Hi everyone, here are the after meeting notes for our January & February 2025 gatherings!

SSC Library After Book Club Notes: January 2025: 

Our January book club gathering was held at the library on Friday, January 10.   

Our January Read was Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman  

Help Wanted relays the story of a group of workers, mostly part-time, who work a middle-of-the-night shift unloading the daily supply truck at a big box store. The store, Town Square, a stand-in for one’s local Walmart or Target, is located in the fictional town of Potterstown, N.Y.  

The managerial team for the work crew consists of shift manager Meredith, who owes thousands of dollars in student loans, is a self-centered individual whose people skills are sadly lacking, and who rubs workers the wrong way nearly every time she speaks. Little Will, the department supervisor, a discouraged former high school hockey star who previously worked in his family’s carpet and tile store, before it went out of business during the 2008 financial crisis and who has a second job landscaping; and Big Will the store manager, who believes the store has gone down-hill in recent years due to staffing cuts, outdated inventory software and the explosion of internet sales.  

The work crew is known as “Team Movement,” and consists of part-time employees who are struggling to make ends meet and would like to be promoted to full-time positions but most of whom don’t get that opportunity. The employees include Nicole, who at the beginning of the novel is lamenting the fact that she isn’t able to access the credit on her daughter’s food stamps card due to a technical glitch and who doesn’t have enough money to take her work clothes to the laundromat several times a week to wash them; the hardworking Ruby who has a son in prison, was denied time off to go visit him, who has difficulty reading and would like to get promoted to fulltime but can’t without having the college degree she lacks; Joyce an ethical married senior who tells it like she sees it; the tempestuous Milo, the “thrower” for the group, who tosses items directly from the truck to co-workers to sort; Raymond who lives with his girlfriend in his mother’s basement and whose throat hurts him but he doesn’t initially get it checked out due to a lack of medical coverage and later discovers he has Lyme disease; and Val the leader behind the unofficial worker’s group who, when they discover the store manager position is opening up, promotes the idea of praising the much disliked Meredith to the rafters during the employee feedback interviews with upper level management, so that Meredith gets promoted to Big Will’s job and is then, hopefully, replaced by a member of the Team Movement group.  

In the end, the “Promote Meredith to Store Manager” plan is derailed, not by Milo, who readers initially think sunk the promotion by letting it slip that Meredith offered members of Team Movement caffeine pills during a shift; but, as temporary worker Callie discovers, later in the book, when she overhears departing store manager Big Will on his cell phone in the parking lot; by Big Will himself who in the end couldn’t stand by and let Meredith, who he doesn’t think would be a good fit as store manager due to her poor people skills, get promoted.  

The book ends with Meredith’s competition for the store manager position, Anita, landing the store manager job, Meredith leaving to take a job at another store, and Team Movement getting ready to unload yet another truck.  

So, the story really is a slice of life tale, chronicling the lives of the Team Movement crew and their three hierarchical supervisors during a period in their lives, while also illustrating the challenges entry level & low level workers have in making ends meet, and in just getting through life without a good paying job with benefits; while additionally illustrating that coveted full-time jobs are few and far between in the retail world.  

Most of our book club members didn’t care for the book. The feedback was that the character development could have been better, the story felt a bit disjointed, it wasn’t an uplifting tale, and for those who have worked in retail themselves it was an unwelcome reminder of the difficulties presented to those who work in retail sales.  

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January Book Club Members Enjoyed The Following Books/Videos between book club gatherings (titles are books, unless otherwise noted): 

The Case For God (2009) by Karen Armstrong:  

Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable? Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors? 

Answering these questions with the same depth of knowledge and profound insight that have marked all her acclaimed books, Armstrong makes clear how the changing face of the world has necessarily changed the importance of religion at both the societal and the individual level. And she makes a powerful, convincing argument for drawing on the insights of the past in order to build a faith that speaks to the needs of our dangerously polarized age. Yet she cautions us that religion was never supposed to provide answers that lie within the competence of human reason; that, she says, is the role of logos. The task of religion is “to help us live creatively, peacefully, and even joyously with realities for which there are no easy explanations”. She emphasizes, too, that religion will not work automatically. It is, she says, a practical discipline: Its insights are derived not from abstract speculation but from “dedicated intellectual endeavor” and a “compassionate lifestyle that enables us to break out of the prism of selfhood”. 

