Us Descend.   

When Annis becomes a young woman, her Sire begins to eye her, intending to rape her as he did her mother. He tries to trap her in his bedroom while she is cleaning; her mother Sasha steps in and calls Annis to come out of the room and join her in the hallway of the big house, where they both were working, to go home for the day.  

In retaliation, the Sire sells Sasha. Subsequently, Annis suffers a deep depression and is only, eventually, brought out of her depression by her friendship and love of a fellow female slave Safi. The young girls take comfort in their relationship, but are unfortunately spotted kissing by Annis’s Sire and as a result are sold to “The Georgia Man.” The girls are then marched south from the Carolina’s to New Orleans to be sold. They are forced to walk chain-gang style, roped together so that if one person stumbles or falls, all people in the line are impacted. The conditions are worse than deplorable. The slaves must march on foot for the whole journey in oppressive heat and are given little food. During the march Safi is untied, taken out of the line and raped by one of the white overseers who then does not retie her bonds tightly enough. Safi is then able to untie her bond, free herself and escapes; she asks Annis to come with her. However, Annis, who by this time has encounter a spirit calling herself Mama Aza, but who is not the spirit of her grandmother, isn’t sure whether she should try and escape or not, the latter course of action being the advice of Spirit Aza, so she stays with the group and completes the march to New Orleans.   

Once in New Orleans, Annis is sold to a plantation where the man of the house spends his time conducting business in a nearby town, leaving his cruel wife to oversee his estate. The wife holds an iron rod over all activity on the estate. The slaves are not properly fed, are always hungry and are forced to do a variety of hard labor; they are also put in a hole-in-the-ground for the smallest, or even an imagined, transgression.   

Once at the new plantation, Annis gets to know some of the other slaves including the inseparable friends Esther and Mary, and eventually she also encounters Esther’s brother Bastian. Bastian escaped from slavery, lives in the wilderness near the plantation and occasionally brings his sister food. Subsequently Annis and Bastian have a brief consensual sexual encounter.  

Annis is twice put in the hole-in-the-ground, and the second time she decides to break free, escape and uses the survival skills passed down to her from her African Grandmother Aza to live on her own deep in the wilderness.  

Annis hikes far into a huge swamp, finds an abandoned cabin whose previous occupants died of yellow fear, and there sets up her small homestead. She rests and works on gathering food for several days and then realizes she is pregnant. She decides to raise her child in the swamp and teach her daughter the same survival skills that were passed down to her from her mother and grandmother.   

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Looking ahead, our next Book Club for Adults gathering will be held at the library from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m., on Friday, July 12, 2024.   

We’ll be reading the book: Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood   

This book has received good reviews, and I’ve discovered it has a bit more drama to it than I initially thought. The book is set in contemporary England and tells the tale of the middle age Grace Adams, who is going through a difficult Perimenopause, is separated from her husband and trying to reconnect with her estranged teenage daughter. As the book opens, Grace is picking up an expensive cake for her daughter’s birthday and is determined to deliver it to her and talk to her as well. Naturally, Murphy’s Law applies, and directly after picking up the cake she gets stuck in a traffic jam; in Perimenopausal frustration Grace abandons her car determined to take the cake to her daughter even if she must walk miles to her daughter’s birthday party. And as the story unfolds readers discover Grace’s tale, which includes a look at her past, how she was amazing linguist who was determined to have a brilliant career, how she fell in love with her husband Ben and her career plans changed; and how the unexpected death of a family member pushed everyone in Grace’s family to the breaking point.  

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Book Club Member’s Recommended Reads May & June 2024:  

Titles are all books unless otherwise specified. 

American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden by Katie Rogers: In 1993, the differences between the outgoing president, patrician George H. W. Bush, and the newly elected, folksy Bill Clinton could not have been more telling. The contrast between their wives was equally stark. While Barbara Bush appeared as an irascible matron, Hillary Clinton presented the epitome of feminist ambition. With her assignment to shepherd sweeping new health care legislation, Clinton’s tenure as First Lady morphed from a traditional ceremonial post to something of significance. By its very nature, the office’s unstructured portfolio exposes its occupants to open interpretation by themselves and others. If Jill Biden is famously hands-on in protecting and advising husband Joe, Melania Trump was infamously hands-off, to the point of inscrutability. For other FLOTUSes, their mandate was a manifestation of their core identities. Former librarian Laura Bush championed literacy. For Michelle Obama, with her controversially toned arms, the cause was health and nutrition. As the New York Times’ White House correspondent, Rogers rigorously examines the notion of legacy and the first lady in the modern era. These women, she maintains, are “the most known (and often least understood) women in America.” Rogers’ unerring journalistic evaluation of the person behind the post should help change all that. – Starred Booklist Review  

