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 has multiple copies of each month’s book available. During renovations at the Library, check with librarians for where Book Club books are housed.

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 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)

Book Club Calendar – Jan. 2024-May 2024

 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, coffee, wine.  $10 payable at the door.  RSVP to kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu by Sun., April 14.

(Waverly Public Library has multiple copies of book.)

Thurs., May 9, 2024 – 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)

Book Ideas:

What You’re Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (Karen Lehmann recommends this book!)

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)

Anyplace But Here: The Uncomfortable Convergence Between Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System by Tony Thompson (retired Black Hawk County Sheriff)

Sisters in Law – Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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?

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

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

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Tues., June 20, 2023, 7:00 p.m. – Redeemer Lutheran

Every Note Played by Lisa  Genova

Tues., July 18, 2023, 7:00 p.m. – Redeemer Lutheran

The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore

https://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/the-woman-they-could-not-silence/guide

Overview of book:  The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore

YouTube discussion of book with author Kate Moore:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQkLjtnP7UA

“What a story—and what a telling! Kate Moore has hit another one out of the park. In the best tradition of The Radium Girls, Moore recounts the stunning true account of a woman who fought back against a tyrannical husband, a complicit doctor, and nineteenth-century laws that gave men shocking power to silence and confine their wives. By challenging these norms, Elizabeth Packard became a heroine on the scale of the suffragists. In Moore’s expert hands, this beautifully written tale unspools with drama and power and puts Elizabeth Packard on the map at the most relevant moment imaginable. You will be riveted—and inspired. Bravo!”

– Liza Mundy, New York Times bestselling author of Code Girls

Tues., Aug. 15, 2023, 7:00 p.m. – Redeemer Lutheran

State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton

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.

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Previous Meetings – Sept. 2022-Apr. 2023:

1619 Project Community Read – if you missed this 6-week opportunity this fall,  click here for all the details and to access the materials, discussion questions, and additional resources the participants suggested for the group.

Thurs., September 8, 2022, 7:00 p.m., Redeemer Lutheran Church, Library Lounge

The Butterfly Effect by Rachel Mans McKenny (Click here: All Iowa Reads 2022 book)

New Opportunity – Sept. 20-Nov. 1, Tues., 7:00-8:30 p.m.: Waverly AAUW/Waverly Human Equality and Diversity Commission – 1619 Project Community Read – meet once a week on campus at Wartburg for 6 weeks of reading and discussion.  Click here for details – must register to participate. 

Thurs., October 13 , 7:00 p.m., Redeemer Lutheran Church, Library Lounge

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park

Resources:

Yeonmi Park’s webpage:  https://www.yeonmi.com/

TED Talk:  https://www.ted.com/talks/yeonmi_park_what_i_learned_about_freedom_after_escaping_north_korea

Interview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueqoiMpF0dk

Thurs., November 10, 7:00 p.m., Redeemer Lutheran Church, Library Lounge

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce

Author 2-minute overview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_xgDSgeU9E

Book Summary and Reviews:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52674676-miss-benson-s-beetle

Thurs., December 15, 7:00 p.m., (note – 3rd Thurs.), Redeemer Lutheran Church, Library Lounge

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Thurs., January 12, 7:00 p.m.

The Rent Collector by Camron Wright

Article on garbage dumps around the world (The Guardian, 2016)

Thurs., Feb. 9, 7:00 p.m.Branch Book Read Discussion – Disability Visibility an anthology  Edited by Alice Wong (Hawkeye Community College 2022 All Read: Sarah Quin has multiple copies – some available at Waverly Public Library); 

Location:  Waverly Senior Center; Refreshments optional – $5.00.  RSVP to kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu by Mon., Feb. 6. 

Book Info

Disability Visibility Discussion Guide

Hawkeye Community College Resource Page – Disability Visibility

Thurs., March 9, 7:00 p.m. – Location:  Redeemer Lutheran Church 

Mankiller: A Chief and Her People by Wilma Mankiller (OR read something about Wilma Mankiller OR about the Cherokee Nation)

Related Links – very helpful if you haven’t had a chance to read her book:

Southern Poverty Law Center article (2022):  Native Americans Fight for Culture, History, Survival

Wilma Mankiller (Biography.com)
Wilma Mankiller bio (National Women’s History Museum)

 

Thurs., April 13, 7:00 p.m. – Redeemer Lutheran Church

Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Lalaluddin

This book is also available on the Waverly Library’s Libby online borrowing system.

