UMRA Book Club I

The UMRA Book Club has been meeting regularly since March of 2011. We meet at 2 p.m. on the third Friday of every month at the 1666 Coffman Building on Larpenteur Avenue near the St. Paul Campus. Presently we are meeting online via Zoom.

We are eclectic readers, our books being from all time periods, fiction and nonfiction, and from various genres. We plan our book schedule for the coming year at our December meeting.

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UMRA events.

Contact Pat Tollefson for more information ([email protected]). A list of all the books we have read is available from Pat as well.

The UMRA Book Club I is full at the present with a short waiting list. Contact us to get on the wait list. Or see Book Club II.

For Book Notes in addition to those from Book Club I (below), see the Book Notes page.

Upcoming Events

Book Club I in November

Event date: Nov 21, 2025 - 2:00 PM

Book Club I will discuss An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Book Club I in December

Event date: Dec 19, 2025 - 2:00 PM

Meeting to plan books for next year.

Book Notes

Book Notes | ‘The Cello Still Sings’

Event date: Oct 17, 2025 - 2:00 PM

Author Janet Horvath was the associate principal cello of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1980 until 2012. The thrust of this story is about the her journey to uncover her father’s depravations during World War II, when he was forcibly relocated to a labor camp along with thousands of other Hungarian Jews.

'West with the Night' by Beryl Markham, book cover

Book Notes | ‘West with the Night’

Event date: Sep 19, 2025 - 2:00 PM

Figurative language, including personifications of animals and inanimate objects, give "West with the Night," a memoir by Beryl Markham, a poetic quality. As Ernest Hemingway said, “…She can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers—it really is a bloody wonderful book.”