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A Complete Unknown (2024) (Movie): In 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. – Internet Movie Database; based on the book Dylan Goes Electric by Elijah Wald 

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Parable Sower (1993) by Octavia Butler: When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others’ emotions. 

Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny. 

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Like Mother, Like Mother: A Novel (2024) by Susan Rieger: Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Three decades later, having mustered everything she has—brains, charm, talent, blond hair—Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila unapologetically prioritizes her career, leaving the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. He doesn’t mind—until he does. 
 
But Grace, their youngest daughter, feels abandoned. She wishes her mother would attend PTA meetings, not White House correspondents’ dinners. As she grows up, she cannot shake her resentment. She wants out from under Lila’s shadow, yet the more she resists, the more Lila seems to shape her life. Grace becomes a successful reporter, even publishing a bestselling book about her mother. In the process of writing it, she realizes how little she knows about her own family. Did Lila’s mother, Grace’s grandmother, die in that asylum? Is refusal to look back the only way to create a future? How can you ever be yourself, Grace wonders, if you don’t know where you came from? 
 
Spanning generations, and populated by complex, unforgettable characters, Like Mother, Like Mother is an exhilarating, portrait of family, marriage, ambition, power, the stories we inherit, and the lies we tell to become the people we believe we’re meant to be. 

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The Three Weissmanns of Westport (2010) by Cathline Schine 

Jane Austen’s beloved Sense and Sensibility has moved to Westport, Connecticut, in this enchanting modern-day homage to the classic novel 

When Joseph Weissmann divorced his wife, he was seventy eight years old and she was seventy-five . . . He said the words “Irreconcilable differences,” and saw real confusion in his wife’s eyes. 

“Irreconcilable differences?” she said. “Of course there are irreconcilable differences. What on earth does that have to do with divorce?” 

Thus begins The Three Weissmanns of Westport, a sparkling contemporary adaptation of Sense and Sensibility from the always winning Cathleen Schine, who has already been crowned “a modern-day Jewish Jane Austen” by People’s Leah Rozen. 

In Schine’s story, sisters Miranda, an impulsive but successful literary agent, and Annie, a pragmatic library director, quite unexpectedly find themselves the middle-aged products of a broken home. Dumped by her husband of nearly fifty years and then exiled from their elegant New York apartment by his mistress, Betty is forced to move to a small, run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. Joining her are Miranda and Annie, who dutifully comes along to keep an eye on her capricious mother and sister. As the sisters mingle with the suburban aristocracy, love starts to blossom for both of them, and they find themselves struggling with the dueling demands of reason and romance. 

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SSC Library After Book Club Notes: February 2025: 

Our February 2025 Read was The Women by Kristin Hannah. 

The aptly titled novel The Women, chronicles the experiences of Frances “Frankie” McGrath.  Frankie is the daughter of an affluent family living on the coast in California and is a twenty-year-old nursing student.  

As the novel opens, Frankie is at a part being thrown by her parents for her older brother Finn, who is about to leave to serve a tour of duty in Vietnam.  While getting away from the guests at the party, and looking at her father’s honor wall, full of photos of male members of the family who have served in the military. Frankie encounters her brother’s friend and fellow solider-to-be Rye Walsh who tells her that women can be heroes too. Frankie is then inspired to finish her nursing training and volunteer to serve as a nurse in Vietnam.  

As soon as she completes her nursing degree, the idealistic Frankie signs up to be an army nurse, becoming Second Lieutenant Frances McGrath with a tour of duty in front of her. She goes home and tells her parents she is going to serve, expecting them to be proud, and instead they are alarmed and ashamed; and their conversation regarding her service is interrupted by a telegram informing them Finn has been killed in action.  

