{"id":7668,"date":"2016-10-14T13:51:48","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T20:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/?page_id=7668"},"modified":"2025-06-24T16:14:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T23:14:19","slug":"book-club-prior-reading-lists","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/book-club-prior-reading-lists\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Club Prior Reading Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Books and descriptions are shown below by season (back to 2015).\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nYou can also see a spreadsheet by title<\/a> of ALL the books we’ve read since 2004!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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2024-2025 Reading List<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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<\/a><\/h4>\n
June 2025 – Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Jon Krakaur<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>June 23rd, 2025<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

NATIONAL BESTSELLER\u00a0\u2022 From the author of\u00a0Into the Wild<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Into Thin Air,<\/em> this extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America\u2019s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities.
\n(*Now an acclaimed FX limited series streaming on HULU.)<\/p>\n

Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities.<\/p>\n

At the core of Krakauer\u2019s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America\u2019s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.<\/p>\n

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May 2025 – The Heart of a Woman<\/i><\/a> by Maya Angelou<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>3rd Monday, May 19th<\/span>, 2025<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

In The Heart of a Woman<\/em>, Maya Angelou leaves California with her son, Guy, to move to New York. There she enters the society and world of black artists and writers, reads her work at the Harlem Writers Guild, and begins to take part in the struggle of black Americans for their rightful place in the world.
\nIn the meantime, her personal life takes an unexpected turn. She leaves the bail bondsman she was intending to marry after falling in love with a South African freedom fighter, travels with him to London and Cairo, where she discovers new opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Heart of a Woman\u00a0is filled with unforgettable vignettes of such renowned people as Billie Holiday and Malcom X, but perhaps most importantly chronicles the joys and the burdens of a black mother in America and how the son she has cherished so intensely and worked for so devotedly finally grows to be a man.<\/p>\n

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April 2025 – The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact & the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook<\/a> by Hampton Sides<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>April 28th, 2025<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *
\nOn July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution.
\nHampton Sides\u2019 bravura account of Cook\u2019s last journey both wrestles with Cook\u2019s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration during the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, his dedication to science, and has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.<\/p>\n

Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. His first landing in Hawaii was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to a fatal encounter.<\/p>\n

At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.<\/p>\n

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March 2025 – White Robes & Broken Badges: Infiltrating the KKK and Exposing the Evil Among Us<\/em><\/a> by Joe Moore<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>March 24th, 2025<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

In this shocking memoir, a former FBI informant reveals what he learned from successfully infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the backwoods of the Sunshine State, uncovering details about the hate group\u2019s structure and its modern far-right spinoffs which are operating to achieve the same goal: inciting a second civil war by whatever violent means necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need you back.\u201d It was a call FBI informant and former Army sniper Joe Moore never expected to get. He\u2019d already infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan once before, and his contributions prevented an assassination attempt targeting then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Moore nearly lost his life in the process. But now, the FBI needed Moore\u2019s help once again.<\/p>\n

In White Robes and Broken Badges, Moore reveals the astounding true story of how he became one of the most entrenched and valuable undercover agents in the FBI\u2019s history. Gripping, told with astonishing detail, this heart pounding and darkly propulsive memoir vividly recounts how he infiltrated the \u201cInvisible Empire\u201d at the highest levels\u2014not once, but twice\u2014becoming a Grand Knighthawk, overseeing security, defense, and internal communications for the domestic terrorist group across Florida and Georgia.<\/p>\n

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February 2025 – The Mountain in the Sea<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 by Ray Nayler (Silicon Valley Reads<\/em> Book)<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>February 24th, 2025<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Each February, we read one of the Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> books. The 2025 theme is “Empowering Humanity: Technology for a Better World.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Of the three SVR books, the Book Club selected, “The Mountain in the Sea”<\/em> by Ray Nayler. The Washington Post called Mountain a “poignant, mind-expanding debut” and Slate called it “(a) wondrous novel.” The book was also a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury Awards.<\/p>\n

Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.
\nThe transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed off the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where a species of octopus has been discovered that may have developed its own language and culture. The marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them. She travels to the islands to join DIANIMA\u2019s team: a battle-scarred security agent and the world\u2019s first (and possibly last) android.<\/p>\n

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. As Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.
\nBut no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. Or what they might do about it…<\/em><\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic.\u00a0 The goals are to encourage the love of reading and learning and to have a welcoming forum where our diverse community can come together to share different perspectives.\u00a0 Books for the year’s selected theme can be easily found at local library systems such as\u00a0Santa Clara Cty Library<\/a> and San Jose Public Library<\/a>.
\n(Audio and eBooks are readily available now too via the Libby app<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/h4>\n
January 2025 – Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind<\/em><\/a> by Dr. Yuval Noah Harari<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>January 27th, 2025<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

#1 New York Times & Int’l Bestseller & NYT Readers\u2019 Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century
\nFrom a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity\u2019s creation and evolution that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be \u201chuman.\u201d<\/p>\n

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one\u2014homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?<\/p>\n

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas. Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?<\/p>\n

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December 2024 – NO MEETING – <\/strong>Enjoy the holidays and your families<\/em> – start the next book!\u00a0 \u00a0\ud83d\ude09<\/h5>\n

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November 2024 – Believe Me: A memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens<\/em><\/a> by Eddie Izzard<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>November 25th, 2024<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The critically acclaimed, award-winning British comedian and actor details his childhood, his first performances on the streets of London, his ascent to worldwide success on stage and screen, and his comedy shows, which have won over audiences around the world.<\/p>\n

Over the course of a 30-year career, Eddie Izzard has proven himself to be a creative chameleon, inhabiting the stage and film and television screens with an unbelievable fervor. Born in Yemen and raised in Ireland, Wales, and postwar England, the self-proclaimed “executive transvestite,” broke the mold performing in full makeup and heels and has become as famous for his advocacy for LGBT rights as he has for his art. In Believe Me, he recounts the dizzying rise he made from street busking to London’s West End to Wembley Stadium and New York’s Madison Square Garden. Honest and generous, Izzard’s\u00a0Believe Me<\/em>\u00a0is an inspired account of a very singular life thus far.<\/p>\n

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October 2024 – The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by A.J. Jacobs<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>October 28th, 2024<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0New York Times\u00a0bestselling author chronicles his hilarious adventures in attempting to follow the original meaning of the Constitution, as he searches for answers to one of the most pressing issues of our time: How should we interpret America\u2019s foundational document?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The book blends unforgettable adventures\u2014delivering a handwritten petition to Congress, applying for a Letter of Marque to become a legal pirate for the government, and battling redcoats as part of a Revolutionary War reenactment group\u2014with dozens of interviews from constitutional experts from both sides. Jacobs dives deep into Originalism<\/em> and Living Constitutionalism<\/em>, the two rival ways of interpreting the document.
\nAudible available\u00a0 \u00a0 302 pages<\/p>\n

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2023-2024 Reading List<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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June 2024 – Trust<\/em><\/a> by Hernan Diaz<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>June 24th, 2024<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, NY Times Bestseller<\/p>\n

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth\u2014all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.<\/p>\n

Hernan Diaz\u2019s TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another\u2014and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.
\nAt once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.<\/p>\n

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May 2024 – American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the
\nBlack Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics<\/em><\/a> by Kevin Hazzard<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>May 27th, 2024<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Until the 1970s, if you suffered a medical crisis, your chances of survival were minimal. A 9-1-1 call might bring police or even the local funeral home. But that all changed with Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh, a group of Black men who became America\u2019s first paramedics and set the gold standard for emergency medicine around the world, only to have their story and their legacy erased\u2014until now.<\/p>\n

In American Sirens, acclaimed journalist and paramedic Kevin Hazzard tells the dramatic story of how a group of young, undereducated Black men forged a new frontier of healthcare. He follows a rich cast of characters that includes John Moon, an orphan who found his calling as a paramedic; Peter Safar, the Nobel Prize-nominated physician who invented CPR and realized his vision for a trained ambulance service; and Nancy Caroline, the idealistic young doctor who turned a scrappy team into an international leader. At every turn, Freedom House battled racism\u2014from the community, the police, and the government. Their job was grueling, the rules made up as they went along, their mandate nearly impossible\u2014and yet despite the long odds and fierce opposition, they succeeded spectacularly. Never-before revealed in full, this is a rich and troubling hidden history of the Black origins of America\u2019s paramedics, a special band of dedicated essential workers, who stand ready to serve day and night on the line between life and death for every one of us.<\/p>\n

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April 2024 – Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Bonnie Garmus<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>April 22nd, 2024<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *
\nMeet Elizabeth Zott: “a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention” (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show.
\n*now an APPLE TV+ Series
\nThis novel is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel” (The NYT Review) and “witty, sometimes hilarious…the Catch-22 of early feminism” (Stephen King).<\/p>\n

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with\u2014of all things\u2014her mind. True chemistry results.
\nBut like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.<\/p>\n

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.<\/p>\n

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March 2024 – The Last Ride of the Pony Express:
\nMy 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West<\/em><\/a> by Will Grant<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>March 25th, 2024<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The Pony Express was a fast-horse frontier mail service that spanned the American West\u2014 the high, dry, and undeniably lonesome part of North America. While in operation during the 1860s, it carried letter mail on a blistering ten-day schedule between Missouri and San Francisco, running through a vast and mostly uninhabited wilderness. It covered a massive distance\u2014akin to running horses between Madrid and Moscow\u2014 and to this day, the Pony Express is irrefutably the greatest display of American horsemanship to ever color the pages of a history book.<\/p>\n

Though the Pony Express has enjoyed a lot of traction over the years, among the authors that have attempted to encapsulate it, none have ever ridden it themselves. While most scholars would look for answers inside a library, Will Grant looks for his between the ears of a horse. Inspired by the likes of Mark Twain, Sir Richard Burton, and Horace Greeley, all of whom traveled throughout the developing West, Will Grant returned to his roots: he would ride the trail himself with his two horses, Chicken Fry and Badger, from one end to the other.<\/p>\n

Cowboy and journalist Will Grant takes us on an epic and authentic horseback journey into the modern West on an adventure of a lifetime. The Last Ride of the Pony Express boldly illuminates both our mythic fascination with the Pony Express, and how its spirit continues to this day.
\nThis is a tale of adventure by a horseman who defies most modern conveniences, and is an unforgettable narrative that will forever change how you see the West, the Pony Express, and America as a whole.<\/p>\n

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February 2024 – The Light Pirate<\/em><\/a> by Lily Brooks-Dalton (Silicon Valley Reads<\/em> Book)<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>February 26th, 2024<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Of the three SVR books, we chose The Light Pirate as our selection to read for February. Set in a futuristic world where Florida faces the relentless onslaught of extreme weather and rising sea levels, “The Light Pirate” is the story of a small coastal town preparing for a powerful hurricane and\u00a0follows Wanda\u2014a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane\u2014as she navigates a rapidly changing world. Divided into four parts\u2014power, water, light, and time\u2014this GMA Book Club pick novel mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the gradual transformation of the world as we know it. It serves as a contemplation of changes that challenge our comfort zones and a reminder of the untamed beauty and strength of nature.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> focuses on stories of inspiration. The 2024 theme<\/a> is “A Greener Tomorrow Starts Today”<\/em>\u00a0with meaningful stories and a combination of virtual and in-person events to engage and inspire the community.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic.\u00a0 The goals are to encourage the love of reading and learning and to have a welcoming forum where our diverse community can come together to share different perspectives.\u00a0 Books for the year’s selected theme can be easily found at local library systems such as\u00a0Santa Clara Cty Library<\/a> and San Jose Public Library<\/a>.\u00a0 (Audio and eBooks are readily available too).<\/p>\n

