Book Club

Waverly AAUW Book Club

Contact Kim Folkers for more information –

kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu or call 319-231-1983

Where to get books:

Waverly Public Library – During renovations at the Library, check with librarians for book availability.

Click here to take a look at other options for acquiring books – AAUW-Book-Club-Book-Sources

Also – Libby online system through Waverly Public Library

Book Club Calendar – September 2024-May 2025

All held at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Waverly

**Be sure to check with the Waverly Library for copies of books – they have the list and have ordered in multiple copies of each one for our use.

Thurs., Sept. 12, 7:00 p.m. – Come prepared to share a book that has had a real impact on you, your life, etc.!
Thurs., Oct. 10, 7:00 p.m. – Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman
(Kim Folkers has several copies that can be shared around the group and we’re hoping the library will bring in a couple of copies, too – email kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu)
Thurs., Nov. 14, 7:00 p.m. – Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis by Annie Proulx
NY Public Library discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl1-gvWj6J4
(Kim Folkers will have some copies that can be shared around the group and we’re hoping the library will bring in a couple of copies, too – email kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu)
Thurs., Dec. 12 – No meeting – Enjoy Waverly’s Christmas Greetings on Main!

Thurs., Jan. 9, 2025 – Read one book from each of the following mystery series! Both series have at least 4 stars on Amazon and Goodreads and have many copies available in the Waverly Library, including large print.  Thanks to Ann Henninger for looking into this for us!

Author 1: Joanne Fluke (grew up in rural MN) – Hannah Swenson series, includes recipes
Author 2: Miranda James (grew up in Mississippi) – Cat in the Stacks series (sorry, no dogs!)

Thurs., Feb. 13 – Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells or any book about Ida B. Wells

Thurs., Mar. 13 – What You’re Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama – https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/books/what-you-are-looking-for-is-in-the-library-michiko-aoyama.html

Thurs., Apr. 17 (note – this is the 3rd Thurs. of the month) – All-Waverly Branch Book Read – book to be decided – The Women by Kristin Hannah, Unrig by Daniel G. Newman, Shelterwood, Defiant Dreams: The Journey of an Afghan Girl Who Risked Everything for Education by Kapoor & Mahfouz , By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult; Any book by Jennifer Chiavernini; You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

Thurs., May 15  – The Women by Kristin Hannah, Unrig by Daniel G. Newman, Shelterwood, Defiant Dreams: The Journey of an Afghan Girl Who Risked Everything for Education by Kapoor & Mahfouz , By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult; Any book by Jennifer Chiavernini; You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

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Summer 2024:

Tues., Jun. 4, 7:00 p.m. – American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins – Link: Controversy regarding American Dirt – interesting perspective to consider – thanks to Caryn Riswold for sharing this link; New President of Mexico – Can She Impact Violence in Mexico?  NY Times 6/3/24; I Spoke Out Against American Dirt.  Then Oprah Asked Me to Talk About It.; Discussion Guide – thanks for sharing this Mary Ventullo!

Tues., Jun. 25, 7:00 p.m. – Secrets of the Sprakkar – Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They’re Changing the World by Eliza Reid
Tues., Jul. 16, 7:00 p.m. – Anyplace but Here: The Uncomfortable Convergence Between Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System by Tony Thompson, retired Black Hawk County Sheriff
Tues., Aug. 20, 7:00 p.m. –  – Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo

Book Ideas:

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Unrig by Daniel Newman (Waverly Human Equity & Diversity Commission book read); Caste by Isabel Wilkerson; The Women by Kristen Hannah; Untethered Soul; The Anxious Generation

(Re)present: Racism and Resistance In Iowa (https://www.ppf-publishing.com/product/re-present-racism-and-resistance-in-iowa)

The U.S. Constitution Simplified by Timothy Harper

Link: Best Books Since 2000

Summer 2024 Suggested Reading List – Tom Lake; Anita de Monte Laughs Last; The Road from Bellhaven; The Covenant of Water; Neighbors and Other Stories; Birnam Wood; Same As It Ever Was; Witness; The Unsettled; This Other Eden (Thanks for sharing Evelyn Aubrey!)