Once she gets to Vietnam, Frankie, who is a complete novice as a combat nurse, is thrown from the proverbial frying pan into the fire very quickly. She arrives at the base where she’ll be serving and is shocked when she sees the reality of war in the form of the first batch of wounded soldiers that arrive shortly thereafter.  

At first Frankie thinks she can’t work as an army nurse, it is too intense and frightening, but eventually, and with the help of her two sister nurses, Barb Johnson and Ethel Flint, she becomes a hardened combat nurse. While working in Vietnam she meets and falls in love with a married surgeon named Jamie Callahan. Jamie is honest about being unhappily married and the two realize their love for each other but are never intimate.  Jamie is later severely wounded and transported out of the base hospital on a helicopter to get more in-depth medical care. Frankie assumes that Jamie has died, signs up for and serves a second tour of duty and gets involved with her late brother’s friend Rye, who lies to Frankie telling her that is no longer engaged.  

Eventually Frankie finished her second tour and goes home. And when she gets home Frankie realizes that neither the public nor her parents want to discuss the Vietnam War; and that conventional thinking of the time held that the military service of women, even combat nurses, didn’t count. To add insult to that injury, her parents didn’t even tell any of their circle of family or friends that Frankie was in Vietnam, they put out the false story that she was studying in Italy because they were ashamed of her service.  

The rest of the book chronicles Frankie’s difficulty in adjusting to civilian life after the war; dealing with her post-traumatic-stress disorder, with the help of her sister nurses Barb and Ethel but receiving no help at all from her family or the veteran’s administration.  

Frankie tries to ignore her PTSD symptoms, and carry on with life even getting engaged to a kind psychiatrist named Henry, but finds that her PTSD lingers just under the surface and comes forcefully to the foreground upending her life, when major emotional events occur in her life; as when she suffers a miscarriage and after she resumes a relationship with Rye Walsh, who she eventually discovers did not die in Vietnam as she was told, but instead was a prisoner of war; and later realizes, while covering a nursing shift at a local hospital, that Rye has lied to her yet again and hasn’t left his wife, but instead has just had a second child with her.  

In the aftermath of the shattering realization that Rye-was-being-a-lying-cad again, Frankie is involved in a car accident during which she almost hits a bicyclist; and then she makes a half-hearted suicide attempt and finally hits rock bottom.  She wakes up in a psych ward at an inpatient therapeutic drug and alcohol treatment facility, having been admitted by her mother. She is confined there for eight weeks while she receives counseling and starts the slow ascent back to being able to function and live life again.  

In the aftermath of her initial counseling, Frankie becomes empowered. She decides she needs to move away from the cottage her parents bought for her in their neighborhood and move somewhere less populated. She sells the cottage and Barb flies in to take a discovery road trip with her, as she looks for a new place to live. The duo drives up the coast and then turns eastward, eventually winding up in in the small town of Missoula, Montana. The rural area is quiet and features stunning natural views. As they drive to the outskirts of the town, they find a sign indicating 27 acres are for sale – and Frankie knows she has found her home.  

In the last chapter of the book, readers discover time has moved on, it is 1982. Frankie bought the 27 acres of land and has recovered and regained control of her life. She went to school and obtained a degree in clinical psychology and opened a counseling ranch, named The Last Best Place, for other female veterans. Frankie even created her own “Hero’s Wall,” showing photos of women who served in Vietnam.  

And Frankie has just received an invitation to the unveiling of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Frankie goes to the memorial unveiling with Barb and Ethel, and runs into three people she doesn’t expect to see; her parents, who despite the pain over losing Finn surprised her and made the trip; and Jamie Callahan, her first love, the surgeon she thought died in Vietnam all those years before, but who had in fact survived and is now divorced. Frankie and Jamie talk while clinging to each other beside the memorial, and the story fads to black as they used to say about the movies.  

And then, fittingly, turning the last page of the book, readers see a photo of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial which was dedicated in 1993.   