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A Brilliant Life: My Mother’s Inspiring True Story of Surviving the Holocaust by Rachelle Unreich: A Holocaust story is never an easy read, but A Brilliant Life has such a harrowing prologue that it throws the reader right into the thick of it, so be prepared. Stories of ageing and dying parents can be tearful at times, too, but there’s hope and beauty in this ‘brilliant’ biography. Journalist Rachelle Unreich has vividly captured her mother Mira’s bright spirit, both through her accounts of Mira’s earlier life and through the modern-day first-person moments interspersed throughout the book. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1927, Mira was 17 when she was taken to the first of four concentration camps, surviving each one thanks to people who, in her words, ‘helped me without getting benefit from it themselves’. Unflinching information is included about Mira’s experiences in Plaszow, Birkenau, Auschwitz, and on the arduous death march to Ravensbrück in Germany, when even her inimitable spirit seems about to break. Well researched but never dry, the book shines when describing Mira’s family and her capacity to see light through horrific darkness and notice the moments of serendipity. After a long and captivating life, Mira is living with terminal cancer in her home in Melbourne in 2016, and her daughter interviews her while she still has time. We are brought into the family fold and invited to join them in Mira’s final days, enjoying the richness of the storytelling the way we might at a Shabbat meal. – Publishers Weekly Review  

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Celtic Ways to Pray: Finding God in the Natural Elements by Ruth Lindberg Pattison:  

Celtic traditions point to God in the natural elements in this refreshing take on how to pray. 

Where is God when we pray? Artist and priest Ruth Pattison looks to the legacy of Celtic spirituality to say God is in all of creation that surrounds us—earth, fire, water, air—and not up in the clouds. She invites the reader into a grounded spirituality rooted deep in Celtic tradition that sees everything as infused with the Spirit—including humanity. 

The material will deepen the experience of worship with creative hands-on spiritual practices for the context of liturgy. It can also be used for creating the structure and substance of retreats, spiritual formation classes, and for helping parents who want to learn to pray with children. 

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Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch by Erin French: French, owner of the highly regarded Lost Kitchen Restaurant in a small Maine town called Freedom, candidly writes about becoming a successful chef and mother. The author takes us out of the kitchen to draw a picture of her growth and evolution into a personally and professionally successful woman in small-town New England. French’s life is not all smooth sailing; a childhood of searching for parental approval while helping out in the family diner takes a sharp turn when French finds herself pregnant as a young woman. The next several years are punctuated by both successes and failures, culminating in a challenging struggle with addiction and overcoming the effects of a toxic marriage. The writing is frank and, particularly when related to her struggle to regain custody of her son, heart-wrenching. The redemptive arc of the final chapters is satisfying and will leave readers wanting to know more about the author’s life and the band of restaurant workers she has brought together. VERDICT Openly sharing insight on overcoming difficult family dynamics and on struggling with addiction, French has written a standout chef memoir that will have readers turning the pages. -Starred Library Journal Review  

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Lessons in Cadence: Discover the Tools, Tactics And Mindset Necessary to Turn Towards the Path of Recovery Against the Struggle Within by Eric Basek, Curt Miller, et al.: Former Police Officer, Eric Basek spent five months interviewing nine exceptional individuals whose path of service demanded a heavy sacrifice. Each of the stories you will read herein are the tales of heroes; five military veterans, and four police officers, whose journey through life took them along a path of adversity, sorrow, tragedy and ultimately triumph over the traumas they all suffered through. In reading these stories, you will not only find the common threads that tie all of their journeys together, but hopefully also the ones that tie all of their journeys with your own. 

