Event Summary

UMRA Summer Social — in person!

You are invited to an in-person, outdoor summer social and lunch at Como Lakeside Pavilion, 1360 Lexington Parkway N, St Paul. 

Lunch will be provided by Dock & Paddle restaurant at Como Lakeside Pavilion. There are five sandwich or main course salad options; all include a nonalcoholic beverage. The fee per person is $20.

The Pavilion is a covered, open-air, dining venue overlooking Lake Como. Please dress appropriately for the weather. Free parking is available in two adjacent lots, both with access off Lexington Parkway.

Questions may be directed to Bill Donohue at [email protected].

For the safety of all, this event will be for UMRA members and their guests who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by August 17. 

Register by August 10.

Book notes | Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Event Date: August 27, 2021, at 2:00 PM

More than a century after the timeframe of this tale of harrowing illness and intertwined heartbreak, the parallels with today’s COVID-19 pandemic and current wars struck Book Club II participants as eerie.

Book notes | The Last Tycoon

Event Date: June 25, 2021, at 2:00 PM

The Last Tycoon is a beautifully rendered story about the tension of a culture aspiring to creativity but dominated by cynicism, greed, and commercial imperatives.

Book notes | Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Event Date: June 23, 2021, at 2:00 PM

Of all the books by John Le Carré, this novel about secrets, lies, and shifting identities is regarded as the most entertaining.

Book notes | The Big Burn

Event Date: June 18, 2021, at 2:00 PM

The Big Burn is an educational, breathtaking story about the largest wildfire in U.S. history, the men whose heroic actions worked to save people and land, and President Teddy Roosevelt’s embattled efforts to “save America.”

Civil War Ancestors

Event Date: June 16, 2021, at 10:00 AM

In June 2021 I talked to the UMRA Family History Interest Group about how I documented the story of my great grandfather, George Swift, who joined the 3rd Minnesota Regiment at the start of the Civil War in 1861and returned to Minnesota four years later after serving as the drummer boy of the Ohio 69th Regiment.

Book notes | The Black Tulip

Event Date: May 28, 2021, at 2:00 PM

Although not as well-known as the author’s earlier novels The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas père is a beautifully crafted novel, rich in its telling with themes of love, courage, honesty, politics, and the destructive capacity of jealousy.

Tasting Minnesota wines with winemaker and enologist Drew Horton

UMRA’s late-afternoon workshop on July 20 will be a free wine tasting with U of M research winemaker and enologist Drew Horton. He will speak with us about how to properly taste wine, what it takes to breed wine grapes in Minnesota, and what U of M grapes are being used to make the best local wines today.

Book notes | Caste

Event Date: May 21, 2021, at 2:00 PM

Author Isabel Wilkerson weaves her experiences and those of others with fact and history to help the reader grasp the extensive impact the caste system has had, and continues to have, in India and the United States.

Book notes | Red Pill

Event Date: April 23, 2021, at 2:00 PM

There is plenty to deal with for the unnamed narrator of this contemporary novel, from ghosts and mystical rhetoric to politics.

Family History—preserving letters

Event Date: April 28, 2021, at 11:00 AM

The UMRA Family History Interest Group meeting on April 28, 2021 focused on Family Letters.

Book notes | The Color of Water

Event Date: April 16, 2021, at 2:00 PM

The Color of Water is James McBride’s tribute to his remarkable mother. He skillfully alternates chapters relating his life story growing up in New York City projects with chapters conveying his mother’s life, told in her voice.

Labor arbitration, police misconduct, and reform

Join us for UMRA A.M. on May 11 when Professor Stephen Befort, a national authority on labor and employment law, will talk about labor arbitration, with particular emphasis on police conduct cases and the potential effectiveness of proposed reforms.

UMRA Annual Meeting and Forum

Join us on Tuesday, May 25, by Zoom to elect board members and officers for the coming year. The Nominating Committee has recruited a slate of high-quality candidates to carry UMRA forward. The election will be followed by a forum with Regent Kendall J. Powell, who will conclude his two-year term as chair of the University’s governing board in June. 

Keeping your hands healthy and functional

How are your hands holding up as you age? Our May workshop presenter, Ann Van Heest, MD, is one of the U’s top hand experts. She will talk about what happens to the complex anatomy of our hands as we age.