The general book club consensus was that The Woman was a good-to-great read, telling a story that needs-to-be told, of the women, who served during the Vietnam War. Comment was made that some of the characters, Frankie and Finn’s parents for example, could have been fleshed out a bit more – but even so, this book got a “thumbs-up-read-it” score.  

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February Book Club Members Enjoyed The Following Books/Videos between book club gatherings (titles are books, unless otherwise noted): 

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife: A Novel (2024) by Anna Johnston: A zany case of mistaken identity allows a lonely old man one last chance to be part of a family. 

“Would you mind terribly, old boy, if I borrowed the rest of your life? I promise I’ll take excellent care of it.” 

Frederick Fifewas born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is, at age eighty-two, there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from, and he’s broke and on the brink of eviction. But Fred’s luck changes when he’s mistaken for Bernard Greer, a missing resident at the local nursing home, and takes his place. Now Fred has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his look-alike Bernard never turns up.  

Denise Simms is stuck breathing the same disappointing air again and again. A middle-aged mom and caregiver at Bernard’s facility, her crumbling marriage and daughter’s health concerns are suffocating her joy for life. Wounded by her two-faced husband, she vows never to let a man deceive her again. 

As Fred walks in Bernard’s shoes, he leaves a trail of kindness behind him, fueling Denise’s suspicions about his true identity. When unexpected truths are revealed, Fred and Denise rediscover their sense of purpose and learn how to return a broken life to mint condition.  

Bittersweet and remarkably perceptive, The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife is a hilarious, feel-good, clever novel about grief, forgiveness, redemption, and finding family.  

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The Burning (2024) by Linda Castillo: When two members of the Painters Mill, OH, police force hear screams in the woods, they find a body still on fire. Police Chief Kate Burkholder investigates the victim’s past, learning that Milan Swanz was Amish but had been excommunicated after he was given numerous chances to change his ways. Rumors of fallen men called schwertlers go back over 70 years, but the stories of the past remind Kate of the victim, who was burned at the stake. Kate is caught between unfounded legends, the area’s Amish community, which is reluctant to report crimes or speak ill of the dead, and her law enforcement colleagues who feel she is protecting the perpetrator of the murder. When her brother becomes a suspect, Kate is sidelined but continues to investigate. While she’s threatened and viciously attacked, her husband, Tomasetti, and her small team continue to support her. VERDICT The 16th Kate Burkholder mystery (following An Evil Heart) is another riveting police procedural. Despite the violence and some graphic, gruesome details, fans will be eager for the latest well-developed mystery set in Ohio’s Amish country. -Starred Library Journal Review   

Reader’s Note: The Burning is the sixteenth book in the Kate Burkholder series. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, book one is:  

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Creation Lake (2024) by Rachel Kushner:  

Note: Even though this book received a starred review, the book club member who read it gave it a thumbs down review – just FYI! 

The Plot: An undercover agent embeds with radical French environmentalists in this scintillating story of activism and espionage from Kushner (The Mars Room). 

Sadie Smith, a former FBI agent who lost her job after she was accused of entrapment, takes an assignment from unidentified contacts in the private sector. Her mission is to infiltrate the subversive commune Le Moulin, which is led by activist Pascal Balmy and is suspected of having destroyed a set of excavators at a reservoir construction site. Le Moulin’s ideas derive from their elderly mentor, Bruno Lacombe, who has spent the past 12 years living in caves. Bruno emerges from time to time to communicate with the group by email, but none of the characters see him in person. In Paris, Sadie seduces a filmmaker friend of Pascal’s to secure an introduction to him. Kushner intersperses Sadie’s tale with Bruno’s colorful claims, such as the alleged superiority of the Neanderthals (their square jaw was a “sunk cost”) and the existence of mythological creatures like Bigfoot (“We are not alone”). Eventually, Sadie learns of the group’s plans to protest a local fair, and she 

approaches the conclusion of her assignment with alarming amorality. Most of the narrative is dedicated to the activists’ philosophizing and Sadie’s gimlet-eyed observations, which Kushner magically weaves together (“People tell themselves, strenuously, that they believe in this or that political position,” Sadie muses. “But the deeper motivation for their rhetoric… is to shore up their own identity”). Readers will be captivated. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review  