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Life: My Story Through History: Pope Francis’s Inspiring Biography Through History by Pope Francis and Aubrey Botsford: Pope Francis (A Good Life) provides a plainspoken overview of how some of the most significant events of the 20th and early 21st centuries shaped his life and morals. Among other episodes, he examines how the news from Nazi Germany he heard during his childhood in Argentina awoke him to “the persecution of Jews”; remembers watching the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, a recollection that leads him to call for Christians to build “bridges instead of barriers”; and suggests that the events of September 11 offer a lesson in the importance of decrying “the use of the name of God to justify slaughter.” Elsewhere, Francis covers the creation of the EU, the 2007–2008 Great Recession, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite a tendency to meander (as when his recollection of the 1969 moon landing awkwardly launches into a critique of technology’s ills), readers will be fascinated by the insights into how these historical events influenced a transformative pope who broke with his more conservative predecessors by recognizing and blessing same-sex civil unions and entertaining the possibility that atheists could go to heaven. Catholics will value this chance to see the leader of their church in a fresh light. – Publishers Weekly  

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Long Island by Colm Tóibín: The quietly devastating sequel to Brooklyn picks up two decades later with Eilis Lacey, now in her 40s, hemmed in by her overbearing in-laws on Long Island in 1976. First Eilis discovers that her husband, Tony, has been unfaithful, then she learns his family has decided without her consent to raise the child of his illicit affair. Furious, Eilis returns to Enniscorthy, the small town in Ireland she left in the 1950s, and arranges for her and Tony’s teenaged daughter and son to join her there to celebrate her mother’s birthday. Eilis hasn’t been back since the death of her sister, Rose, many years earlier. On that trip, though she was already married to Tony without her family’s knowledge, she fell in love with pub owner Jim Farrell. Jim has never married but is soon to become engaged to the widow Nancy Sheridan, Eilis’s dear old friend. Now, Eilis’s second homecoming upends life in the village as she and Nancy each stumble toward what they believe they deserve, and Jim considers what’s more important: his commitments or his desires. Tóibín is brilliant at tallying the weight of what goes unsaid between people (“They could do everything except say out loud what it was they were thinking”), and at using quotidian situations to illuminate longing as a universal and often-inescapable aspect of the human condition. Tóibín’s mastery is on full display here. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review  

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The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya: An electrifying biography of one of the most extraordinary scientists of the twentieth century and the world he made. 

The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann. 

 Born in Budapest at the turn of the century, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. A child prodigy, he mastered calculus by the age of eight, and in high school made lasting contributions to mathematics. In Germany, where he helped lay the foundations of quantum mechanics, and later at Princeton, von Neumann’s colleagues believed he had the fastest brain on the planet—bar none. He was instrumental in the Manhattan Project and the design of the atom bomb; he helped formulate the bedrock of Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory; he created the first ever programmable digital computer; he prophesized the potential of nanotechnology; and, from his deathbed, he expounded on the limits of brains and computers—and how they might be overcome. 

Taking us on an astonishing journey, Ananyo Bhattacharya explores how a combination of genius and unique historical circumstance allowed a single man to sweep through a stunningly diverse array of fields, sparking revolutions wherever he went. The Man from the Future is an insightful and thrilling intellectual biography of the visionary thinker who shaped our century. 

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The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick: The house cleaner of a famous author must carry out her employer’s shocking last wish in this delightful new novel from beloved author Phaedra Patrick 

 Mother of two Liv Green barely scrapes by as a maid to make ends meet, often finding escape in a good book while daydreaming of becoming a writer herself. So she can’t believe her luck when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero, megabestselling author Essie Starling, a mysterious and intimidating recluse. The last thing Liv expected was to be the only person Essie talks to, which leads to a tenuous friendship. 

When Essie passes away suddenly, Liv is astonished to learn that her dying wish was for Liv to complete her final novel. But to do so Liv will have to step into Essie’s shoes. As Liv begins to write, she uncovers secrets from the past that reveal a surprising connection between the two women—one that will change Liv’s own story forever… 

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Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride: MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA chronicles the story of four black American soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all-black 92nd Buffalo Soldier Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II. They experience the tragedy and triumph of the war as they find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy. Directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay written by James McBride, the author of the acclaimed novel of the same name, the film explores a deeply inspiring, powerful story drawn from true history, that transcends national boundaries, race, and class to touch the goodness within us all. 

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Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney: In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol.   Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face. 

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The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman 

In the fall of 1918, thirteen-year-old German immigrant Pia Lange longs to be far from Philadelphia’s overcrowded slums and the anti-immigrant sentiment that compelled her father to enlist in the U.S. Army. But as her city celebrates the end of war, an even more urgent threat arrives: the Spanish flu. Funeral crepe and quarantine signs appear on doors as victims drop dead in the streets and desperate survivors wear white masks to ward off illness. When food runs out in the cramped tenement she calls home, Pia must venture alone into the quarantined city in search of supplies, leaving her baby brothers behind. 

