Books We’re Reading & Meeting Dates
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. Avery, 2016.
In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama’s home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness’s eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering?
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Jahren, Hope. Lab Girl. Vintage, 2016.
This illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science is a moving portrait of a longtime friendship and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Vance, J.D. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Harper, 2016.
In this memoir, Vance writes about the Appalachian values of his upbringing and their relation to the social problems of his hometown.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Mengestu, Dinaw. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. Riverhead Books, 2008.
This novel focuses on the life of Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian immigrant living in Washington, D.C. after fleeing his country’s revolution seventeen years earlier. Running a failing grocery store, he ruminates on the past as he faces his own inward crisis of displacement and identity while simultaneously marveling at the gentrification of his neighborhood.