Book Club
NEXT BOOK DISCUSSION IN PERSON ON PATIO!
While we have been enjoying the convenience of Zoom, we have been missing the comradery of being and talking and laughing face to face. So our next meeting, Thursday, 6:00 PM on July 14 will be hosted by Susan Kaphammer at 629 N 50th Ave, Yakima. She will provide patio seating; others are invited to bring a small snack to share, your own beverage, and thoughts and opinions about the novel, Libertie.
For September we will consider an often-requested title, Where the Crawdads Sing, an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale.
Titles selected are available from Yakima Valley Libraries, often in hardcopy and electronic versions. They are also out in paperback and available through Inklings Bookshop at a “Book Club Member” discount. Enjoy reading!
July 14, 2022: Libertie: A Novel by Kaitlyn Greenidge
Coming of age in a free Black community in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her purposeful mother, a practicing physician, expects Libertie to go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie, drawn more to music than science, feels stifled by her mother’s choices and wonders, is there really only one way to have an autonomous life? And, she is constantly reminded that, unlike her light-skinned mother, Libertie will not be able to pass for white. She accepts marriage proposal from a young man from Haiti who promises she will be his equal on the island, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it. Inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the United States and rich with historical detail, Kaitlyn Greenidge’s novel offers “a profound meditation on what it means to be truly free — whether born free or formerly enslaved, whether in America, Haiti, or Liberia — while struggling against grief, sexism, racism, colorism, or classism.” A New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2021 and Best Historical Fiction.
September 8, 2022: Where the Crawdads Sing by Della Owens
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She’s barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world–until the unthinkable happens.
(Book information adapted from web pages for Inklings Bookshop and Yakima Valley Libraries.)