Moke Hill READS Book Club

Jun 30, 2018 by contributor

NEXT MEETING:  Tuesday – July 3, 7 PM, Moke Hill Library/Archives

July 3, 2018. Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate.  In 1939 the four Foss children, left alone when their father rushes their mother to the hospital, are collected by officials and sent to a Tennessee orphanage. Assured that they will be reunited with their parents, instead they are sold to wealthy families by the director of a Memphis adoption agency.  The plot unfolds in the future when adult Amanda Stafford begins to delve into the long-hidden family history.  Based on a true historical scandal, the book is riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting.

Aug 7, 2018. Wolf: The Lives of Jack London by James L. Haley. Born in Californian in 1876, Jack London’s youth was forged on physically demanding, low-paying jobs as he struggled to support a fatherless family. By adulthood he was a confirmed Socialist and achieved international success with his wildly popular The Call of the Wild, and, White Fang. In Wolf, award-winning biographer James L. Haley explores the complex life Jack London: a hard-living adventurer, political activist, prolific writer, and controversial icon of his time. Haley portrays this major American novelist with his flaws, failures, fire, and glory.

Sept 4, 2018  A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.  Thirty-year-old recluse Ignatius J. Reilly lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, writing an endless manuscript on comparative history. This quiet life ends with his near-arrest by overeager Patrolman Mancuso and involvement in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. Before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job and stumbling from one adventure to the next. The many subplots are beautifully tied together in the end, dominated by the Quixotic Ignatius–selfish, domineering, deluded, tragic and comic, and larger than life.  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

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.