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January 2024 – The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey<\/em><\/a> by Rinker Buck<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>January 22nd, 2024<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER \u2022 Winner of the PEN New England Award<\/p>\n

\u201cEnchanting\u2026A book filled with so much love\u2026Long before Oregon, Rinker Buck has convinced us that the best way to see America is from the seat of a covered wagon.\u201d \u2014The Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsorbing\u2026Winning\u2026The many layers in The Oregon Trail are linked by Mr. Buck\u2019s voice, which is alert and unpretentious in a manner that put me in mind of Bill Bryson\u2019s comic tone in A Walk in the Woods.\u201d \u2014Dwight Garner, The New York Times<\/p>\n

A major bestseller that has been hailed as a \u201cquintessential American story\u201d (Christian Science Monitor), Rinker Buck\u2019s The Oregon Trail<\/em> is an epic account of traveling the 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way\u2014in a covered wagon with a team of mules\u2014that has captivated readers, critics, and booksellers from coast to coast. Simultaneously a majestic journey across the West, a significant work of history, and a moving personal saga, Buck\u2019s chronicle is a \u201claugh-out-loud masterpiece\u201d (Willamette Week) that \u201cso ensnares the emotions it becomes a tear-jerker at its close\u201d (Star Tribune, Minneapolis) and \u201cwill leave you daydreaming and hungry to see this land\u201d (The Boston Globe).<\/p>\n

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December 2023 – <\/strong>Enjoy the holidays and your families – start the next book!\u00a0 \u00a0\ud83d\ude09<\/h5>\n

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<\/a><\/h4>\n
November 2023 – Angle of Repose<\/em><\/a> by Wallace Stegner<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>November 27th, 2023<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

An American masterpiece and iconic novel of the West by National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Wallace Stegner\u2014a deeply moving narrative of one family and the traditions of our national past.<\/p>\n

Lyman Ward is a retired professor of history, recently confined to a wheelchair by a crippling bone disease and dependant on others for his every need. Amid the chaos of 1970s counterculture he retreats to his ancestral home of Grass Valley, California, to write the biography of his grandmother: an elegant and headstrong artist and pioneer who, together with her engineer husband, made her own journey through the hardscrabble West nearly a hundred years before. In discovering her story he excavates his own, probing the shadows of his experience and the America that has come of age around him.<\/p>\n

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October 2023 – And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle<\/em><\/a> by Jon Meacham<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>October 23rd, 2023<\/strong>\u00a0– in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations.<\/p>\n

At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents\u2014a remote icon\u2014or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln\u2014an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment, essential to the story of justice in America, began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.<\/p>\n

This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination in 1865: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans, Lincoln\u2019s story illustrates the ways and means of politics in a democracy, the roots and durability of racism, and the capacity of conscience to shape events.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2022-2023 Reading List<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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June 2023 – A Gentleman in Moscow<\/b><\/em><\/a>: A Novel<\/em> by Amor Towles
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>June 26th, 2023 <\/strong>– in the Fireside Room<\/em><\/p>\n

From the #1<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>New York Times<\/span>-bestselling author<\/span>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span>The Lincoln Highway<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>Rules of Civility<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel\u2019s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.<\/p>\n

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count\u2019s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.
\n(A mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers, soon to be a Showtime\/Paramount series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov.)<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/h4>\n

May 2023 – The Lincoln Highway<\/a>:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>a Novel<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>by Amor Towles<\/strong>
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\"click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>May 22nd, 2023<\/strong> – in the Fireside Room
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The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow<\/em> and Rules of Civility<\/em> and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America.<\/p>\n

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction\u2014to the City of New York.<\/p>\n

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles’ third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing an array of new & richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0April 2023 – Nothing Like It In the World<\/a>: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869<\/b><\/em> by Stephen Ambrose<\/strong>
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\"click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>April 24th, 2023<\/strong> – in the Fireside Room
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In this New York Times bestseller, Stephen Ambrose brings to life the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad, from the men who financed it to the engineers and surveyors who risked their lives to the workers who signed on for the dangerous job.<\/p>\n

Nothing Like It in the World<\/em> gives the account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage. It is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad\u2014the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government pitted two companies\u2014the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads\u2014against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. In Ambrose’s hands, this enterprise, with its huge expenditure of brainpower, muscle, and sweat, comes vibrantly to life.<\/p>\n

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March 2023 – The The Tenth Island<\/a>: Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love in the Azores<\/em>\u00a0<\/b>by Diana Marcum<\/strong>
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\"click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>March 27th, 2023<\/strong> – in the Fireside Room
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From a Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning writer comes an exuberant memoir of personal loss longing, & finding connection on the remote Azorean Islands of the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

Reporter Diana Marcum is in crisis. A long-buried personal sadness is enfolding her\u2015and her career is stalled\u2015when she stumbles upon an unusual group of immigrants living in rural California. She follows them on their annual return to the remote Azorean Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, where bulls run down village streets, volcanoes are active, and the people celebrate festas<\/em> to ease their saudade<\/em>, a longing so deep that the Portuguese word for it can\u2019t be fully translated.<\/p>\n

Years later, California is in a terrible drought, the wildfires seem to never end, and Diana finds herself still dreaming of those islands and the chuva<\/em>\u2015a rain so soft you don\u2019t notice when it begins or ends. With her troublesome Labrador retriever, Murphy, in tow, Diana returns to the islands of her dreams only to discover that there are still things she longs for\u2015and one of them may be a most unexpected love.<\/p>\n

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February 2023 – Silicon Valley Reads<\/em> Books<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

\"Click<\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>February 27th, 2023<\/strong> – in the Fireside Room
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Though they all look interesting, we decided that we would start with reading There There<\/u><\/em><\/a> first; then if we have more time before the meeting we can read one or both of the other two.\u00a0 This way we’ll all have at least the one book in common for discussion.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> is focused on stories of inspiration. This year\u2019s theme is Journey to New Beginnings<\/em> with meaningful stories and a combination of virtual and in-person events to engage and inspire the community.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic.\u00a0 The goals are to encourage the love of reading and learning and to have a welcoming forum where our diverse community can come together to share different perspectives.\u00a0 Books for the year’s selected theme can be easily found at local library systems such as\u00a0Santa Clara Cty Library<\/a> and San Jose Public Library<\/a>.\u00a0 (Audio and eBooks are readily available now too).<\/p>\n

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January 2023 – The Hangman & His Wife<\/em><\/a>: The Life and Death of Reinhard Heydrich<\/em><\/strong> by Nancy Dougherty<\/strong>
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\"click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>January 23rd, 2023<\/strong> – in the Fireside Room<\/em><\/p>\n

An astonishing journey into the heart of Nazi evil: a portrait of one of the darkest figures of Hitler\u2019s Nazi elite\u2014Reinhard Heydrich, the designer and executor of the Holocaust, chief of the Reich Main Security, including the Gestapo\u2014interwoven with commentary by his wife, Lina, from the author’s in-depth interviews.
\nHe was called the Hangman of the Gestapo, the “butcher of Prague,” with a reputation as a ruthlessly efficient killer. He was the head of the SS, and the Gestapo, second in command to Heinrich Himmler. His orders set in motion the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938 and, as the lead planner of Hitler’s Final Solution, he chaired the Wannsee Conference, at which details of the murder of millions of Jews across Nazi-occupied Europe were toasted with cognac.<\/p>\n

In The Hangman and His Wife<\/em>, Nancy Dougherty, and, following her death, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, masterfully explore who Heydrich was and how he came to be, and how he came to do what he did. We see Heydrich from his rarefied musical family origins and his ugly-duckling childhood and adolescence, to his sudden flameout as a promising Naval officer…
\nDougherty writes of his seemingly hopeless job prospects as an untrained civilian during Germany\u2019s hyperinflation and unemployment, and his joining the Nazi party through the attraction to Nazism of his fianc\u00e9e, Lina von Osten, and her father, along with the rumor shadowing him of a strain of Jewishness inherited from his father\u2019s side. And we follow Heydrich\u2019s meteoric rise through the Nazi high command\u2014from SS major, to colonel to brigadier general, before he was thirty, deputy to Heinrich Himmler, expanding the SS, the Gestapo, and developing the Reich’s plans for “the Jewish solution.”
\nThroughout, we hear the voice of Lina Heydrich, who was by his side until his death at the age of thirty-eight, living inside the Nazi inner circles as she waltzed with Hess, feuded with G\u00f6ring, and drank wine with Speer.<\/p>\n

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December 2022 – <\/strong>Enjoy the holidays and your families – start the next book!\u00a0 \u00a0\ud83d\ude09<\/h4>\n

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November 2022 – Stargazer: A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel<\/b><\/em><\/a> by Anne Hillerman<\/b><\/strong>
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\"click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>November 28th, 2022<\/strong> – in the Fireside Room
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Murder, deception, Navajo tradition, and the stars collide in this enthralling entry in New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman\u2019s Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series, set amid the beautiful landscape of the American Southwest.<\/p>\n

What begins as a typical day for Officer Bernadette Manuelito\u2014serving a bench warrant, dealing with a herd of cattle obstructing traffic, and stumbling across a crime scene\u2014takes an unexpected twist when she\u2019s called to help find an old friend. Years ago, Bernie and Maya were roommates, but time and Maya\u2019s struggles with addiction drove them apart. Now Maya\u2019s brother asks Bernie to find out what happened to his sister.<\/p>\n

Tracing Maya\u2019s whereabouts, Bernie learns that her old friend had confessed to the murder of her estranged husband, a prominent astronomer. But the details don\u2019t align. Suspicious, Bernie takes a closer look at the case only to find that nothing is as it seems. Uncovering new information about the astronomer\u2019s work leads Bernie to a remote spot on the Navajo Nation and a calculating killer… Can their mentor Joe Leaphorn\u2014a man also looking at the past for answers to the future\u2014provide the guidance both Bernie and Chee need? And will the Navajo heroes that stud the starry sky help them find justice\u2014and the truth they seek? (The TV series, Dark Winds<\/em>, on AMC\/AMC+ is based on the Leaphorn, Chee, & Manuelito novels from both Tony and Anne Hillerman.)<\/p>\n

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October 2022 – The Peacekeeper<\/em><\/a> by B.L. Blanchard
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\"click<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 <\/strong>October 24th, 2022<\/strong> – in the Fireside Room
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Against the backdrop of a never-colonized North America, a broken Ojibwe detective embarks on an emotional and twisting journey toward solving two murders, rediscovering family, and finding himself.<\/p>\n

North America was never colonized. The United States and Canada don\u2019t exist. The Great Lakes are surrounded by an independent Ojibwe nation. And in the village of Baawitigong, a Peacekeeper confronts his devastating past.
\nTwenty years ago to the day, Chibenashi\u2019s mother was murdered and his father confessed. Ever since, caring for his still-traumatized younger sister has been Chibenashi\u2019s privilege and penance. Now, on the same night of the Manoomin harvest, another woman is slain. His mother\u2019s best friend. This leads to a seemingly impossible connection that takes Chibenashi far from the only world he\u2019s ever known.<\/p>\n

