Book Club I
All Book Club I articles are collected here.
Book Notes | 'Nomadland'Event Date: For several years, journalist and author Jessica Bruder followed a group of retirees who lived in their vehicles, everything from small cars to worn out RVs, as they tried to piece together a subsistence lifestyle. Her book chronicles the challenges, the hardships, and the community these modern nomads created for themselves. More... |
|
Book Notes | A story of war and the valiant persons who risk their lives to help othersEvent Date: The story told by author Kristin Harmel in "The Book of Lost Names" is set in the Vichy area of France, where there was an underground network to help Jews and children escape to Switzerland during World War II. More... |
|
Book Notes | 'West with Giraffes'Event Date: At age 105, Woodrow Wilson Nickel is living in a nursing home. He decides he needs to write his life story, and what a story it is. It’s the story of a destitute young man during the Great Depression who found a reason to keep living against all odds: driving two giraffes from New York City to San Diego. More... |
|
Book Notes | This Tender LandEvent Date: This Tender Land is an epic coming-of-age story set in Minnesota during the summer of 1932. It chronicles a mesmerizing journey of four children who escape the horrors of the Lincoln Indian Training School and sneak away in a canoe in search of a home. More... |
|
Book Notes | The Personal LibrarianEvent Date: This historical novel tells a compelling story about the archivist and librarian who developed the Pierpont Morgan Library into a world-class collection in the early 20th century and kept secret her African American heritage her whole professional life. More... |
|
Book Notes | 'Hamnet'Event Date: Most members of the UMRA Book Club liked this historical novel. Set in both the 1500s and the present, it tells the story of William and Agnes Shakespeare and their grief at losing a child. More... |
|
Book notes | Circling the SunEvent Date: This historical novel depicts the life of aviation pioneer Beryl Markham and the early decades of her extraordinary life growing up in Kenya. More... |
|
Book notes | Still LifeEvent Date: Several UMRA Book Club I members are avid fans of the Louise Penny books while for a few this was their first introduction to the mysteries set in Three Pines. More... |
|
Book notes | The Things They CarriedEvent Date: "The Things They Carried" is an exquisitely written collection of short stories by Minnesota-born author Tim O’Brien about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. More... |
|
Book Club I to meet May 20Event Date:Paula Knutzen will lead the discussion of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson when the UMRA Book Club I meets via Zoom on Friday, May 20. More... |
|
Book notes | Prairie FiresEvent Date: Caroline Fraser’s Pulitzer prize-winning book Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a meticulously researched biography of the much-loved author of the Little House books. More... |
|
Book notes | The Nickel BoysEvent Date: Colson Whitehead, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for The Underground Railroad, explores the horrors of a reformatory school in Florida in his subsequent novel, "The Nickel Boys." More... |
|
Book Club I to meet February 18, 2022Event Date:Laura Ericksen will lead the discussion of The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah when the UMRA Book Club I meets via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Friday, February 18. More... |
|
Book notes | Have You Seen Luis Velez?Event Date: This inspiring book by the prolific American author Catherine Ryan Hyde conveys a hopeful theme that also underlies her first novel, "Pay It Forward." More... |
|
Book notes | Braiding SweetgrassEvent Date: In Braiding Sweetgrass, author Robin Wall Kimmerer, a trained botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, shows how other living things like plants offer us lessons to live by. The culture of gratitude is a key theme. More... |
|