Book Club I
All Book Club I articles are collected here.
Book Club I in JuneEvent Date:The UMRA Book Club will discuss The Great River by Boyce Upton when it meets via Zoom on June 20. More... |
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Book Notes | ‘The Frozen River’Event Date: Author Ariel Lawhon's book of historical fiction is based on the real life of Martha Ballard, a midwife and healer in 1789 colonial Maine. Members of the UMRA Book Club liked the first-person narrative with Martha telling the story. Also, the descriptions of the woods and landscape, the Ballard mill, and the Kennebec River. It is a good read. More... |
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Book Notes | ‘Random Family’Event Date: Author Adrian Nicole LeBlanc spent 10 years hanging out in the Bronx with one loosely defined family, while she tracked its fate. Most UMRA Book Club members thought LeBlanc’s “unflinching documentary” provided more questions than answers. More... |
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Book Notes | ‘Good Night, Irene’Event Date: Luis Alberto Urrea’s historical novel about the Red Cross Clubmobile women who served in Europe during World War II is based on the experiences of his mother, who joined the service in 1943. More... |
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Book Notes | ‘A Walk in the Woods’Event Date: Author Bill Bryson describes his experience hiking the Appalachian Trail with Stephen Katz, a childhood friend from Iowa. The Appalachian Trail is 2,100 miles long and traverses 14 states, from Georgia to Maine. Bryson's commentary is done with accuracy, environmental consciousness, and hilarious wit and humor. More... |
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Book Notes | ‘Tom Lake’Event Date: 'Tom Lake' by Ann Patchett is set in the early summer of 2020 at a cherry orchard on the shores of Lake Michigan, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the three daughters of the main character have returned home to help with the harvest. More... |
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Book Club I in DecemberEvent Date:Planning meeting for 2025. More... |
Book Notes | ‘A Fever in the Heartland’Event Date: This riveting story of the Ku Klux Klan’s reemergence in the 1920s, particularly in the Midwest, has many parallels with today. Members of UMRA’s Book Club were surprised to learn of the Klan’s phenomenal rise and control over the North in the ’20s. They agreed that there are differences today but that there is still much to be done. More... |
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Book Club I October: Should We Stay or Should We GoEvent Date:Should We Stay or Should We Go by Lionel Shriver. More... |
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Book Notes | Reckoning with historyEvent Date: Emily Strasser's memoir, published in 2023, is about the work at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a secret city for 70,000 people constructed in 1942–43 as part of the Manhattan Project for developing the atomic bomb. Her grandfather George Strasser was a chemist at Oak Ridge, and members UMRA's Book Club I agreed the author’s family stories made the book meaningful. More... |
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Book Notes | ‘The Bookbinder’ by Pip WilliamsEvent Date: The story takes place in Oxford, England, between 1914 and 1920. As men are sent to the continent to fight in the Great War, women in England work to keep the nation going. Peggy and Maude are twin sisters who work together binding books for the Oxford University Press. More... |
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How Stella Learned to TalkEvent Date:Laura Ericksen will lead the discussion of How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger, a true story by a speech-language pathologist who taught her dog, Stella, to communicate using buttons associated with different words. More... |
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Book Notes | ‘Scoop’ by Evelyn WaughEvent Date: Named “one of the 1,000 novels everyone should read” by the Guardian newspaper, Evelyn Waugh’s satirical portrayal of foreign correspondents and British journalism in the 19th century drew mixed reviews from members of UMRA’s Book Club I. More... |
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Book Notes | ‘Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law’Event Date: Author Mary Roach has gone around the world to collect stories of animal behavior that has come into conflict with humans and to describe the measures that humans have taken to reach compromises to allow the animals and humans to live in harmony. She is a superb researcher and has a witty way of writing. More... |
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Book Notes | ‘The Scarlet Letter’Event Date: Set in the 1600s in a small town in Puritan New England, 'The Scarlet Letter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story of sin, cowardice, and survival. Members of the UMRA Book Club found the writing to be laborious, riddled with many words no longer in use, and wondered why the novel was on high school reading lists. More... |
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