The major city of Shikaakwa is home to the victim\u2019s cruelly estranged family\u2014and to two people Chibenashi never wanted to see again: his imprisoned father and the lover who broke his heart. As the questions mount, the answers will change his and his sister\u2019s lives forever. Because Chibenashi is about to discover that everything about their lives has been a lie.<\/p>\n

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2021-2022 Reading List<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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June 2022 – The Murmur of Bees<\/b><\/em><\/a> by Sof\u00eda Segovia
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\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 June 27th, 2022<\/em>
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From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel\u2015her first to be translated into English\u2015about a mysterious child with the power to change a family\u2019s history in a country on the verge of revolution.<\/p>\n

From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can\u2015visions of all that\u2019s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats\u2015both human and those of nature\u2015Simonopio\u2019s purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.<\/p>\n

Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, The Murmur of Bees captures both the fate of a country in flux and the destiny of one family that has put their love, faith, and future in the unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Murmur of Bees<\/i>\u00a0by Mexican writer Sof\u00eda Segovia is the rare novel in historical fiction, realistically framed within historical events\u2015the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish flu\u2015and, at the same time, filled with preternatural circumstances and fantastic characters that have earned Segovia comparisons with magical realism writers such as Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez and Isabel Allende. It is universal at heart but also deeply imbedded in its setting.\u201d\u00a0\u2015Historical Novel Society<\/p>\n

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May 2022 – Piece By Piece<\/a>:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>a Genealogical Jigsaw<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>by Irene Lewis Ward<\/strong>
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\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 May 23rd, 2022
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As Neil Armstrong first-footed the moon, the author and her husband Bob took their first steps into the past to solve a mystery that had haunted her father all his life: who were his mother and his maternal kin?<\/p>\n

Through the pages of this illustrated and factual book we follow them as they prove that a conspiracy had prevented him from discovering his maternal roots! At times they are led (in a way that neither can explain) in a new and more promising direction and Bob insists that \u201csomeone up there\u201d is guiding them.<\/p>\n

Piece by piece, like a giant Victorian jigsaw, the evidence forms a fascinating picture, but one with a hole at its heart \u2013 a hole that will not be filled until the baffling mystery is solved…
\nDo they ever solve it and complete the picture?<\/p>\n

After 10 years research in North Wales, new evidence and a distant memory cause a sudden change in venue which reveals the reason for the conspiracy of silence and the staggering truth about his mother.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0April 2022 – Every Day is a Gift<\/b><\/em><\/a>: A Memoir<\/b><\/em> by Tammy Duckworth<\/strong>
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\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 April 25th, 2022
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Learn the incredible story of Illinois senator and Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth and see what inspired her to follow the path that made her who she is today.\u00a0 In the NY Times Bestseller, Every Day Is a Gift<\/i>, Tammy Duckworth takes readers through the amazing\u2014and amazingly true\u2014stories from her incomparable life. In November of 2004, an Iraqi RPG blew through the cockpit of Duckworth’s U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. The explosion, which destroyed her legs and mangled her right arm, was a turning point in her life. But as Duckworth shows in Every Day Is a Gift<\/i>, that moment was just one in a lifetime of extraordinary turns.<\/p>\n

The biracial daughter of an American father and a Thai-Chinese mother, Duckworth faced discrimination, poverty, and the horrors of war\u2014all before the age of 16. As a child, she dodged bullets as her family fled war-torn Phnom Penh. As a teenager, she sold roses by the side of the road to save her family from hunger and homelessness in Hawaii. Through these experiences, she developed a fierce resilience that would prove invaluable in the years to come.<\/p>\n

Duckworth joined the Army, becoming one of a handful of female helicopter pilots at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She served eight months in Iraq before an insurgent’s RPG shot down her helicopter, an attack that took her legs\u2014and nearly took her life. She then spent thirteen months recovering at Walter Reed, learning to walk again on prosthetic legs and planning her return to the cockpit. But Duckworth found a new mission after meeting her state’s senators, Barack Obama and Dick Durbin. After winning two terms as a U.S. Representative, she won election to the U.S. Senate in 2016. And she and her husband Bryan fulfilled another dream when she gave birth to two daughters, becoming the first sitting senator to give birth. From childhood to motherhood and beyond,\u00a0Every Day Is a Gift<\/i>\u00a0is the remarkable story of one of America’s most dedicated public servants.<\/p>\n

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March 2022 – The Soul of an Octopus<\/a>: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness<\/em>\u00a0<\/b>by Sy Montgomery<\/strong>
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\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 March 28th, 2022
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In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities\u2014gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways: escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls; and endlessly tricking companions with multiple \u201csleights of hand\u201d to get food.<\/p>\n

Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are trying to decipher the meaning of the animal\u2019s color-changing techniques. With her \u201cjoyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures,” Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus\u00a0<\/i>reveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds.<\/p>\n

Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction * New York Times Bestseller * Starred Booklist and Library Journal Editors\u2019 Spring Pick * A Huffington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year * One of the Best Books of the Month on Goodreads * Library Journal Best Sci-Tech Book of the Year * An American Library Association Notable Book of the Year<\/p>\n

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February 2022 – Silicon Valley Reads<\/em> Books<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 February 28th, 2022
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We decided which of the six suggested books by Silicon Valley Reads we would like to read in February.\u00a0 We decided on one non-fiction and one fiction.\u00a0 They are:<\/div>\n
From the Non-Fiction Titles<\/a>:<\/div>\n
Enough About Me: The Unexpected Power of Selflessness<\/i><\/b>\u00a0by Richard Lui.\u00a0 Basically this is about the author’s decision to give up his career and life for a time while he took care of his father who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.<\/div>\n
From the Fiction Titles<\/a>:<\/div>\n
The Girl With the Louding Voice<\/i><\/b>\u00a0by Abi Dare.\u00a0 This book is the author’s debut novel about a young Nigerian woman who is trapped in a life of servitude and strives to get an education.<\/div>\n

Silicon Valley Reads 2022<\/a> is focused on stories of inspiration and includes three memoirs, as well as recommended fiction titles. Last year\u2019s theme of \u201cConnecting\u201d deeply resonated in the community, as readers of all ages found new ways to build connections. In 2022, we will continue to connect through the Power of Kindness, Resilience & Hope\u00a0<\/strong>with meaningful stories and a combination of virtual and in-person events to motivate and inspire the community.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic.\u00a0 The goals are to encourage the love of reading and learning and to have a welcoming forum where our diverse community can come together to share different perspectives.\u00a0 Books for the year’s selected theme can be easily found at local library systems such as\u00a0Santa Clara Cty Library<\/a> and San Jose Public Library<\/a>.\u00a0 (Audio and eBooks are readily available now too).<\/p>\n

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January 2022 – David and Goliath<\/em><\/a>: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants<\/em> by Malcolm Gladwell<\/strong>
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\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 January 24th, 2022<\/em><\/p>\n

Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David’s victory was improbable and miraculous. He\u00a0shouldn’t\u00a0<\/i>have won. Or should he have?
\nIn\u00a0David and Goliath<\/i>, Malcolm Gladwell <\/i>challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks.<\/p>\n

Gladwell begins with the\u00a0real<\/i>\u00a0story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy those many years ago. From there,\u00a0David and Goliath<\/i>\u00a0examines Northern Ireland’s Troubles, the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms\u2014all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity.<\/p>\n

In the tradition of Gladwell’s previous bestsellers\u2014The Tipping Point<\/i>,\u00a0Blink<\/i>,\u00a0Outliers<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0What the Dog Saw<\/i>\u2014David and Goliath<\/i>\u00a0draws upon history, psychology, and powerful storytelling to reshape the way we think of the world around us.<\/p>\n

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December 2021 – <\/strong>We took a break for the holidays, enjoyed our families, and started the next book!\u00a0 \u00a0\ud83d\ude09<\/h4>\n

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November 2021 – All Creatures Great and Small<\/b><\/a><\/em> by James Herriot<\/b><\/strong>
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\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 November 22nd, 2021
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Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world’s most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients.<\/p>\n

For over forty years, generations of readers have thrilled to Herriot’s marvelous tales, deep love of life, and extraordinary storytelling abilities. For decades, Herriot roamed the remote, beautiful Yorkshire Dales, treating every patient that came his way, observing animals and humans alike with his keen, loving eye.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0All Creatures Great and Small<\/i>, we meet the young Herriot as he takes up his calling and discovers that the realities of veterinary practice in rural Yorkshire are very different from the sterile setting of veterinary school. Some visits are heart-wrenchingly difficult, such as one to an old man in the village whose very ill dog is his only friend and companion, some are lighthearted and fun, such as Herriot’s periodic visits to the overfed and pampered Pekinese Tricki Woo who throws parties and has his own stationery, and yet others are inspirational and enlightening, such as Herriot’s recollections of poor farmers who will scrape their meager earnings together to be able to get proper care for their working animals. From seeing to his patients in the depths of winter on the remotest homesteads to dealing with uncooperative owners and critically ill animals, Herriot discovers the wondrous variety and never-ending challenges of veterinary practice as his humor, compassion, and love of the animal world shine forth.<\/p>\n

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October 2021 – The Wild Blue<\/a><\/em>\u00a0by Stephen Ambrose
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\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 October 25th, 2021 – in the Fireside Room
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Stephen E. Ambrose, acclaimed author of\u00a0Band of Brothers\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Undaunted Courage<\/i>, carries us along in the crowded and dangerous B-24s as their crews fought to destroy the German war machine during World War II.\u00a0 The young men who flew the B-24s over Germany in World War II fought against horrific odds, and, in\u00a0The Wild Blue,<\/i>\u00a0Ambrose recounts their extraordinary heroism, skill, daring, and comradeship with vivid detail and affection.<\/p>\n

Ambrose describes how the Army Air Forces recruited, trained, and selected the elite few who would undertake the most demanding and dangerous jobs in the war. These are the boys\u2014turned pilots, bombardiers, navigators, and gunners of the B-24s\u2014who suffered over 50% casualties.<\/p>\n

With his remarkable gift for bringing alive the action and tension of combat, Ambrose carries us along in the crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous B-24s as their crews fought to the death through thick black smoke and deadly flak to reach their targets and destroy the German war machine.\u00a0 As\u00a0Band of Brothers<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Citizen Soldiers<\/i>\u00a0portrayed the bravery and ultimate victory of the American soldiers from Normandy on to Germany,\u00a0The Wild Blue\u00a0<\/i>illustrates the enormous contribution that these young men of the Army Air Forces made to the Allied victory.<\/p>\n

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2020-2021 Reading List<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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June 2021 – Leonardo da Vinci<\/b><\/em><\/a> by Walter Isaacson
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\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 June 28th, 2021 <\/em>– Meditation Garden outside Fellowship Hall
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He was history\u2019s most creative genius. What secrets can he teach us?<\/b><\/p>\n

The author of the acclaimed bestsellers\u00a0Steve Jobs<\/i>,\u00a0Einstein<\/i>, and\u00a0Benjamin Franklin<\/i> brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography.\u00a0 Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo\u2019s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo\u2019s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.<\/p>\n

He produced the two most famous paintings in history,\u00a0The Last Supper<\/i>\u00a0and the\u00a0Mona Lisa<\/i>. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of\u00a0Vitruvian Man<\/i>, made him history\u2019s most creative genius.<\/p>\n

