UUCY Book Club Seeks Varied Stories

Meeting by Zoom has not inhibited lively discussions of an eclectic selection of books.  As always, everyone is invited to tune in and offer your thoughts, or just listen even if you have not read the current title.  Books 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.  For instructions to connect to our Zoom gathering, watch your email for the UUCY Weekly Update sent the Thursday prior to our discussion.

November 10, 2020; Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann.

Reading like a twisting, haunting, murder mystery, this true account relates the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma, after oil was discovered beneath their land, Then one Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. It was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances. When virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, initially bungling the investigation.

Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. What emerges is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward Native Americans that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long.

(Book descriptions quoted or adapted from web pages for Yakima Valley Libraries and Inklings Bookshop.)

TEN-PLUS YEARS of UUCY BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

July, 2020 – The Overstory by Richard Powers. Fiction.

May, 2020 – Scythe by Neal Shusterman. Dystopian Fiction.

March, 2020 – Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Historical Fiction

January, 2020 – Educated by Tara Westover. Memoir

November, 2019- Manhattan Beach, A Novel, Jennifer Egan, Historical Fiction

September, 2019- Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng, Fiction

July, 2019-A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles, Historical Fiction

May, 2019-The Underground Railroad: A Novel, Colson Whitehead, Fiction
March, 2019-The One-in-a Million Boy, Monica Wood, Fiction
January, 2019-The Other Einstein: A Novel, Marie Benedict, Historical Fiction
November, 2018-A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, Fiction
September, 2018-White Trash: The 400-year Untold History of Class in America, Nancy Isenberg, Nonfiction
July, 2018-Beartown, Fredrik Backman, Fiction
May, 2018- H is for Hawk, Helen MacDonald, Memoir
March, 2018-The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd, Fiction
January, 2018-Orhan’s Inheritance, Aline Ohanesian, Fiction
November, 2017-Await Your Reply, Dan Chaon, Fiction
September, 2017-You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, Sherman Alexie, Memoir
July, 2017-My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry, Fredrik Backman, Fiction
May, 2017-The Nest, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, Fiction
March, 2017-House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus III, Fiction
January, 2017-Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Fiction
November, 2016-Remarkable Creatures,Tracy Chevalier, Historical Fiction
September, 2016-Maphead, Ken Jennings, Nonfiction
July, 2016-Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson, Fiction
May, 2016-I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai, Memoir
March, 2016-Plainsong, Kent Haruf, Fiction
January, 2016-The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver, Fiction
November, 2015-The Martian, Andy Weir, Science Fiction
October, 2015-Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier, Historical Fiction
August, 2015-The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown, Nonfiction
June, 2015-The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared,Jonas Jonasson, Comic Fiction
April, 2015-All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr, Historical Fiction
February, 2015-Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline, Historical Fiction
December, 2014-Life After Life, Kate Atkinson, Fiction
October, 2014-My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayor, Memoir
August, 2014-Nation, Terry Pratchett, Fiction
June, 2014-Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Fiction
April, 2014-Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks, Historical Fiction
February, 2014-The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Jose Saramago, Fiction
November, 2013-Into the Beautiful North, Luis Alberto Urrea, Fiction
October, 2013-The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton, Fiction
August, 2013-The Lotus Eaters, Tatjana Soli, Historical Fiction
May, 2013-Woodsburner, John Pipkin, Historical Fiction
March, 2013-Carry the One, Carol Anshaw, Fiction
January, 2013-The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, Historical Fiction
October, 2012-West of Here, Jonathan Evison, Fiction
August, 2012-Train Dreams, Denis Johnson, Fiction
July, 2012-State of Wonder, Anne Patchett, Fiction
May, 2012-Acts of Faith, Eboo Patel, Biography
March, 2012-The Women in White, Wilkie Collins, Fiction
January, 2012-Galileo’s Daughter, Dava Sobel, Historical Fiction
November, 2011-The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald,Fiction
September, 2011-Border Songs, Jim Lynch, Fiction
July, 2011-The Known World, Edward P. Jones, Historical Fiction
May, 2011-Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese, Fiction
March, 2011-Half Broke Horses, Nannette Walls, Historical Fiction
January, 2011-The Bright Forever, Lee Martin, Fiction
2010-The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig, Historical Fiction
2010-In the Land of the Grasshopper Song: Two Women in the Klamath River Indian Country in 1908-09, Mary Ellicott Arnold and Mabel Reed, Memoir
2010-The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, Fiction
2010-Lottery, Patricia Wood, Fiction
2010-The Tortilla Curtain, T. C. Boyle, Fiction
2010-The Highest Tide, Jim Lynch, Fiction
2009-Ahab’s Wife: Or, The Star Gazer, Sena Jeter Naslund Fiction
2009-Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore, Comic Fiction