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Donegal Generations (2013) by Tom Gallen: Donegal Generations is an entertaining piece of historical fiction that follows various men as they describe their lives in rural Ireland during the 1700s and 1800s. Encompassing a lighthearted attitude, this gripping novel crafts captivating stories that hook readers from the very beginning. Offering engaging stories on family, courtship, and adversity that are impossible to put down, this wonderful novel is a unique glimpse into life in rural Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Through three successive generations of Irish families, three men will discuss their lives, childhood, religion, superstitions, and courtships in eighteenth and nineteenth century Ireland. Each man documents his struggle with the land, landlords, and an oppressive government. Each also encounters a mysterious woman who inhabits a hidden spring. Their stories offer a glimpse into life during these times. Patrick must overcome a rival suitor for his intended bride. Later, he does his best to control a secret society formed by his neighbors that threatens and terrorizes their tyrannical landlord. His son, James, is involved in plotting the murder of a man suspected of killing a loved one. James’s journey will take him down a spiritual path as he tries to provide for his family. Finally, Charles’s story finds a man working to overcome alcoholism and the great potato famine before immigrating to America to find work in the textile industry. Using subsequent generations of Irish men to tell touching stories that are unique to the times, this one-of-a-kind book takes readers on an exciting journey through a difficult time in Irish history. Inspired by his own genealogical research, author Tom Gallen decided to use this newfound information to craft a story about how his ancestors lived before and during the great potato famine. Using the history of the locales in the novel, Gallen incorporated his findings into Ireland’s rich backstory to create a truly fulfilling and entertaining work of historical fiction. Uniquely using the personal perspective of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in a present tense and first-person style, Donegal Generations is an approachable and mesmerizing work of fiction that will stay with readers long after they’ve finished the final page.  

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Escape From Germany (2024) (Movie): 1939, Hitler’s army was closing borders, and eighty-five American missionaries were in Germany serving their church. The escape of these missionaries from Nazi Germany is one of the most dramatic events to occur in modern church history. – IMDB 

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Mad Honey (2024) by Jodi Picoult: Picoult joins forces with novelist and transgender activist Boylan (Long Black Veil) for a spellbinding yarn involving a teen’s trial for murder. Beekeeper Olivia McAfee fled her abusive husband in Boston for New Hampshire with her six-year-old son, Asher. Twelve years later, Asher is charged with murdering his high school girlfriend, Lily, a newcomer to town. The story unfolds from Olivia and Lily’s viewpoints (Lily’s before the murder), and centers on the budding relationship between Asher and Lily and the subsequent court case against Asher, who is represented by Olivia’s older brother, Jordan, a high-profile defense attorney who has appeared in previous Picoult novels. Both teens have troubled relationships with their fathers, and the authors painstakingly explore the impact of physically and emotionally abusive men on their families. After a big reveal in the second half, the canvas stretches to include a primer on transgender issues, and the shift is mostly seamless though sometimes didactic. More successful is the atmospheric texture provided with depictions of Olivia harvesting honey and the art of beekeeping, and the riveting trial drama. Overall, it’s a fruitful collaboration. – Publishers Weekly Review   