His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from having wide-ranging passions. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history\u2019s most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in\u00a0The Last Supper<\/i>. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo\u2019s lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions.<\/p>\n

Leonardo\u2019s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it\u2014to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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May 2021 – Fifty Words for Rain<\/b><\/em><\/a>: A Novel by Asha Lemmie<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 May 24th, 2021
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Kyoto, Japan, 1948.\u00a0\u201cDo not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Such is eight-year-old Noriko \u201cNori\u201d Kamiza\u2019s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents\u2019 imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.<\/p>\n

The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond\u2014a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it\u2014a battle that just might cost her everything.<\/p>\n

Spanning decades and continents,\u00a0Fifty Words for Rain<\/i>\u00a0is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/h4>\n

\u00a0April 2021 – Caste<\/b><\/em><\/a>: The Origins of our Discontents<\/b><\/em> by Isabel Wilkerson<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 April 26th, 2021
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power\u2014which groups have it and which do not.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.<\/p>\n

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people\u2019s lives and behavior and the nation\u2019s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people\u2014including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball\u2019s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others\u2014she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.<\/p>\n

Beautifully written, original, and revealing,\u00a0Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents<\/i>\u00a0is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/h4>\n

March 2021 – Washington Black<\/b><\/em><\/a>: A Novel <\/b>by Esi Edugyan<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 March 22nd, 2021
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Eleven-year-old George Washington Black\u2014or Wash\u2014a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master\u2019s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.<\/p>\n

But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash\u2019s head, they must abandon everything and flee together. Over the course of their travels, what brings Wash and Christopher together will tear them apart, propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true self. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco,\u00a0Washington Black<\/i>\u00a0is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/h4>\n

February 2021 – Silicon Valley Reads<\/em> – Six books to chose from<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Meeting:\u00a0 February 22nd, 2021
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic.\u00a0 The goals are to encourage the love of reading and learning and to have a welcoming forum where our diverse community can come together to share different perspectives.<\/p>\n

Covid-19 upended the world at the beginning of 2020, and life as we know it was forever altered. As we adjust to the changes, we are valuing, more than ever, our relationships. Our connections with each other and with things that provide comfort give us a sense of security in a world that sometimes feels out of control. For 2021, SVR has chosen a variety of books<\/a> centered on the theme \u201cConnecting\u201d \u2013 the universal human ability to build resilience by looking for people, places and things that provide comfort and joy during tough times. Each book approaches the concept of connecting from a different vantage point such as nature, music, food, animals, books and human contact.<\/p>\n

This year, we also decided to select an alternate (or additional!)
\nbook to read from our great suggestions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Hidden Valley Road<\/b><\/em><\/a>: Inside the Mind of an American Family<\/b><\/em> <\/b>by Robert Kolker<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>The heartrending story of a mid-century American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science’s great hope in the quest to understand the disease.<\/p>\n

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don’s work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins–aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony–and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?<\/p>\n

What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.
\nWith clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family’s unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/h4>\n

January 2021 – The British are Coming<\/b><\/a>: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton<\/em> by Rick Atkinson<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 January 25th, 2021<\/em><\/p>\n

Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning\u00a0An Army at Dawn<\/i>\u00a0and two other superb books about World War II, has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he recounts the first twenty-one months of America\u2019s violent war for independence.<\/p>\n

From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world\u2019s most formidable fighting force. It is a gripping saga alive with astonishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves to be the wiliest of diplomats; George Washington, the commander in chief who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more compelling.<\/p>\n

Full of riveting details and untold stories,\u00a0The British Are Coming<\/i>\u00a0is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Rick Atkinson has given stirring new life to the first act of our country\u2019s creation drama.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

December 2020 – <\/strong>Take a break for the holidays, and start the next book – it’s a big one!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude09<\/h4>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/h4>\n

November 2020 – Saving Italy<\/b><\/a>: The Race to Save a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis<\/b><\/em> by Robert M. Edsel<\/b><\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 November 23rd, 2020
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

When Hitler\u2019s armies occupied Italy in 1943, they also seized control of mankind\u2019s greatest cultural treasures. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire.
\nOn the eve of the Allied invasion, General Dwight Eisenhower empowered a new kind of soldier to protect these historic riches. In May 1944 two unlikely American heroes\u2015artist Deane Keller and scholar Fred Hartt\u2015embarked from Naples on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars of missing art, including works by Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli.<\/p>\n

With the German army retreating up the Italian peninsula, orders came from the highest levels of the Nazi government to transport truckloads of art north across the border into the Reich. Standing in the way was General Karl Wolff, a top-level Nazi officer. As German forces blew up the magnificent bridges of Florence, General Wolff commandeered the great collections of the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace, later risking his life to negotiate a secret Nazi surrender with American spymaster Allen Dulles.<\/p>\n

Brilliantly researched and vividly written, Saving Italy brings readers from Milan and the near destruction of The Last Supper to the inner sanctum of the Vatican and behind closed doors with the preeminent Allied and Axis leaders: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Churchill; Hitler, G\u00f6ring, and Himmler.\u00a0 An unforgettable story of epic thievery and political intrigue, Saving Italy is a testament to heroism on behalf of art, culture, and history.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/h4>\n

October 2020 – American Dirt<\/b><\/a>: A Novel<\/em> by Jeanine Cummins
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 October 26th, 2020
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Lydia Quixano P\u00e9rez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.<\/p>\n

Even though she knows they\u2019ll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy\u2015two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia\u2019s husband\u2019s tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.\u00a0 Forced to flee, they soon find themselves miles and worlds away<\/em> from their comfortable middle-class existence…<\/p>\n

\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2019-2020 Reading List<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

June 2020 – One Giant Leap:<\/b><\/a> The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon<\/b><\/em> by Charles Fishman<\/b><\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 June 22nd, 2020
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The remarkable story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic mission to reach the moon.<\/p>\n

President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon by 1970.\u00a0 No group was more surprised than the scientists and engineers at NASA, who suddenly had less than a decade to invent space travel.<\/p>\n

When Kennedy announced that goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon.\u00a0 No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to reach the Moon, or how to build a computer small enough (and powerful enough) to fly a spaceship there.\u00a0 No one knew what the surface of the Moon was like, or what astronauts could eat as they flew there.\u00a0 On the day of Kennedy\u2019s historic speech, America had a total of fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience\u2014with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. Russian dogs had more time in space than U.S. astronauts.\u00a0 Over the next decade, more than 400,000 scientists, engineers, and factory workers would send 24 astronauts to the Moon.\u00a0 Each hour of space flight would require one million hours of work back on Earth to get America to the Moon on July 20, 1969.<\/p>\n

Fifty years later,\u00a0One Giant Leap<\/i> is the sweeping, definitive behind-the-scenes account of the furious race to complete one of mankind\u2019s greatest achievements.\u00a0 It\u2019s a story filled with surprises\u2014from the item the astronauts almost forgot to take with them (the American flag), to the extraordinary impact Apollo would have back on Earth, and on the way we live today.<\/p>\n

Charles Fishman introduces readers to the men and women who had to solve 10,000 problems before astronauts could reach the Moon.\u00a0 From the research labs of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary pioneer Charles Draper created the tools to fly the Apollo spaceships, to the factories where dozens of women sewed spacesuits, parachutes, and even computer hardware by hand, Fishman captures the exceptional feats of these ordinary Americans.\u00a0 One Giant Leap<\/i>\u00a0is the captivating story of men and women charged with changing the world as we knew it\u2014their leaders, their triumphs, their near disasters, all of which led to arguably the greatest success story, and the greatest adventure story, of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

May 2020 – The Dry<\/b><\/em><\/a> <\/b>\u00a0by Jane Harper<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 *<\/span> May 18th, 2020 *<\/span>
\n(NOTE: Meeting the 3rd Monday<\/span> due to the Memorial Day holiday)<\/span>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

A small town hides big secrets in\u00a0The Dry<\/i>, an atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.<\/p>\n

After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke.\u00a0 Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke\u2019s steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime.\u00a0 But now more than one person knows they didn\u2019t tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.<\/p>\n

Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke.\u00a0 As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there\u2019s more to Luke\u2019s death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them.\u00a0 And Falk will find that small towns have always\u00a0<\/i>hidden big secrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cA breathless page-turner, driven by the many revelations Ms. Harper dreams up\u2026You\u2019ll love [her] sleight of hand\u2026A secret on every page.\u201d\u00a0\u2014The New York Times<\/i><\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

April 2020 – Before We Were Yours<\/b><\/em><\/a> <\/b>by Lisa Wingate<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 April 27th, 2020
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

For readers of\u00a0Orphan Train\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0The Nightingale\u00a0<\/i>comes a \u201cthought-provoking [and} complex tale about two families, two generations apart…based on a notorious true-life scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family\u2019s Mississippi River shantyboat.\u00a0 But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge\u2014until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children\u2019s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents\u2014but they quickly realize the dark truth.\u00a0 At the mercy of the facility\u2019s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fianc\u00e9, and a lavish wedding on the horizon.\u00a0 But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family\u2019s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.<\/p>\n

Based on one of America\u2019s most notorious real-life scandals\u2014in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country\u2014Lisa Wingate\u2019s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0March 2020 – Destiny of the Republic<\/b><\/em><\/a>: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President<\/b><\/em> by Candice Millard<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 March 23rd, 2020
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president.\u00a0 Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman.\u00a0 Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment.\u00a0 But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.<\/p>\n

But the shot didn\u2019t kill Garfield.\u00a0 The drama of what happened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in turmoil.\u00a0 The unhinged assassin\u2019s half-delivered strike shattered the fragile national mood of a country so recently fractured by civil war, and left the wounded president as the object of a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle for power\u2014over his administration, over the nation\u2019s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care.\u00a0 A team of physicians administered shockingly archaic treatments, to disastrous effect.\u00a0 As his condition worsened, Garfield received help: Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, worked around the clock to invent a new device capable of finding the bullet.<\/p>\n

Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive,\u00a0The Destiny of the Republic<\/i>\u00a0will stand alongside\u00a0The Devil in the White City<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Professor and the Madman<\/i>\u00a0as a classic of narrative history.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

February 2020 – Silicon Valley Reads<\/em> – 2\u00a0Books this year!<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Meeting:\u00a0 February 24th, 2020
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic.\u00a0 The goals are to encourage the love of reading and learning and to have a welcoming forum where our diverse community can come together to share different perspectives.<\/p>\n

The Silicon Valley Reads 2020 theme is Women Making it Happen!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

In recognition of the 100th anniversary of women\u2019s suffrage in the U.S., Silicon Valley Reads 2020 will celebrate the achievements of women \u2013 from the tenacious individuals who worked so hard to get women the right to vote in the early 1900s to the women and girls in the 21st century who are breaking gender barriers to excel in all areas of life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley\u2019s Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime<\/a>
\nby Julian Guthrie<\/h4>\n

Alpha Girls<\/em> is the untold story of pioneering women in Silicon Valley.\u00a0 Described as\u00a0“Hidden Figures”\u00a0meets\u00a0“The Social Network,”\u00a0Alpha Girls<\/em>\u00a0is the story of the real unicorns of Silicon Valley — the women who bucked the system and found ways to survive and thrive in this high-stakes, male-dominated world.<\/p>\n