 

Thurs., May 11, 2023, 7:00 p.m. – Redeemer Lutheran

Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang; https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56461570

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Summer 2022

Tues., June 7, 2022, 9:30 a.m. – Read a book by Madeleine Albright –

Location: Waverly Senior Center, 506 E. Bremer Ave.; RSVP by Fri. noon, June 3 to kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu.  Please indicate if you would like coffee/pastry $5.00 (optional, but allows us to meet there at no charge if some of us order food ? )

(Book List:  https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/madeleine-albright/214931/)

Tues., June 21, 2022, 9:30 a.m. Read a book by Jussi Adler-Olsen – available at Waverly Library or can be accessed through Waverly Library’s Libby system.  This Danish author has written quite a few books, but we’ll focus on the Q series, which starts with The Keeper of Lost Causes.

Location: Redeemer Lutheran Church, Waverly – Church Library Lounge

The Waverly Library has several of the books below available electronically.

(Feel free to read a “crime fiction” book by another author if you prefer!)

Tues., July 12, 2022, 9:30 a.m.Moon of the Snow Blind – Spirit Lake by Gary Kelley.  This is a graphic novel written by Cedar Falls artist/author, Gary Kelley, about the Spirit Lake, Iowa massacre in 1857 – Book info

Location: Redeemer Lutheran Church, Waverly – Fellowship Hall (not the church library) 

Tues., July 26, 2022, 9:30 a.m. – Share your thoughts about any book you have read in the past year or so!

Location: Redeemer Lutheran Church, Waverly – Fellowship Hall (not the church library) 

Thurs., August 11, 2022, 9:30 a.m. – Outing to Charles City: Prologue Books and Wines; lunch at Pub on the Cedar; other possible stops – Charles City Public Library to view art collection; and Charles City Arts Center 

Carpool from Redeemer Lutheran Church north parking lot – across Bremer from Pizza Ranch – meet at 9:30 a.m. Return to Waverly by 2:30 p.m. (RSVP to kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu)

Tues., August 23, 2022, 9:30 a.m. – The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (author of Caste)

Location: Redeemer Lutheran Church, Waverly – Fellowship Hall (not the church library) 

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Ongoing Book Ideas:

Susan, Linda, Nina and Cokie: Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli

Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships by Nina Totenberg

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

July 2022 book sharing:

Marsha Koenig: (marshamariek@hotmail.com) – from the Waverly Library’s Teen Book Club
House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
6 Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Ash Malinda Lo
Caroline Engelbrecht: (cengelbrecht5@gmail.com)
Thank You for Your Servitude by Mark Leibovich
Books by Faye Kellerman in the Decker/Lazarus series
Gloria Tehven: (gtehven@live.com)
Vandemark’s Folly by Herbert Quick
Ann Henninger: (ann.henninger@wartburg.edu)
Mysteries by Steve Martini; Lee Child; and Michael Palmer
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Elly Folkers: (ellyfolkers51@gmail.com)
The Black Widow by Daniel Silva
Kim Folkers: (kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu)
One Two Three by Laurie Frankel

The Worst Hard Time by Tim Egan (The Dust Bowl)

Little Soldiers: An American Boy, A Chinese School and the Global Race to Achieve by Lenora Chu. The author and her husband are Americans who live in Shanghai and who enrolled  their young son in a Chinese school. Chu also talked about the Chinese system from preschool through high school. (from Caroline E.)

The Girl with the Louding Voice

You Don’t Belong Here by Elizabeth Becker – overseas women journalists
Read Dangerously by Azar Nafisi

The Lincoln Highway

Flight of the Sparrow by Amy Belding Brown (suggestion from Karen Lehmann)

Fox and I by Catherine Raven

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

Lead from the Outside by Stacey Abrams

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A book by Ann Patchett – The Dutch House; State of Wonder; Bel Canto

When the Apricots Bloom (Middle East)

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird

Promised Land by Barack Obama

Unstoppable – The Nine Lives of Roxanne Barton Conlin – by William Friedricks

Fast Girls by Elise Hooper

Handmaid’s Tale; The Testaments (2019) – Margaret Atwood

The Midnight Library – Matt Haig

The Library Book – Susan Orlean

Being Danish by Richard Jenkins – Paradoxes of Identity in Everyday Life

Silence is a Sense by Layla Al-Ammar (Middle East)

The Collaborator by Diane Armstrong

Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson

Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World by Tina Rosenberg

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AAUW Book Club Website Archives (pre-Summer 2020)

IF we need to Zoom:

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 917 8389 7470