Bernice Groves has become lost in grief and bitterness since her baby died from the Spanish flu. Watching Pia leave her brothers alone, Bernice makes a shocking, life-altering decision. It becomes her sinister mission to tear families apart when they’re at their most vulnerable, planning to transform the city’s orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are “true Americans.” 

Waking in a makeshift hospital days after collapsing in the street, Pia is frantic to return home. Instead, she is taken to St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum – the first step in a long and arduous journey. As Bernice plots to keep the truth hidden at any cost in the months and years that follow, Pia must confront her own shame and fear, risking everything to see justice – and love – triumph at last. Powerful, harrowing, and ultimately exultant, The Orphan Collector is a story of love, resilience, and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most. 

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The Secret Garden (Movie; there are several versions, the 2020 edition with Colin Furth was mentioned): Adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved story about Mary Lennox, a troubled, sickly, orphaned to live with an uncle after her parents have died in a cholera outbreak in India. 

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The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers: North Carolina, 1946. One woman. A discovery that could rewrite history. 

Maddie Sykes is a burgeoning seamstress who’s just arrived in Bright Leaf, North Carolina—the tobacco capital of the South—where her aunt has a thriving sewing business. After years of war rations and shortages, Bright Leaf is a prosperous wonderland in full technicolor bloom, and Maddie is dazzled by the bustle of the crisply uniformed female factory workers, the palatial homes, and, most of all, her aunt’s glossiest clientele: the wives of the powerful tobacco executives. 

But she soon learns that Bright Leaf isn’t quite the carefree paradise that it seems. A trail of misfortune follows many of the women, including substantial health problems, and although Maddie is quick to believe that this is a coincidence, she inadvertently uncovers evidence that suggests otherwise. 

Maddie wants to report what she knows, but in a town where everyone depends on Big Tobacco to survive, she doesn’t know who she can trust—and fears that exposing the truth may destroy the lives of the proud, strong women with whom she has forged strong bonds. 

Shedding light on the hidden history of women’s activism during the post-war period, at its heart, The Tobacco Wives is a deeply human, emotionally satisfying, and dramatic novel about the power of female connection and the importance of seeking truth. 

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Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes: (This description is for the book; the 2003 movie, based on the book is also good) 

Mayes’s favorite guide to Northern Italy allots seven pages to the town of Cortona, where she owns a house. But here she finds considerably more to say about it than that, all of it so enchanting that an armchair traveler will find it hard to resist jumping out of the chair and following in her footsteps. The recently divorced author is euphoric about the old house in the Tuscan hills that she and her new lover renovated and now live in during summer vacations and on holidays. A poet, food-and-travel writer, Italophile and chair of the creative writing department at San Francisco State University, Mayes is a fine wordsmith and an exemplary companion whose delight in a brick floor she has just waxed is as contagious as her pleasure in the landscape, architecture and life of the village. Not the least of the charms of her book are the recipes for delicious meals she has made. Above all, her observations about being at home in two very different cultures are sharp and wise. 

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With Arm’s Reach by Ann Napolitano  

In Napolitano’s wonderful first novel, deftly told from six points of view, a New Jersey family bears witness to the cycle of life. The matriarch of the Irish-American McLaughlin clan, Catharine, is living in a care facility, her “whole life one room.” On the other end of the spectrum, Catharine’s unmarried granddaughter, Gracie, is pregnant by a man she doesn’t love. The news is a surprise: Gracie wishes she’d conceived immaculately; her sister, Lila, can’t believe Gracie’s pregnant again; and Catharine has hangups about illegitimacy. Napolitano gracefully and honestly charts the tensions as the various family members come together. “We are family, but we have very little in common except that we are terrible at small talk,” muses Lila at an Easter gathering. “e size each other up and glance for the nearest exit and wonder, Why are you here? Why am I here? 

” Gracie’s unborn child promises both conflict and hope. As Catharine, haunted by loving ghosts of the past, recalls, “There was order to our family then, and small children running around filling the rooms with laughter…. hen the baby comes, when the laughter of children fill our rooms again, everything will settle down. This family will be whole.” Catharine’s hopes becomes the readers’ hopes as well, as they watch her family—her “life’s work”—grow and endure. – Publishers Weekly Review  

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The Woman King (2022) (Movie): Inspired by true events, this is the remarkable, action-packed story about the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen. Follow the epic and intense journey of General Nanisca (Oscar® winner VIOLA DAVIS; 2016, Best Supporting Actress, Fences) as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life. 

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Have a great day,

Linda Reimer, SSC Library