The book explores the rise of such companies as Facebook, Tesla, Oracle, Trulia, Imperva, F5 Networks, Acme Packet, ForeScout, Salesforce and more \u2013 all through the eyes of trailblazing “alpha girls” of Silicon Valley.\u00a0 \u00a0The book is being adapted for a television series by Academy Award-winning producer Cathy Schulman and TriStar.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tenth Muse<\/a>
\nby Catherine Chung<\/h4>\n

The Tenth Muse <\/em>is an exhilarating, moving novel about a\u00a0trailblazing mathematician whose research unearths her own extraordinary family story and its roots in World War II.<\/p>\n

From the days of her childhood in the 1950s Midwest, Katherine knows she is different, and that her parents are not who they seem.\u00a0 As she matures from a girl of rare intelligence into an exceptional mathematician, traveling to Europe to further her studies, she must face the most human of problems\u2014who is she?\u00a0 What is the cost of love, and what is the cost of ambition?\u00a0 These questions grow ever more entangled as Katherine strives to take her place in the world of higher mathematics and becomes involved with a brilliant and charismatic professor.<\/p>\n

When she embarks on a quest to conquer the Riemann hypothesis, the greatest unsolved mathematical problem of her time, she turns to a theorem with a mysterious history that may hold both the lock and the key to her identity, and to secrets long buried during World War II.\u00a0 Forced to confront some of the most consequential events of the 20th century and rethink everything she knows of herself, she finds kinship in the stories of the women who came before her, and discovers how seemingly distant stories, lives, and ideas are inextricably linked to her own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Silicon Valley Reads is presented by the Santa Clara County Library District<\/strong>, the San Jos\u00e9 Public Library<\/strong> and the Santa Clara County Office of Education<\/strong>.\u00a0 Each year, the program collaborates with community organizations to promote reading and literacy and to engage the community in dialogue about themes in a selected book or books that are relevant to Silicon Valley.\u00a0\u00a0 Events (author discussions, film showings, etc) are scheduled<\/a> throughout Santa Clara County with activities for all age groups.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

January 2020 – Freedom at Midnight<\/b><\/em><\/a> by Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 January 27th, 2020
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The end of an empire. The birth of two nations.<\/p>\n

Seventy years ago, at midnight on August 14, 1947, the Union Jack began its final journey down the flagstaff of Viceroy\u2019s House, New Delhi.\u00a0 A fifth of humanity claimed their independence from the greatest empire history has ever seen\u2014but the price of freedom was high, as a nation erupted into riots and bloodshed, partition and war.<\/p>\n

Freedom at Midnight is the true story of the events surrounding Indian independence, beginning with the appointment of Lord Mountbatten of Burma as the last Viceroy of British India, and ending with the assassination and funeral of Mahatma Gandhi.\u00a0 The book was an international bestseller and achieved enormous acclaim in the United States, Italy, Spain, and France.<\/p>\n

This edition contains black-and-white photos, five maps, a full bibliography, extensive notes, and a dedication from Dominique Lapierre to the memory of his longtime writing partner Larry Collins.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

December 2019 – <\/strong>Take a break for the holidays, and start the next books! \ud83d\ude09<\/h4>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

November 2019 – The Perfect Horse<\/b><\/em><\/a> by Elizabeth Letts
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 November 25th, 2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

In the chaotic last days of the war, a small troop of battle-weary American soldiers captures a German spy and makes an astonishing find\u2014his briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful white horses that have been stolen and kept on a secret farm behind enemy lines.\u00a0 Hitler has stockpiled the world\u2019s finest purebreds in order to breed the perfect military machine\u2014an equine master race.\u00a0 But with the starving Russian army closing in, the animals are in imminent danger of being slaughtered for food.
\nWith only hours to spare, one of the U.S. Army\u2019s last great cavalrymen, Colonel Hank Reed, makes a bold decision\u2014with General George Patton\u2019s blessing\u2014to mount a covert rescue operation.\u00a0 Racing against time, Reed\u2019s small but determined force of soldiers, aided by several turncoat Germans, steals across enemy lines in a last-ditch effort to save the horses.<\/p>\n

Pulling together this multistranded story, Elizabeth Letts introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters: Alois Podhajsky, director of the famed Spanish Riding School of Vienna, a former Olympic medalist who is forced to flee the bomb-ravaged Austrian capital with his entire stable in tow; Gustav Rau, Hitler\u2019s imperious chief of horse breeding, a proponent of eugenics who dreams of genetically engineering the perfect warhorse for Germany; and Tom Stewart, a senator\u2019s son who makes a daring moonlight ride on a white stallion to secure the farm\u2019s surrender.<\/p>\n

A compelling account for animal lovers and World War II buffs alike,\u00a0The Perfect Horse<\/i> tells for the first time the full story of these events.\u00a0 Elizabeth Letts\u2019s exhilarating tale of behind-enemy-lines adventure, courage, and sacrifice brings to life one of the most inspiring chapters in the annals of human valor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

October 2019 – Where the Crawdads Sing<\/b><\/em><\/a> by Delia Owens
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 October 28th, 2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell,\u00a0Where the Crawdads Sing<\/i>\u00a0is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.<\/p>\n

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast.\u00a0 So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl.\u00a0 But Kya is not what they say.\u00a0 Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand.\u00a0 Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved.\u00a0 When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.<\/p>\n

\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

2018-2019 Reading List<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

June 2019 – Educated: A Memoir<\/em><\/a> by Tara Westover<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 June 24th, 2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her \u201chead-for-the-hills\u201d bag. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged metal in her father\u2019s junkyard.<\/p>\n

Her father distrusted the medical establishment, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when an older brother became violent.<\/p>\n

When another brother got himself into college and came back with news of the world beyond the mountain, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. She taught herself enough mathematics, grammar, and science to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. There, she studied psychology, politics, philosophy, and history, learning for the first time about pivotal world events like the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she\u2019d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.<\/p>\n

Educated<\/i>\u00a0is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the grief that comes from severing one\u2019s closest ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one\u2019s life through new eyes, and the will to change it.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

May 2019 – Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Keith O’Brien<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 May 20th, 2019*\u00a0 (date was changed, due to Memorial Day)<\/em><\/p>\n

The untold story of five women who fought to compete against men in the high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s \u2014 and won.<\/p>\n

Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi\u2011day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were hailed. Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly, and deadly, pursuit.\u00a0Fly Girls<\/i>\u00a0recounts how a cadre of women banded together to break the original glass ceiling: the entrenched prejudice that conspired to keep them out of the sky.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high\u2011school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcee; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at the constraints of her blue\u2011blood family\u2019s expectations; and Louise Thaden, the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to race against the men \u2014 and in 1936 one of them would triumph in the toughest race of all.<\/p>\n

Like\u00a0Hidden Figures<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Girls of Atomic City<\/i>,\u00a0Fly Girls<\/i>\u00a0celebrates a little-known slice of history in which tenacious, trail-blazing women braved all obstacles to achieve greatness.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

April 2019 – The President is Missing: A Novel<\/b><\/em><\/a> by Bill Clinton & James Patterson
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 April 22nd, 2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The President Is Missing<\/i>\u00a0confronts a threat so huge that it jeopardizes not just Pennsylvania Avenue and Wall Street, but all of America.\u00a0 Uncertainty and fear grip the nation.\u00a0 There are whispers of cyber-terror and espionage and a traitor in the Cabinet.
\nEven the President himself becomes a suspect, and then he disappears from public view . . .<\/p>\n

\n
Set over the course of three days,\u00a0The President Is Missing\u00a0<\/i>sheds a stunning light upon the inner workings and vulnerabilities of our nation. Filled with information that only a former Commander-in-Chief could know,\u00a0this is the most authentic, terrifying novel to come along in many years.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

March 2019 – <\/strong>Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation<\/em><\/a> by Joseph J. Ellis<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 March 25th, 2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

In this landmark work of history and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Joseph J. Ellis\u00a0<\/i>explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals\u2014Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison\u2014confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation.<\/p>\n

The United States was more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790.\u00a0 During the decade that followed, the Founding Fathers\u2014re-examined here as Founding Brothers\u2014combined the ideals of the Declaration of Independence with the content of the Constitution to create the practical workings of our government. Through an analysis of six fascinating episodes\u2014Hamilton and Burr\u2019s deadly duel, Washington\u2019s precedent-setting Farewell Address, Adams\u2019 administration and political partnership with his wife, the debate about where to place the capital, Franklin\u2019s attempt to force Congress to confront the issue of slavery and Madison\u2019s attempts to block him, and Jefferson and Adams\u2019 famous correspondence\u2014Founding Brothers<\/b>\u00a0brings to life the vital issues and personalities from the most important decade in our nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

February 2019 – Silicon Valley Reads<\/em> – 3 Books this year!<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Meeting:\u00a0 February 25th, 2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic. The goals are to encourage the love of reading and learning and to have a welcoming forum where our diverse community can come together to share different perspectives.<\/p>\n

The Silicon Valley Reads 2019 theme is Finding Identity in Family History<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

Everyone has a family history \u2013 some they know and some they have yet to discover. The surging popularity of genealogy research is encouraging more people than ever to find out more about their ancestors and how their actions and decisions affect who we are today.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads is proud to engage our community in a discussion of this fascinating topic and to introduce readers to three outstanding books that tell the personal stories of individuals whose lives were changed as a result of learning new and unexpected things about their families.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Finding Samuel Lowe<\/a>
\nby Paula Williams Madison<\/h5>\n

Spanning four generations and moving between New York, Jamaica, and China, this powerful memoir that is a universal story of one woman’s search for her maternal grandfather and the key to her self-identity.<\/p>\n

Finding Samuel Lowe<\/em>\u00a0is a remarkable journey about one woman’s path to self-discovery. It is a story about love and devotion that transcends time and race, and a beautiful reflection of the power of family and the interconnectedness of our world.<\/p>\n

A documentary version of Finding Samuel Lowe is also available. Preview at https:\/\/vimeo.com\/84472327<\/a><\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s All Relative<\/a>
\nby A.J. Jacobs<\/h5>\n

A.J. Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest: “You don’t know me, but I’m your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database.”<\/p>\n

That’s enough family members to fill Madison Square Garden four times over. Who are these people, A.J. wondered, and how do I find them? So began Jacobs’s three-year adventure to help build the biggest family tree in history.<\/p>\n

Jacobs’s journey would take him to all seven continents. He drank beer with a U.S. president, found himself singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and unearthed genetic links to Hollywood actresses and real-life scoundrels. After all, we can choose our friends, but not our family.<\/p>\n

__________
\n<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Stranger\u00a0in My Genes: A Memoir<\/a>
\nby Bill Griffeth<\/h5>\n

In 2012, longtime genealogy buff Bill Griffeth took a DNA test, just for fun, and got the shock of his life. The results suggested that his beloved father was not his father. \u201cIf the test was correct, it meant that the family tree I had spent years documenting was not, in fact, my own.\u201d\u00a0The\u00a0Stranger in My Genesrecounts Bill\u2019s two-year quest to learn the truth about his paternity, including a memorable encounter with his 95-year-old mother. In the end, the veteran CNBC-TV anchor is left to discover his real father and a new definition of \u201cfamily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads is presented by the Santa Clara County Library District<\/strong>, the San Jos\u00e9 Public Library<\/strong> and the Santa Clara County Office of Education<\/strong>. Each year, the program collaborates with community organizations to promote reading and literacy and to engage the community in dialogue about themes in a selected book or books that are relevant to Silicon Valley.\u00a0\u00a0 Events will be scheduled throughout Santa Clara County with activities for all age groups.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

