Book Club II

The memoirs of Frederick Douglass

The Fourth Friday Book Club will meet from 2 to 3:30 p.m. CDT on October 27 to discuss the life and narrative of Frederick Douglass.

Fourth Friday Book Club to discuss classic short stories by Herman Melville

We will discuss three famous short stories by Herman Melville. These classics are widely available. Even if we have studied them before, we will surely have new insights into these well-told tales by this great 19th-century American author.

‘Beowulf’ is the FF Book Club selection for August 25

UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club recently read the Epic of Gilgamesh translation by Stephen Mitchell. Next up, for the group’s August 25 meeting, is Beowulf. One of the only Old English works to survive, it is a powerful story of unwavering integrity, heroism, and honor

‘Mrs. Dalloway’ is FF Book Club selection for July 14

In a departure from its regular schedule, UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club will be meeting on the THIRD Friday in July, to discuss Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway.

‘Gilgamesh: A New English Version’ is FF Book Club selection for May

Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh: A New English Version, published in 2004, has been acclaimed by scholars and critics alike as a lithe, muscular rendering of the epic of Gilgamesh, first published 5,000 years ago.

'Empire Falls' is Fourth Friday Book Club selection for April

UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club will meet April 28 to discuss Empire Falls by Richard Russo, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is a familiar story of shuttered factories, failed businesses, and a diminished civic and cultural community.

Fourth Friday Book Club to discuss Louise Erdrich’s debut novel

Members of UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club will discuss Minnesota-born author Louise Erdrich’s 1984 debut novel Love Medicine when they meet via Zoom in March. It is a story of love and survival, of the comic and the tragic.

Dystopian novel is FF Book Club selection for February

Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Orphan Master's Son is a dystopian novel set in North Korea that follows the misadventures of Jun Do, a North Korean everyman.

‘Red Notice’ is FF Book Club pick for January meeting

A well-told financial saga and crime thriller, Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice is the compelling memoir of an accidental activist.

Book Notes | ‘Being Mortal’

Event Date: December 2, 2022, at 2:00 PM

"Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" by Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, inspired a spirited and sometimes somber discussion by members of UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club about end-of-life health challenges.

Fourth Friday Book Club October meeting

The 19th-century novel Notes from the Underground is the selection for the meeting of UMRA's Fourth Friday Book Club on October 28.

Fourth Friday Book Club September meeting

The Russian classic Fathers and Sons is the selection for the Fourth Friday Book Club meeting in September.

Book notes | Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Event Date: July 22, 2022, at 2:00 PM

Members of UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club enjoyed a lively discussion of author Gail Honeyman’s prize-winning debut novel and what it reveals about the importance of friendship and care to the development of the quirky main character.

Fourth Friday Book Club to meet August 26

Where the Crawdads Sing is the selection for the Fourth Friday Book Club meeting on August 26 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. CDT via Zoom.

Book notes | Strangers in Their Own Land

Event Date: June 24, 2022, at 2:00 PM

On June 24, at the end of a week like no other (House Jan. 6 committee hearings, and Supreme Court decisions on gun control in New York and overturning Roe v. Wade), UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club had a deep and passionate discussion on Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild.