The Book Club meets on the first Monday of each month at 9:30 am in the SunRoom. We choose a book each month to discuss. These books are in the church library in the section with a yellow dot on the spine. To sign out a book, sign the card in the back of the book and place it in the BLACK BOX. Please return as soon as possible, so that others can read the book.
Whenever possible the book group has these books available in the library; look for the books with a yellow dot on the spine. To check out a book, put your name on the card in the back of the book and place it in the box on the shelf. Return the book when you are finished so that others may read it before the next meeting.
TLC Book Group Schedule for 2020-2021
October 2020: The Cross and The Lynching Tree by James Cone. Non-fiction/theology. The cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. Bishop Gonia has encouraged congregations to study systemic racism, so discussion of this book may be a first step. 202 pages.
November2020: Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Susan Ware. Non-fiction. Ware tells the story of women's fight for suffrage through the lives of 19 activists, most of whom have been overlooked. Through their stories she provides a fresh account of a significant moment of political mobilization in American history. An appropriate book for election month! 288 pages.
December 2020: The Plague by Albert Camus. Fiction. The Nobel prize-winning Albert Camus, who died in 1960, could not have known how grimly current his existentialist novel of epidemic and death would remain. Written in 1947 and set in Algeria, The Plague is a powerful study of human life and its meaning in the face of a deadly virus that sweeps through the city. 320 pages
January 2021: Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the U.S. by Lenny Duncan. Non-fiction. Formerly incarcerated, formerly homeless, and formerly unchurched, the author is now an ELCA pastor who believes that our denomination’s lack of vitality is because of its lack of diversity. 151pages.
February 2021: Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker. Non-fiction. Don and Mimi Galvin were raising a family of twelve children in Colorado Springs. By the mid-1970s, six of the boys were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? The Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institutes of Mental Health. 377 pages
March 2021: The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. Non-fiction. The author one of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard. Shortly after the 2016 election, she decided to write about undocumented immigrants, and she weaves her own story into her writing. She writes about workers in NY who did clean-up after 9/11; workers in Flint, MI who had to drink contaminated water; and workers who struggle as they get older. 172 pages
April 2021: Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. Non-fiction (history, sociology). Wilkerson's thesis is that the United States has a caste system in which people's place in society is determined permanently on the basis of skin color or ancestry. She compares the caste system in the United States with that in India and in Nazi Germany. 388 pages.
May 20021: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. Historical fiction. Set in Dorset, England on the Jurassic coast, the author weaves historical figures and actual events into an engaging account of real-life nineteenth century amateur scientists and fossil hunters, Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. These headstrong women changed the conventions of the time. 299 pages
June 2021: I, Eliza Hamilton by Susan Holloway Scott. Historical novel. Elizabeth Schuyler is the daughter of a respected general when she meets Alexander Hamilton, a charismatic, ambitious aide to George Washington. They marry, and Eliza is tested by public scandal, betrayal, personal heartbreak, and tragedy, but she remains Hamilton’s ally in life and his advocate after his death. 439 pages
July 2021: I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation by Chanequa Walker-Barnes, a clinical psychologist, minister and professor of practical theology. Non-fiction. This book is described as a new theological lens birthed from the margins of society by a woman of color that gives a more holistic approach to justice and racial healing. 231 pages
August 2021: Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit by Eliese Colette Goldbach. Biography. It is about a young woman working in a predominantly male staffed steel factory. She is also dealing with bipolar condition which is in the background of the setting, but not the dominant theme. 310 pages
September 2021: Because we will have six weeks between meetings, we have chosen two books, both of which deal with Nazi Germany. We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter is a novel based on a true story about a Jewish family (parents, three brothers and two sisters) who survived the holocaust in Poland. 403 pages.
The second book is Voices in The Night: The Prison Poems of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Editor & Translator Edwin Robertson. In the face of the horrors of the Nazi regime, the spirit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer burned its brightest. From his cell in Flossenburg Prison, here are the reflections of one of Christianity's most influential and convicting modern writers. 123 pages
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October (or combine with another month): The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell. Historical fiction. Set in 1913 Calumet, Michigan, twenty-five-year-old Annie Klobuchar Clements leads a strike against the largest copper mining company in the world. 334 pages.
November (or combine with another month): Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans. If the Bible isn't a science book or an instruction manual, then what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is inspired? When the author found herself asking these questions, she began a quest to better understand what the Bible is and how it is meant to be read.
Whenever possible the book group has these books available in the library; look for the books with a yellow dot on the spine. To check out a book, put your name on the card in the back of the book and place it in the box on the shelf. Return the book when you are finished so that others may read it before the next meeting.
TLC Book Group Schedule for 2020-2021
October 2020: The Cross and The Lynching Tree by James Cone. Non-fiction/theology. The cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. Bishop Gonia has encouraged congregations to study systemic racism, so discussion of this book may be a first step. 202 pages.
November2020: Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Susan Ware. Non-fiction. Ware tells the story of women's fight for suffrage through the lives of 19 activists, most of whom have been overlooked. Through their stories she provides a fresh account of a significant moment of political mobilization in American history. An appropriate book for election month! 288 pages.
December 2020: The Plague by Albert Camus. Fiction. The Nobel prize-winning Albert Camus, who died in 1960, could not have known how grimly current his existentialist novel of epidemic and death would remain. Written in 1947 and set in Algeria, The Plague is a powerful study of human life and its meaning in the face of a deadly virus that sweeps through the city. 320 pages
January 2021: Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the U.S. by Lenny Duncan. Non-fiction. Formerly incarcerated, formerly homeless, and formerly unchurched, the author is now an ELCA pastor who believes that our denomination’s lack of vitality is because of its lack of diversity. 151pages.
February 2021: Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker. Non-fiction. Don and Mimi Galvin were raising a family of twelve children in Colorado Springs. By the mid-1970s, six of the boys were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? The Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institutes of Mental Health. 377 pages
March 2021: The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. Non-fiction. The author one of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard. Shortly after the 2016 election, she decided to write about undocumented immigrants, and she weaves her own story into her writing. She writes about workers in NY who did clean-up after 9/11; workers in Flint, MI who had to drink contaminated water; and workers who struggle as they get older. 172 pages
April 2021: Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. Non-fiction (history, sociology). Wilkerson's thesis is that the United States has a caste system in which people's place in society is determined permanently on the basis of skin color or ancestry. She compares the caste system in the United States with that in India and in Nazi Germany. 388 pages.
May 20021: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. Historical fiction. Set in Dorset, England on the Jurassic coast, the author weaves historical figures and actual events into an engaging account of real-life nineteenth century amateur scientists and fossil hunters, Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. These headstrong women changed the conventions of the time. 299 pages
June 2021: I, Eliza Hamilton by Susan Holloway Scott. Historical novel. Elizabeth Schuyler is the daughter of a respected general when she meets Alexander Hamilton, a charismatic, ambitious aide to George Washington. They marry, and Eliza is tested by public scandal, betrayal, personal heartbreak, and tragedy, but she remains Hamilton’s ally in life and his advocate after his death. 439 pages
July 2021: I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation by Chanequa Walker-Barnes, a clinical psychologist, minister and professor of practical theology. Non-fiction. This book is described as a new theological lens birthed from the margins of society by a woman of color that gives a more holistic approach to justice and racial healing. 231 pages
August 2021: Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit by Eliese Colette Goldbach. Biography. It is about a young woman working in a predominantly male staffed steel factory. She is also dealing with bipolar condition which is in the background of the setting, but not the dominant theme. 310 pages
September 2021: Because we will have six weeks between meetings, we have chosen two books, both of which deal with Nazi Germany. We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter is a novel based on a true story about a Jewish family (parents, three brothers and two sisters) who survived the holocaust in Poland. 403 pages.
The second book is Voices in The Night: The Prison Poems of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Editor & Translator Edwin Robertson. In the face of the horrors of the Nazi regime, the spirit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer burned its brightest. From his cell in Flossenburg Prison, here are the reflections of one of Christianity's most influential and convicting modern writers. 123 pages
**************************************
October (or combine with another month): The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell. Historical fiction. Set in 1913 Calumet, Michigan, twenty-five-year-old Annie Klobuchar Clements leads a strike against the largest copper mining company in the world. 334 pages.
November (or combine with another month): Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans. If the Bible isn't a science book or an instruction manual, then what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is inspired? When the author found herself asking these questions, she began a quest to better understand what the Bible is and how it is meant to be read.