All Fours by Miranda July (also wrote The First Bad Man)

All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin

Real Americans by Rachel Khong

Weyward by Emelia Hart

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

James by Percival Everett – a retelling of Huck Finn through the eyes of 10-year old enslaved runaway, Jim. Review

An End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America by Jonathan Kozol   (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/us/jonathan-kozol-school-inequality.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare)

Anita de Monte Laughs Last

Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison by Chris Hedges

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

Bring the War Home by Kathleen Belew

It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Greetings from Utopia Park – Fairfield, IA memoir

Ghost Boy – South Africa – person who comes out of a coma?

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (often on banned book lists)

Movie: The Silence of Freedom (human trafficking)

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Piccoult (about the pandemic)

The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray – historical fiction about the African-American woman who becomes JP Morgan’s personal librarian.

Fierce Ambition: The Life and Legend of War Correspondent Maggie Higgins by Jennet Conant

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

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Fall 2023-May 2024 (Click here for  Book Club Archives Page for older books)

Thurs., Sept. 21, 2023, 7:00 p.m. – Redeemer Lutheran

Read a book by Heather Gudenkauf – many available at Waverly Public Library

Thurs., Oct. 12, 2023, 7:00 p.m. – Redeemer Lutheran

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

Thurs., Nov. 9, 2023, 7:00 p.m. – Redeemer Lutheran

The People We Keep by Allison Larkin (Hawkeye Community College Book in Common)

Author’s Discussion Guide (spoiler alert – reveals key moments in the story!)

Thurs., Dec. 21, 2023, 7:00 p.m. – Redeemer Lutheran

Read a banned book of your choice to discuss with the group. Banned Books in Iowa 2023

Thurs., Jan. 11, 2024, 7:00 p.m., Redeemer Lutheran Church – Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Thurs., Feb. 8, 2024, 7:00 p.m. – Where the Light Enters by Sara Donati – From the internationalbestselling author of The Gilded Hour, Sara Donati’s enthralling epic about two trailblazing female doctors in nineteenth-century New York.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88668948454?pwd=yO0g417qICtiicFt1LNjwdiWYObN0e.1

Meeting ID: 886 6894 8454
Passcode: 886174

Thurs., Mar. 14, 2024 – The First Ladies by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray – deals with the friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary Bethune, civil rights and women in politics.

Thurs., Apr. 18, 7:00 p.m. – Branch-wide Book Discussion – Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. 

Waverly Senior Center, 506 E. Bremer.
Light hors d’oeuvres/dessert, coffee, wine.  $10 payable at the door.
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**RSVP to karen.lehmann@wartburg.edu by Sun., April 14 – indicate if you plan to attend and if you plan to have refreshments.  We’d like to have a headcount for table set-up, even if you don’t plan to have refreshments.

 

Have book questions you’d like to have included in our discussion??  Include them in your email to Karen!

(Waverly Public Library has multiple copies of book.)

Thurs., May 9, 2024, 7:00 p.m. – Facing the Mountain – by Daniel James Brown – Japanese-Americans in WWII    (Waverly Public Library has multiple copies and Kim Folkers – kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu has a couple of copies, too)

NPR Review: https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996106902/in-facing-the-mountain-japanese-americans-sacrifice-for-a-country-that-spurns-th

Video – Author interview – Daniel James Brown:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBvJIRZEiFU

Tom Ikeda and Daniel James Brown video:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?512218-1/facing-mountain

https://www.danieljamesbrown.com/about/

Book Club Archives – click below to download a list of previous books and meetings:

AAUW Book Club Archives Sept 2021 May 2022

AAUW Book Club Archives June 2020-Aug. 2021

AAUW Book Club Website Archives (pre-Summer 2020)