Moke Hill READS Book Club

Jun 11, 2017 by contributor

NEXT MEETING:  Tuesday July 11 — 7 PM, Moke Hill Library/Archives

BOOK:  Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance.  This is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white, working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, is being reported on with growing frequency and alarm. J. D. Vance, former Marine and Yale Law School graduate, tells the story searingly from the inside, revealing what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

August 1, 2017  Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah. Trevor Noah –Jon Stewart’s successor on The Daily Show –began life in South Africa with a criminal act: he was born to a white Swiss-German father and a black Xhosa mother when such a union was punishable by imprisonment. To protect the family, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life. Liberated by the end of South Africa’s oppressive white rule, Trevor and his remarkable mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

September 5, 2017  At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier.  In 1838, James and Sadie Goodenough settle in the swamp lands of northwest Ohio carving out a new life for their family around an apple orchard. Tragedies ensue, and the story picks up fifteen years later with their youngest son, Robert who ran west – to San Francisco, the grove of Calaveras Big Trees, Murphys, and the Gold Rush world of 1853.  Skills learned in his father’s orchard serve him well, but Robert’s former life catches up with him and he’s forced to confront the past that he’s running from.

Moke Hill Reads Book Club:  First Tuesday of every month. No commitment, No attendance taken, No restrictions, No membership, No dues. For everyone interested in good books and discussions about them. Sponsored by the Mokelumne Hill Friends of the Library. Send your email address or watch for announcements on mokehill.org and other news sources. Contact Janet Dock:  janetdock@me.com