January 2019 – Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Mark Sullivan<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 January 28th, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, this book is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man\u2019s incredible courage and resilience during one of history\u2019s darkest hours.\u00a0 Based in the final two years of World War II,\u00a0Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis.\u00a0 He\u2019s a normal Italian teenager\u2014obsessed with music, food, and girls\u2014but his days of innocence are numbered.\u00a0 When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to protect him, Pino\u2019s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier\u2014a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler\u2019s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich\u2019s most mysterious and powerful commanders.<\/p>\n

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.<\/p>\n

Fans of\u00a0All the Light We Cannot See<\/i>,\u00a0The Nightingale<\/i>, and\u00a0Unbroken<\/i>\u00a0will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love.\u00a0\u00a0Soon to be a movie.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

December 2018 – <\/strong>Take a break for the holidays, and start the next books! \ud83d\ude09<\/h5>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

November 2018 – Born a Crime: Stories from a South African\u00a0Childhood<\/a> by Trevor Noah<\/b>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 November 26th, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

The Audio version<\/a> (read by Noah) is HIGHLY encouraged by the person who recommended this book!
\nTrevor Noah\u2019s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of\u00a0The Daily Show\u00a0<\/i>began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents\u2019 indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa\u2019s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.<\/p>\n

Born a Crime<\/i>\u00a0is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man\u2019s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother\u2014his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.<\/p>\n

The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother\u2019s unconventional, unconditional love.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0October 2018 – Alexander Hamilton<\/b><\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Ron Chernow
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 October 22nd, 2018
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

In this full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow tells the riveting story of a man who overcame all odds to shape, inspire, and scandalize the newborn America.\u00a0 According to historian Joseph Ellis,\u00a0Alexander Hamilton<\/i><\/b>\u00a0is \u201ca robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton.\u00a0 Chernow\u2019s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today\u2019s America is the result of Hamilton\u2019s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time.\u00a0 \u201cTo repudiate his legacy,\u201d Chernow writes, \u201cis, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world.\u201d\u00a0 Chernow recounts Hamilton\u2019s turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington\u2019s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.\u00a0 Chernow\u2019s biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America\u2019s birth seen through its most central figure.\u00a0 At a critical time to look back to our roots,\u00a0Alexander Hamilton<\/i><\/b>\u00a0will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.<\/p>\n

\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

2017-2018 Reading List<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

June 2018 \u2013\u00a0Invisible Man<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Ralph Ellison<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0\u00a0June 25th, 2018 (last meeting until September’s new session)<\/em><\/p>\n

We end this session the same way we started \u2013 with another classic.<\/p>\n

Invisible Man<\/em>\u00a0is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952.\u00a0 A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century.<\/p>\n

The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of \u201cthe Brotherhood\u201d, and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.\u00a0\u00a0The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot\u2019s\u00a0The Waste Land<\/em>, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

May 2018 \u2013\u00a0Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Anne Lamott<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0\u00a0May 21st, 2018* (NOTE: this is the 3rd Monday, May 28 is a holiday)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

From the author of\u00a0Help, Thanks, Wow<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Bird by Bird<\/i>, a powerful exploration of mercy and how we can embrace it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMercy is radical kindness,\u201d Anne Lamott writes in her enthralling and heartening book,\u00a0Hallelujah Anyway<\/i>. It\u2019s the permission you give others\u2014and yourself\u2014to forgive a debt, to absolve the unabsolvable, to let go of the judgment and pain that make life so difficult.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy<\/i>\u00a0Lamott ventures to explore where to find meaning in life. We should begin, she suggests, by \u201cfacing a great big mess, especially the great big mess of ourselves.\u201d It\u2019s up to each of us to recognize the presence and importance of mercy everywhere\u2014\u201dwithin us and outside us, all around us\u201d\u2014and to use it to forge a deeper understanding of ourselves and more honest connections with each other. While that can be difficult to do, Lamott argues that it\u2019s crucial, as \u201ckindness towards others, beginning with myself, buys us a shot at a warm and generous heart, the greatest prize of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Full of Lamott\u2019s trademark honesty, humor and forthrightness,\u00a0Hallelujah Anyway<\/i>\u00a0is profound and caring, funny and wise\u2014a hopeful book of hands-on spirituality.
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

April 2018 \u2013\u00a0Devil\u2019s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump & the Storming of the Presidency<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Joshua Green<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0\u00a0April 23rd, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

From the reporter who was there at the very beginning comes the revealing inside story of the partnership between Steve Bannon and Donald Trump\u2014the key to understanding the rise of the alt-right, the fall of Hillary Clinton, and the hidden forces that drove the greatest upset in American political history.<\/p>\n

Based on dozens of interviews conducted over six years, Green spins the master narrative of the 2016 campaign from its origins in the far fringes of right-wing politics and reality television to its culmination inside Trump\u2019s penthouse on election night.
\nThe shocking elevation of Bannon to head Trump\u2019s flagging presidential campaign on August 17, 2016, hit political Washington like a thunderclap and seemed to signal the meltdown of the Republican Party. Bannon was a bomb-throwing pugilist who\u2019d never run a campaign and was despised by Democrats and Republicans alike.<\/p>\n

Yet Bannon\u2019s hard-edged ethno-nationalism and his elaborate, years-long plot to destroy Hillary Clinton paved the way for Trump\u2019s unlikely victory. Trump became the avatar of a dark but powerful worldview that dominated the airwaves and spoke to voters whom others couldn\u2019t see. Trump\u2019s campaign was the final phase of a populist insurgency that had been building up in America for years, and Bannon, its inscrutable mastermind,\u00a0believed it was the culmination of a hard-right global uprising that would change the world.<\/p>\n

Any study of Trump\u2019s rise to the presidency is unavoidably a study of Bannon.\u00a0Devil\u2019s Bargain<\/i>\u00a0is a tour-de-force telling of the remarkable confluence of circumstances that decided the election, many of them orchestrated by Bannon and his allies, who really did plot a vast, right-wing conspiracy to stop Clinton. To understand Trump\u2019s extraordinary rise and Clinton\u2019s fall, you have to weave Trump\u2019s story together with Bannon\u2019s, or else it doesn\u2019t make sense.
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

March 2018 \u2013\u00a0In the Garden of Beasts<\/a><\/em>\u00a0by Erik Larson<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0\u00a0March 26th, 2018
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction, and in this book, the bestselling author of\u00a0Devil in the White City<\/i>\u00a0turns his hand to a remarkable story set during Hitler\u2019s rise to power.<\/p>\n

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America\u2019s first ambassador to Hitler\u2019s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.<\/p>\n

A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the \u201cNew Germany,\u201d she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance\u2013and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler\u2019s true character and ruthless ambition.<\/p>\n

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre G\u00f6ring and the expectedly charming\u2013yet wholly sinister\u2013Goebbels,\u00a0In the Garden of Beasts<\/i>\u00a0lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

February 2018 \u2013\u00a0Silicon Valley Reads<\/em>\u00a0\u2013
\nGoodbye Vitamin<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Rachel Khong and\u00a0My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward<\/a>\u00a0by Mark Lukach<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Meeting:\u00a0\u00a0February 26th, 2018
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads<\/a>\u00a0is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic. The goals are to encourage the love of reading and learning and to have a welcoming forum where our diverse community can come together to share different perspectives.\u00a0 The 2018 program will focus on caregiving and the need for community support.<\/p>\n

The stories of two families that found renewed love and commitment to one another after being thrust into caregiving roles will be the centerpiece of Silicon Valley Reads 2018 and its theme
\n\u201cNo Matter What: Caring, Coping, Compassion.<\/strong><\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Goodbye, Vitamin<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is the critically-acclaimed debut novel of Rachel Khong. \u00a0Through funny and poignant journal postings, a young woman chronicles the year she returned home to help take care of her father after his diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a powerful memoir by Mark\u00a0\"\"<\/em><\/a>Lukach about a young couple whose marriage is tested by the sudden onset of mental illness.\u00a0 Both spotlight the challenges of caregiving and the importance of community support during tough times.<\/p>\n

The annual community engagement program will kick off on\u00a0Thursday, Feb. 1, 7:30 pm<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0at the Visual and Performing Arts Center at De Anza College in Cupertino where Mercury News columnist Sal Pizarro will interview both authors.\u00a0 Admission is free with open seating on a first come basis.\u00a0 It is co-sponsored by the Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley and De Anza College.<\/p>\n

Both authors Khong and Lukach are Bay Area residents and will make multiple appearances in Silicon Valley during February and March.\u00a0 Schedule information about these talks and other Silicon Valley Reads events for all ages will be posted on the website\u00a0SiliconValleyReads.org<\/a>\u00a0in early January.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Reads 2018 is presented by the\u00a0Santa Clara County Library District<\/strong>, the\u00a0San Jos\u00e9 Public Library<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0Santa Clara County Office of Education<\/strong>. Each year, the program collaborates with community organizations to promote reading and literacy and to engage the community in dialogue about themes in a selected book or books that are relevant to Silicon Valley.\u00a0\u00a0 Events will be scheduled throughout Santa Clara County with activities for all age groups.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

January 2018 \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>A Full Cup: Sir Thomas Lipton\u2019s Extraordinary Life<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Michael D\u2019Antonio<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0\u00a0January 22nd, 2018
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Today Lipton means tea. However, in his time Sir Thomas Lipton was known for much more than the Lipton\u00a0tea empire.\u00a0Raised in desperate poverty, he would build a\u00a0global empire of markets, factories, plantations, and stockyards. But his epic pursuit of the America\u2019s Cup\u2014a yachting trophy and the ultimate in international sport\u2014made him a beloved figure on both sides of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

More than a story of innovation and achievement,\u00a0A Full Cup\u00a0<\/i>also explores Lipton\u2019s most intriguing creation: his public persona, formed by a burgeoning mass media and a shameless self-promotion that made him one of the most recognizable figures of his time. Michael D\u2019Antonio brings to life the surprising careers of this intrepid sailor, gregarious showman, and ingenious self-made millionaire\u2014the world\u2019s very first celebrity CEO.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

December 2017\u00a0\u2013 NO meeting; Happy Holidays!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll take a breather and get started on the January & February books.\u00a0\u00a0?<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

November 2017 \u2013\u00a0The\u00a0Nine Tailors<\/b><\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Dorothy Sayers
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0\u00a0November 27th, 2017
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Lord Peter Wimsey and his manservant Bunter are halfway across the wild flatlands of East Anglia when they make a wrong turn, straight into a ditch. They scramble over the rough country to the nearest church, where they find hospitality, dinner, and an invitation to go bell-ringing. This ancient art is steeped in mathematical complexities, and tonight the rector and his friends plan to embark on a nine-hour marathon session to welcome the New Year. Lord Peter joins them, taking a step into a society whose cheerful exterior hides a dark, deadly past. During their stay in this unfamiliar countryside, Lord Peter and Bunter encounter murder, a mutilated corpse, and a decades-old jewel theft for which locals continue to die. In this land where bells toll for the dead, the ancient chimes never seem to stop.<\/p>\n

Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator, Christian humanist, and a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between the First and Second World Wars that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, that remain popular to this day. However, Sayers herself considered her translation of Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy to be her best work. She is also known for her plays, literary criticism and essays.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0October 2017 \u2013\u00a0All Quiet on the Western Front<\/b><\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Erich Maria Remarque
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0\u00a0October 23rd, 2017
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

We started this session off with a classic.\u00a0 Considered by many the greatest war novel of all time,\u00a0All Quiet on the Western Front<\/i>\u00a0is Erich Maria Remarque\u2019s masterpiece of the German experience during World War I.<\/p>\n

I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. . . .<\/i><\/p>\n

This is the testament of Paul B\u00e4umer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army during World War I. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught breaks in pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.<\/p>\n

Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another . . .\u00a0 if only he can come out of the war alive.<\/p>\n

\n

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2016-2017 Reading List<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>June 2017 \u2013 How the Post Office Created America<\/a><\/b><\/em> by Winifred Gallagher<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\" <\/a>Meeting: June 26th, 2017<\/p>\n

A masterful history of a long underappreciated institution, How the Post Office Created America<\/i> examines the surprising role of the postal service in our nation\u2019s political, social, economic, and physical development.<\/p>\n

The founders established the post office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time, it was the U.S. government\u2019s largest and most important endeavor\u2014indeed, it was<\/i> the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind thirteen quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen\u2014a radical idea that appalled Europe\u2019s great powers. America\u2019s uniquely democratic post powerfully shaped its lively, argumentative culture of uncensored ideas and opinions and made it the world\u2019s information and communications superpower with astonishing speed.<\/p>\n

Winifred Gallagher presents the history of the post office as America\u2019s own story, told from a fresh perspective over more than two centuries. The mandate to deliver the mail\u2014then \u201cthe media\u201d\u2014imposed the federal footprint on vast, often contested parts of the continent and transformed a wilderness into a social landscape of post roads and villages centered on post offices. The post was the catalyst of the nation\u2019s transportation grid, from the stagecoach lines to the airlines, and the lifeline of the great migration from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It enabled America to shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy and to develop the publishing industry, the consumer culture, and the political party system. Still one of the country\u2019s two major civilian employers, the post was the first to hire women, African Americans, and other minorities for positions in public life.<\/p>\n

Starved by two world wars and the Great Depression, confronted with the country\u2019s increasingly anti-institutional mind-set, and struggling with its doubled mail volume, the post stumbled badly in the turbulent 1960s. Distracted by the ensuing modernization of its traditional services, however, it failed to transition from paper mail to email, which prescient observers saw as its logical next step. Now the post office is at a crossroads. Before deciding its future, Americans should understand what this grand yet overlooked institution has accomplished since 1775 and consider what it should and could contribute in the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n

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May 2017 \u2013 Dance Hall of the Dead<\/a><\/b><\/em> by Tony Hillerman<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meeting: May 22nd, 2017<\/p>\n

Two Native-American boys have vanished into thin air, leaving a pool of blood behind them. Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police has no choice but to suspect the very worst, since the blood that stains the parched New Mexican ground once flowed through the veins of one of the missing, a young Zu\u00f1i.<\/p>\n

But his investigation into a terrible crime is being complicated by an important archaeological dig . . . and a steel hypodermic needle. And the unique laws and sacred religious rites of the Zu\u00f1i people are throwing impassable roadblocks in Leaphorn\u2019s already twisted path, enabling a craven murderer to elude justice or, worse still, to kill again.<\/p>\n

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April 2017 \u2013 The Arsenal of Democracy<\/a><\/b><\/em> by A.J. Baime<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Meeting: April 24th, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War<\/span><\/p>\n

As the United States entered World War II, the military was in desperate need of tanks, jeeps, and, most important, airplanes. Germany had been amassing weaponry and airplanes for five years\u2014the United States for only months. So President Roosevelt turned to the American auto industry, specifically the Ford Motor Company, where Edsel Ford made the outrageous claim that he would construct the largest airplane factory in the world, a plant that could build a \u201cbomber an hour.\u201d And so began one of the most fascinating and overlooked chapters in American history.<\/p>\n

Drawing on unique access to archival material and exhaustive research, A. J. Baime has crafted a riveting narrative that hopscotches from Detroit to Washington to Normandy, from the assembly lines to the frontlines, and from the depths of professional and personal failure to the heights that Ford Motor Company and the American military ultimately achieved in the sky.<\/p>\n

\u201cA touching and absorbing portrait of one of the forgotten heroes of World War II . . . A. J. Baime has given us a memorable portrait not just of an industry going to war but of a remarkable figure who helped to make victory possible.\u201d\u2014Wall Street Journal<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWars are fought on many fronts, and A. J. Baime chronicles this little-known, but terrifically important battle to build America\u2019s bomber force with narrative zest and delicious detail. Put simply, it\u2019s a great read.\u201d\u2014Neal Bascomb, best-selling author of The Perfect Mile<\/i><\/p>\n

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March 2017 \u2013 The Finest Hours<\/a><\/em> by Michael J. Tougias<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meeting March 27th, 2017<\/p>\n

The true story of an incredible disaster and heroic rescue at sea told by two masterful storytellers.
\nIn the winter of 1952, New England was battered by the most brutal nor\u2019easter in years. As the weather wreaked havoc on land, the freezing Atlantic became a wind-whipped zone of peril.<\/p>\n

In the early hours of Monday, February 18, while the storm raged, two oil tankers, the Pendleton<\/i> and the Fort Mercer<\/i>, found themselves in the same horrifying predicament. Built with \u201cdirty steel,\u201d and not prepared to withstand such ferocious seas, both tankers split in two, leaving the dozens of men on board utterly at the Atlantic\u2019s mercy.<\/p>\n

The Finest Hours<\/i> is the gripping, true story of the valiant attempt to rescue the souls huddling inside the broken halves of the two ships. Coast Guard cutters raced to the aid of those on the Fort Mercer<\/i>, and when it became apparent that the halves of the Pendleton<\/i> were in danger of capsizing, the Guard sent out two thirty-six-foot lifeboats as well. These wooden boats, manned by only four seamen, were dwarfed by the enormous seventy-foot seas. As the tiny rescue vessels set out from the coast of Cape Cod, the men aboard were all fully aware that they were embarking on what could easily become a suicide mission.<\/p>\n

The spellbinding tale is overflowing with breathtaking scenes that sear themselves into the mind\u2019s eye, as boats capsize, bows and sterns crash into one another, and men hurl themselves into the raging sea in their terrifying battle for survival.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/span><\/h5>\n
February 2017 \u2013 Silicon Valley Reads:
\nUnfair<\/em><\/a> by Adam Benforado, and <\/span>Writing My Wrongs<\/em><\/a> by Shaka Senghor<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n
\n

<\/a><\/a>Meeting February 27th, 2017<\/p>\n

We always include the Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> selections in the winter.
\nIn 2017, their 15th anniversary, Silicon Valley Reads focuses on
\n\u201c. . . and justice for all,\u201d a conversation about the unconscious biases we all have, and how these assumptions, perceptions and prejudices can lead to people being treated unfairly, especially in the legal system.\u00a0 Everyone has, at one time or another, been unfairly judged because of some type of bias and our goal is to raise awareness\u200b and spark new ideas on how we can reduce bias in our legal system and our daily lives.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The selections for 2017 are:
\nUnfair <\/em><\/strong>by Adam Benforado, and <\/span>Writing My Wrongs <\/em><\/strong>by Shaka Senghor.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Click here<\/a> for events & author appearances associated with the Silicon Valley Reads program.
\nRead more about the two Silicon Valley Reads books for 2017 here<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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January 2017 \u2013 L.A. NOIR<\/a><\/b><\/em> by John Buntin<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Meeting: January 23rd, 2017<\/p>\n

Midcentury Los Angeles.
\nA city sold to the world as \u201cthe white spot of America,\u201d a land of sunshine and orange groves, wholesome Midwestern values and Hollywood stars, protected by the world\u2019s most famous police force, the Dragnet<\/i>-era LAPD. Behind this public image lies a hidden world of \u201cpleasure girls\u201d and crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters on the make. Into this underworld came two men\u2014one L.A.\u2019 s most notorious gangster, the other its most famous police chief\u2014each prepared to battle the other for the soul of the city.<\/p>\n

(Became the TNT Original Series, Mob City<\/a><\/em>, read the wiki page<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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December 2016 \u2013 NO meeting; Happy Holidays!<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n

We took a breather and got started on the January & February books.\u00a0 ?<\/p>\n

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November 2016 \u2013 The Nightingale<\/a><\/em> by Kristin Hannah<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meeting: November 28th, 2016<\/p>\n

In love we find out who we want to be.
\nIn war we find out who we are.
\nFRANCE, 1939
\nIn the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn\u2019t believe that the Nazis will invade France \u2026 but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne\u2019s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.<\/p>\n

With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women\u2019s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France\u2013a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.<\/p>\n

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October 2016 \u2013 John Steinbeck<\/em><\/a> \u2013 Your Own Personal Selection<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Meeting:\u00a0 October 24th, 2016<\/p>\n

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr.<\/b> (February 27, 1902\u00a0\u2013 December 20, 1968) was an American author of 27 books, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and five collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat<\/a><\/i> (1935) and Cannery Row<\/a><\/i> (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden<\/a><\/i> (1952), and the novellas Of Mice and Men<\/a><\/i> (1937) and The Red Pony<\/a><\/i> (1937). The Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath<\/i><\/a> (1939)<\/sup> is considered Steinbeck\u2019s masterpiece and part of the American literary canon<\/a>.<\/sup> In the first 75 years after it was published, it sold 14 million copies.<\/sup><\/p>\n

The winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature<\/a>, he has been called \u201ca giant of American letters\u201d.<\/sup> His works are widely read abroad and many of his works are considered classics of Western literature.<\/p>\n

Most of Steinbeck\u2019s work is set in southern and central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists.<\/p>\n

We will discuss the book(s) we read as well as the writing style of Steinbeck.<\/p>\n

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2015-2016 Reading List<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

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\u00a0May 2016 <\/strong>
\n\"BookClub_AllTheLightWeCannotSee\"<\/a> ALL the LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE<\/em><\/a> by Anthony Doerr<\/h5>\n

Published by in May 2014, it won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. From the highly acclaimed Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times<\/i> bestseller is about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.<\/p>\n

Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, a National Book Award finalist, All the Light We Cannot See<\/i> is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer \u201cwhose sentences never fail to thrill\u201d (Los Angeles Times<\/i>).<\/p>\n

See Simon & Schuster Reading Group Guide<\/a><\/p>\n

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April 2016<\/strong>
\n\"BookClub_WorthyFights\"<\/a> WORTHY FIGHTS<\/em><\/a> by Leon Panetta<\/h5>\n

The inspiring and revelatory autobiography of the defense secretary and CIA director who led the intelligence war that killed Bin Laden, among many important roles in a legendary career<\/i><\/p>\n

It could be said that Leon Panetta has had two of the most consequential careers of any American public servant in the past fifty years. His first career, beginning as an army intelligence officer and including a distinguished run as one of Congress’s most powerful and respected members, lasted thirty-five years and culminated in his transformational role as Clinton’s budget czar and White House chief of staff. He then “retired” to establish the Panetta Institute with his wife of fifty years, Sylvia; to serve on the Iraq Study Group; and to protect his beloved California coastline. But in 2009, he accepted what many said was a thankless task: returning to public office as the director of the CIA, taking it from a state of turmoil after the Bush-era torture debates and moving it back to the vital center of America’s war against Al Qaeda, including the campaign that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. And then, in the wake of bin Laden’s death, Panetta became the U.S. secretary of defense, inheriting two troubled wars in a time of austerity and painful choices.<\/p>\n