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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (2001, with a 2021 anniversary edition) by Barbara Ehrenreich: In contrast to recent books by Michael Lewis and Dinesh D’Souza that explore the lives and psyches of the New Economy’s millionares, Ehrenreich (Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, etc.) turns her gimlet eye on the view from the workforce’s bottom rung. Determined to find out how anyone could make ends meet on $7 an hour, she left behind her middle class life as a journalist—except for $1000 in start-up funds, a car and her laptop computer—to try to sustain herself as a low-skilled worker for a month at a time. In 1999 and 2000, Ehrenreich worked as a waitress in Key West, Fla., as a cleaning woman and a nursing home aide in Portland, Maine, and in a Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, Minn. During the application process, she faced routine drug tests and spurious “personality tests”; once on the job, she endured constant surveillance and numbing harangues over infractions like serving a second roll and butter. Beset by transportation costs and high rents, she learned the tricks of the trade from her co-workers, some of whom sleep in their cars, and many of whom work when they’re vexed by arthritis, back pain or worse, yet still manage small gestures of kindness. Despite the advantages of her race, education, good health and lack of children, Ehrenreich’s income barely covered her month’s expenses in only one instance, when she worked seven days a week at two jobs (one of which provided free meals) during the off-season in a vacation town. Delivering a fast read that’s both sobering and sassy, she gives readers pause about those caught in the economy’s undertow, even in good times. – Publishers Weekly Review   

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North Woods (2023) by Daniel Mason: A young couple escapes their colonial Massachusetts colony and runs for seven days before being free from pursuit. Finding fertile land, they establish a homestead, plant a garden, and start a family. That origin story and its biblical themes presage the ambitious task Mason (A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth, 2020) sets for himself as this land and home serve as a through line for centuries of occupants in this magisterial mosaic. Apples are a core symbol for Mason. When a violent attacker is felled by an axe, an apple seed takes root, “a shoot rises, thickens, seeks the bars of light above it, gently parts the fifth and sixth ribs that once guarded the dead man’s meager heart.” Subsequent tenants of the land include Charles Osgood, whose dream is to cultivate the perfect apple. Osgood’s Wonder becomes a sought-after variety. Long after Osgood has gone to soil, his twin daughters maintain the orchard well into spinsterhood. Years later, a little-known painter finds solitude on the homestead, but his heart is asunder, hiding an illicit love until his nurse provides him with the courage to finally express his yearnings. Other inhabitants reinforce the dual nature of the human condition, simultaneously serving as minuscule collections of molecules against the inevitable march of time while also contributing to a collective, quasi-supernatural consciousness. Truly triumphant. – Starred Booklist Review  

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Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa (2010) by Immaculée Ilibagiza:  

“No matter what your race, religion, political affiliation, or personal belief system, you will be inspired by Our Lady of Kibeho—a true story of the power of faith and the great potential of forgiveness.”— John Fund, columnist for The Wall Street Journal 

Thirteen years before the bloody 1994 genocide that swept across Rwanda and left more than a million people dead, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ appeared to eight young people in the remote village of Kibeho. Through these visionaries, Mary and Jesus warned of the looming holocaust, which they assured could be averted if Rwandans opened their hearts to God and embraced His love. 

Much like what happened at similar sites such as Fátima and Lourdes, the messengers of Kibeho were at first mocked and disbelieved. But as miracle after miracle occurred in the tiny village, tens of thousands of Rwandans journeyed to Kibeho to behold the apparitions. For years, countless onlookers watched as the Mother and Son of God spoke through the eight seers about God’s love, sending messages that they insisted were meant not only for Rwandans, but for the entire world, to hear. Mary also sent messages to government and church leaders to instruct them how to end the ethnic hatred simmering in their country. She warned them that Rwanda would become “a river of blood” —a land of unspeakable carnage —if the hatred of the people was not quickly quelled by love. 

Some leaders listened, but very few believed: the prophetic and apocalyptic warnings tragically came true during 100 horrifying days of savage bloodletting and mass murder. After the genocide, and two decades of rigorous investigation, Our Lady of Kibeho became the first and only Vatican-approved Marian (that is, related to the Virgin Mary) site in all of Africa. But the story still remains largely unknown. 

Now, Immaculée Ilibagiza plans to change all that. She made many pilgrimages to Kibeho both before and after the holocaust, personally witnessed true miracles, and spoke with a number of the visionaries themselves. What she’s discovered will deeply touch your heart. 

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Recipes for a Beautiful Life: A Memoir in Stories (2015) by Rebecca Barry: Writing with a delicate balance of humor and truth, critically acclaimed author Rebecca Barry reflects on motherhood, work, and marriage in her new memoir about trying to build a creative life. 
 
