Books are chosen from best-seller lists and favorable reviews.  Members pay a fee and rotate ten books, one each month, keeping the last book.  For further information, email Andrea Green

The selections for 2021-2222 will be:

Fiction

Eternal, by Lisa Scottoline (480 pages)

A World War II historical novel that takes place in Rome, the Eternal City. The prologue of the story starts in 1957 when the character Elisabetta decides it is time to tell her thirteen-year-old son who his father really was. She must also explain why she hid the truth from him until he was old enough. Elisabetta knows she must come to grips with the incidents that shaped her youth during the Ventennio, which was the twenty years of Mussolini’s rule, and during World War II before she can explain these things to her son.

Firekeeper’s Daughter, by Angela Boulley (496 pages)

As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. Daunis dreams of studying medicine, but when her family is struck by tragedy, she puts her future on hold to care for her fragile mother.

Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into the heart of a criminal investigation.

Now, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Ojibwe woman and how far she’ll go to protect her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, by Kelli Estes (390 pages)

Historical novel that takes place in the Pacific Northwest in both the present and the 1880’s.  It’s the story of a Chinese girl whose history is embroidered on silk. Inara Erickson, in the present day, inherits a home where she finds a silk sleeve that was hidden away for decades.  With the help of a college professor, she discovers secrets hidden in the cloth that link her life with the girl’s.The richness of cultures, traditions, family love, and history are woven into a beautiful story.

Authenticity Project, by Clare Pooley (384 pages)

The story of a solitary green notebook that brings together six strangers and leads to unexpected friendship, and even love.

The Girl With The Louding Voice, by Abi Dare ( 371 pages)

The unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself: a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power of fighting for your dreams.

While Justice Sleeps, by Stacey Abrams (384 pages)

From celebrated national leader and bestselling author Stacey Abrams, a gripping thriller set within the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court—where a young law clerk finds herself embroiled in a shocking mystery plotted by one of the most preeminent judges in America.

Non-Fiction

In Case You Get Hit by a Bus, by Abby Schniederman and Adam Seifer ( 244 pages)

No one plans on getting hit by a bus and the chances of it actually happening are pretty slim, but that’s’s the point of this handy book: to plan for the unexpected. Sudden illness, injury, or even death leaves a lot of work in the hands of loved ones, but you can make it easier for them by organizing the essentials now.  A must-have for anyone who could use a little guidance – or a kick in the pants- to get their affairs in order.

On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon-Reed (152 pages)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian interweaves her personal, trailblazing history with that of her home state to pierce many of the false narratives we learned as children about the country’s treatment of African Americans. To understand what happened on June 19, 1865, when African Americans in Texas first learned of their freedom — more than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation — one needs to understand the Lone Star State, and Gordon-Reed offers a timely history lesson. She does so with beautiful prose, breathtaking stories and painful memories. Like the story of Juneteenth itself, the history she tells is one of yarns woven, dark truths glossed over and freedom delayed.

(The two books above will pass together one month.)

The Code Breaker

Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing and Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson (536 pages)

A biography of CRISPR technology and a detailed story of how it was discovered from fascinating and complicated collaborations between numerous great scientists. The story of CRISPR is not done yet.

The research is still ongoing and very much alive. This technology is promising us A Brave New World of genetic editing. It’s both captivating and terrifying for its multifaceted possibilities.

Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World, by Vaclav Smil ( 368 pages)

Numbers Don’t Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren’t as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit–all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics inspiring readers to interrogate what they take to be true.

The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line, by Major General Mari Eder (400 pages)

Takes you inside the lives and experiences of 15 unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation, the women who served, fought, struggled, and made things happen during WWII―in and out of uniform, for theirs is a legacy destined to embolden generations of women to come.

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, by Michael Lewis (304 pages)

For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.