Like his career, Worthy Fights<\/i> is a reflection of Panetta’s values. It is imbued with the frank, grounded, and often quite funny spirit of a man who never lost touch with where he came from: his family’s walnut farm in beautiful Carmel Valley, California. It is also a testament to a lost kind of political leadership, which favors progress and duty to country over partisanship. Panetta is a Democrat who pushed for balanced budgets while also expanding care for the elderly and sick; a devout Catholic who opposes the death penalty but had to weigh every drone strike from 2009 through 2011. Throughout his career, Panetta’s polestar has been his belief that a public servant’s real choice is between leadership or crisis. Troubles always come about through no fault of one’s own, but most can be prevented with courage and foresight.<\/p>\n

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March 2016<\/strong>
\n\"BookClub_TheMartian\"<\/a> THE MARTIAN<\/a><\/em> by Andy Weir<\/h5>\n

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
\nNow, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
\nAfter a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he\u2019s alive\u2014and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.<\/p>\n

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills\u2014and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit\u2014he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?<\/p>\n

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February 2016<\/strong><\/h5>\n
\n

We always include the Silicon Valley Reads<\/a> selections in the winter. For 2016, the two books chosen focus on climate change and are from an emerging literary genre of “Eco-Fiction<\/em>” (also called climate fiction), with two outstanding books speculating about a future with extreme issues related to weather.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

See here<\/a> for events & author appearances associated with the Silicon Valley Reads program.
\nSilicon Valley Reads also selects companion books<\/a> for younger children.<\/div>\n

\"MemoryOfWater_Book\"<\/a><\/span><\/span> MEMORY of WATER<\/em><\/a><\/strong> by Emmi Itaranta – Silicon Valley Reads Selection (see above)<\/p>\n

Global warming has changed the world\u2019s geography and its politics. Wars are waged over water, and China rules Europe, including the Scandinavian Union, which is occupied by the power state of New Qian. In this far north place, 17-year-old Noria Kaitio is learning to become a tea master like her father, a position that holds great responsibility and great secrets. Tea masters alone know the location of hidden water sources, including the natural spring that Noria\u2019s father tends, which once provided water for her whole village…<\/span><\/p>\n

Emmi It\u00e4ranta’s debut novel Memory of Water<\/em> (originally published in Finnish as Teemestarin kirja)<\/em> has won several awards: the Fantasy and Sci-fi Literary Contest organized by the Finnish publishing house Teos in 2010, the Kalevi J\u00e4ntti Prize for young authors in 2012 and the Young Aleksis Kivi Prize in 2012. It received an honorable mention from the 2014 James Tiptree Jr. Award jury and was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Golden Tentacle Award in 2015. Translation rights to the novel have been sold in 17 territories to date.<\/span><\/p>\n

AND<\/p>\n

\"SherwoodNation_Book_2015\"<\/a><\/span><\/span> SHERWOOD NATION<\/em><\/a><\/strong> by Ben Parzybok – Silicon Valley Reads Selection (see above)<\/p>\n

In drought-stricken Portland, Oregon, a Robin Hood-esque water thief is caught on camera redistributing an illegal truckload of water to those in need. Nicknamed Maid Marian\u2014real name: Renee, a 20-something barista and eternal part-time college student\u2014she is an instant folk hero. Renee rides her swelling popularity and the public’s disgust at how the city has abandoned its people, raises an army . . . and secedes a quarter of the city. Even as Maid Marian and her compatriots build their community one neighbor at a time, they are making powerful enemies amongst the city government and the National Guard. Sherwood is an idealistic dream too soon caught in a brutal fight for survival.<\/span><\/p>\n

Benjamin Parzybok is the author of the novels Couch<\/em> (two time Indie-Next<\/em> pick) and Sherwood Nation. <\/em>His short stories have appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed Magazine<\/em> and West Branch<\/em>. Among his other projects, he co-founded Gumball Poetry<\/em>, a literary journal published in gumball capsule machines, co-ran Project Hamad, an effort to free a Guantanamo inmate Adel Hamad (who is now free) and co-runs \u201cBlack Magic Insurance Agency,\u201d a one-night city-wide alternative reality game. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon with the artist Laura Moulton. He also founded and is the current Chief Technology Officer of the startup Walker Tracker. <\/span><\/p>\n

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January 2016<\/strong>
\n\"BookClub_Triangle\"<\/a> TRIANGLE<\/em><\/a><\/strong> by David von Drehle<\/h5>\n

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company burned for only a matter of minutes, but the embers of the fire that took hundreds of lives still smolder today. Around 4:30pm on March 25, 1911, the top three floors of a ten-story building at the corner of Washington and Greene Streets in New York City began to burn. Close to 500 women, mostly teenagers and young adults, occupied those floors. They were nearly all Jewish immigrants working nine and a half hours, Monday through Saturday, on piece goods for around $15 a week in wages. In fifteen minutes, 146 of the workers would be dead.<\/p>\n

Seventy-nine years later to the day, Miami Herald reporter David Von Drehle was covering the story of another fire in New York City. A deranged man had firebombed a nightclub in the Bronx, killing 87 people. The coincidence of the date of the fires prompted some to be reminded of the Triangle fire. One year later Von Drehle would move to New York, living one block from the location of the factory. His curiosity now piqued, he began to learn details about the fire that altered the history of the labor movement in America. TRIANGLE: The Fire That Changed America is the product of that research. It is a powerful work of history made even more riveting by an author who writes of the event with a style that brings vibrant life to an event nearly a century past.<\/p>\n

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December 2015 – no meeting; Happy Holidays!<\/em><\/strong>
\nWe took a breather and got started on the January & February books \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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November 2015 <\/strong>
\n\"BookClub_DeadWake\"<\/a> DEAD WAKE<\/em><\/a><\/strong> by Erik Larson<\/h5>\n

Larson\u2019s latest work of narrative non-fiction uses historical records, letters, and journal entries to tell the story of Unterseeboot-20<\/i> and its captain Walther Schwieger, the crew and passengers aboard the luxury transatlantic liner the Lusitania<\/i>, and the political buildup to World War I. Germany, France, and England are already locked in combat when the book opens, and while American sentiment originally favored neutrality, global tensions were rising…<\/p>\n

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October 2015<\/strong><\/h5>\n
\"BookClub_ErnestHemingway\"<\/a> <\/strong><\/h5>\n

Ernest Hemingway<\/strong><\/em><\/a> – Personal Selection: We discussed “Papa” and his myriad works.<\/p>\n

This could include The Torrents of Spring, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Across the River and Into the Trees, The Old Man and the Sea, Islands in the Stream*, The Garden of Eden*, Death in the Afternoon, Green Hills of Africa, Hemingway: the Wild Years*, A Moveable Feast*, <\/em>as well as letters, anthologies collections and other books published after 1961 by Papa. We will discuss the book as well as the writing style of Hemingway.
\n(*Published after his death in 1961.)<\/p>\n

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Books and descriptions are shown below by season (back to 2015).\u00a0 You can also see a spreadsheet by title of ALL the books we’ve read since 2004! _______________________________________________________ 2024-2025 Reading List\u00a0\u00a0 _______________________________________________________ June 2025 – Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith\u00a0by Jon Krakaur Meeting:\u00a0 June 23rd, 2025\u00a0– in the Fireside Room […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7668","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6VbcX-1ZG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2528,"url":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/what-i-do\/small-groups-for-adults\/book-group\/","url_meta":{"origin":7668,"position":0},"title":"Book Club","author":"rkohlin","date":"September 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Join the CUMC Book Club at the Monday, April 27th meeting as we discuss the book, The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel, the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo's Daughter.\u00a0Sobel crafts a luminous chronicle of the life and work of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CUMC-Bookclub_SM_books_18589ac.jpg?fit=1098%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CUMC-Bookclub_SM_books_18589ac.jpg?fit=1098%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CUMC-Bookclub_SM_books_18589ac.jpg?fit=1098%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CUMC-Bookclub_SM_books_18589ac.jpg?fit=1098%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CUMC-Bookclub_SM_books_18589ac.jpg?fit=1098%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5689,"url":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/worship\/sermons\/sermons-archive\/","url_meta":{"origin":7668,"position":1},"title":"Sermons Archive","author":"rkohlin","date":"February 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Previous Sermons & Worship Series: The Journey ...\u00a0 \u00a0 ~ Worship Series for Advent & Christmas ~ This Advent season, we invite you to journey with us as we travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem in this fascinating look at the birth of Jesus. \u00a0Using historical information, archaeological data, and personal\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/20181202_The-Journey-300x116.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1002,"url":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/what-i-do\/united-women-in-faith-uwf\/","url_meta":{"origin":7668,"position":2},"title":"United Women in Faith (UWF)","author":"cumcadmin","date":"June 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Faith ~ Hope ~ Love - in Action We are women with a Purpose! (find events below) United Women in Faith\/UWF (prev. UMW) is a community of women of all ages. We seek to connect and nurture women through Christian spiritual formation, leadership development, creative fellowship and education so that\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/UWF_Love-in-Action_Banner_all-hands.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/UWF_Love-in-Action_Banner_all-hands.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/UWF_Love-in-Action_Banner_all-hands.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/UWF_Love-in-Action_Banner_all-hands.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1087,"url":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/what-i-do\/bible-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":7668,"position":3},"title":"Adult Studies","author":"cumcadmin","date":"April 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday Morning Bible Study The Sunday Bible Study class meets after Worship at 11:30am Sunday mornings.\u00a0 Themes and meeting formats change throughout the year - from studying particular books of the Bible to the histories of the Old & New Testaments and more.\u00a0 Drop-ins are welcome. Click this link for\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Gesu by G.A. Lomuscio","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/ContempChrist_G.A.-Lomuscio-211x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1085,"url":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/what-i-do\/small-groups-for-adults\/","url_meta":{"origin":7668,"position":4},"title":"Small Groups for Adults","author":"cumcadmin","date":"April 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For more information about and contacts for the following adult groups, please click the\u00a0 links within the descriptions. Also see Opportunities for Service and Mission on the SERVE page. Groups for Women Faith ~ Hope ~ Love\u00a0 in Action United Women in Faith (prev UMW) is a community of women\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/FrancisAssisiQuote.jpg?fit=960%2C549&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/FrancisAssisiQuote.jpg?fit=960%2C549&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/FrancisAssisiQuote.jpg?fit=960%2C549&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/FrancisAssisiQuote.jpg?fit=960%2C549&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6589,"url":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/worship\/worship-at-work-fifth-sundays-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":7668,"position":5},"title":"Worship at Work: Fifth Sundays","author":"rkohlin","date":"June 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Worship at Work in the World! \u00a0\u00a0 Four times each year, there is a fifth Sunday of the month.\u00a0 In 2016, we tried something new.\u00a0 Such a resounding success it was, that we will continue our Fifth Sunday \"Worship at Work\" events.\u00a0 (We call it that because we worship while\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/StopHungerNowLogo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7668"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28062,"href":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7668\/revisions\/28062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campbellunited.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}