When Rebecca Barry and her husband moved to upstate New York to start their family, they wanted to be surrounded by natural beauty but close to a small urban center, doing work they loved, and plenty of time to spend with their kids. But living their dreams turned out not to be so simple: the lovely old house they bought had lots of character but also needed lots of repairs, they struggled to stay afloat financially, their children refused to sleep or play quietly, and the novel Rebecca had dreamed of writing simply wouldn’t come to her. 
 
Recipes for a Beautiful Life blends heartwarming, funny, authentically told stories about the messiness of family life, a fearless examination of the anxieties of creative work, and sharp-eyed observations of the pressures that all women face. This is a story of a woman confronting her deepest fears: What if I’m a terrible mother? What if I’m not good at the work I love? What if my children never eat anything but peanut butter and cake? What if I go to sleep angry? It’s also a story of the beauty, light, and humor that’s around us, all the time—even when things look bleak, and using that to find your way back to your heart.  
 
Mostly, though, it is about the journey to building not just a beautiful life, but a creative one.  

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The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world. 

As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.” 

As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.” 

Robin Wall Kimmerer is donating her advance payments from this book as a reciprocal gift, back to the land, for land protection, restoration, and justice. 

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Sonny Boy: A Memoir (2024) by Al Pacino: From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full 

To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force. 

But Pacino was in his midthirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York’s fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe. 

Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions—the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.  

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True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between (2021) by Gretchen Whitmer: From trailblazing Michigan governor, Democratic leader, and national advocate for women’s rights, Gretchen Whitmer, comes an unconventional and deeply personal account of her life and career—“Not your nana’s ponderous political memoir” (New York magazine)—offering insights into her leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic, her fight against domestic terrorism threats, and her resilience in the face of extraordinary challenges. 

When Gretchen Whitmer was growing up, her beloved grandmother Nino taught her that you can always find something good in other people. “Even the meanest person might have pretty eyes,” she would say. Nino’s words persuaded Whitmer to look for the good in any person or situation—just one of many colorful personal experiences that have shaped her political vision. (And, as Whitmer writes, one that resonated more than another piece of advice her grandmother offered, to “never part your hair in the middle.”) 

In this candid and inspiring book, Whitmer reveals the principles and instincts that have shaped her extraordinary career, from her early days as a lawyer and legislator and her 2018 election as governor of Michigan, to her bold and innovative actions as she led the state through a series of unprecedented crises. Her motto in politics, she writes, is to “get shit done.” 

Whitmer shares the lessons in resilience that steered her through some of the most challenging events in Michigan’s history, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, a five-hundred-year flood, the rise of domestic terrorism, and the fierce fight to protect reproductive rights. 

Along the way, she tells stories about the outsize characters in her family, her lifelong clumsy streak, the wild comments she’s heard on the campaign trail, her self-deprecating social media campaigns (including her star turn as a talking potato with lipstick), and the slyly funny tactics she deploys to neutralize her opponents. 

Written with Whitmer’s trademark sense of humor and straight-shooting style, True Gretch is not only a compelling account of her remarkable journey, but also “welcome reassurance that someone might be courageous and capable enough to run toward the fire” (The Washington Post)—a blueprint for anyone who wants to make a difference in their community, their country, or the world. It is a testament to the power of humor, perseverance, and compassion in the face of darkness. 

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West with Giraffes: A Novel (2021) by Lynda Rutledge:  

An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America. 

“Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…” 

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. 

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes. 

Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late. 

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Looking forward to March, our read will be: Life After Power: Seven Presidents And Their Search for Purpose Beyond The White House by Jared Cohen. The book is 332 pages with notes and copies are available at the Circulation Desk. And if you can’t get a copy, let me know and I’ll send one to you.

Our March 2025 gathering will be held at the library on Friday, March 14, 2025, from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Have a great day everyone!

Linda Reimer, SSCL