Fourth Monday Book Group
Meets on Zoom every fourth Monday at 10:00am.
September Book
September 26 The Seed Keeper Diane Wilson Leader - TBA
Rooted in history, botany, and the lives of Indigenous women, this novel adds a new dimension to our year’s reading. From the back cover: “With compelling characters and images… The Seed Keeper invokes the strength that women, land, and plants have shared with one another through the generations.” Linda LeGarde Grover adds: “A gracefully told story of continuity through seeds saved and nurtured by Dakhota women, The Seed Keeper is lush and sustaining - a read that feeds heart and spirit in the same way as do the gardens that are their legacy.”
Watch your email for the Zoom link; if you need to be added to (or deleted from) the email group please contact Shirley Solberg.
Rooted in history, botany, and the lives of Indigenous women, this novel adds a new dimension to our year’s reading. From the back cover: “With compelling characters and images… The Seed Keeper invokes the strength that women, land, and plants have shared with one another through the generations.” Linda LeGarde Grover adds: “A gracefully told story of continuity through seeds saved and nurtured by Dakhota women, The Seed Keeper is lush and sustaining - a read that feeds heart and spirit in the same way as do the gardens that are their legacy.”
Watch your email for the Zoom link; if you need to be added to (or deleted from) the email group please contact Shirley Solberg.
October Book
October 24 Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir Marie Yovanovitch Leader - TBA
Raised by Russian immigrant parents in Connecticut where her father taught high school, Marie (Masha) Yovanovitch, grew up loving both the outdoors and reading, especially Narnia-like stories, although often feeling like an outsider just trying to fit in. After graduating as a history major from Princeton, she registered for a 3-month Russian language program in Moscow. Back in the United States, she ultimately signed up for the Foreign Service in order to “follow foreign affairs, serve as a non-partisan professional, and make the world a better place.” Her work led to posts in Somalia, the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia, with a return to Kyiv as ambassador shortly before war broke out.
Her personal story offers a backstage glimpse of daily life in the Foreign Service. Notable are her passion for the equal treatment of women, the challenge of adjusting to presidential turnovers, and the pleasures of travel with its surprises and cultural opportunities. Yovanovitch’s writing is straightforward, enhanced by historic photographs and a map showing the regions where she served for some four decades. From the epilogue: “History is a double-edged sword…Ultimately what we do with history’s lessons is up to us.”
Watch your email for the Zoom link; if you need to be added to (or deleted from) the email group please contact Shirley Solberg.
Raised by Russian immigrant parents in Connecticut where her father taught high school, Marie (Masha) Yovanovitch, grew up loving both the outdoors and reading, especially Narnia-like stories, although often feeling like an outsider just trying to fit in. After graduating as a history major from Princeton, she registered for a 3-month Russian language program in Moscow. Back in the United States, she ultimately signed up for the Foreign Service in order to “follow foreign affairs, serve as a non-partisan professional, and make the world a better place.” Her work led to posts in Somalia, the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia, with a return to Kyiv as ambassador shortly before war broke out.
Her personal story offers a backstage glimpse of daily life in the Foreign Service. Notable are her passion for the equal treatment of women, the challenge of adjusting to presidential turnovers, and the pleasures of travel with its surprises and cultural opportunities. Yovanovitch’s writing is straightforward, enhanced by historic photographs and a map showing the regions where she served for some four decades. From the epilogue: “History is a double-edged sword…Ultimately what we do with history’s lessons is up to us.”
Watch your email for the Zoom link; if you need to be added to (or deleted from) the email group please contact Shirley Solberg.
