Moke Hill READS Book Club

Apr 16, 2021 by contributor

No More Zooming!! We are meeting in the LIBRARY!

May 4, 2021, 7 PM.  The Book of Lost Friends, by Lisa Wingate.  Wingate – bestselling author of Before We Were Yours – was inspired by historic “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War.  Her three fictional young women – a freed slave, a disposed belle, and a creole – travel to Texas in 1875 looking for lost family and fortunes.  A parallel plot follows a school teacher in rural Louisiana in 1987, who discovers the story of these searchers and how they connect to the lives of her current students.

June 1, 2021, 7 PM.  They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush, by Jo Ann Levy.  “Seeing the Elephant” was a contemporary euphemism for participating in a grand life adventure, even if the outcome was uncertain.  The California Gold Rush, the elephant of the 1850s, is generally described as an exclusively male event.  Drawing on diaries, letters, news articles, and other first-hand accounts, the various roles women played are brought to life, adding humor, poignancy, and depth to this epic time.  AUTHOR VISIT. Jo Ann Levy lives in Sutter Creek and will join us for this meeting!!

July 6, 2021, 7 PM.  The Midnight Library, byMatt Haig.   In the space between life and death is a library filled with books representing all the different lives one could have lived if different choices were made.  Norah Seed – finding herself in this limbo — is allowed to sample these different outcomes, to examine old regrets, and to choose which life she wants to continue.  But things are not always how she imagined them, and the exercise both poises danger and requires examination of the ultimate question: What is the best way to live?

Moke Hill Reads Book Club:  First Tuesday of every month – No commitment, No attendance taken, No membership, No dues. For everyone interested in good books and discussions about them. Sponsored by the Mokelumne Hill Friends of the Library. Send us your email address or watch for announcements on mokehill.org and other news sources. Contact Shona Sramala: shonanana1@gmail.com; or Julia Costello: juliamokehill@gmail.com.