BOOK GROUP   (Clare Pokorny)

The Book Group meets on the fourth TUESDAY of the month, usually at 4:00 pm in person at PCCF and/or via Zoo This year we are going to try something ne.  We will   schedule 3 book chat dates to discuss something other than a preselected book.  Please watch for emails and the “Upcoming Events” section of this website’s home page for the most current information..

September 22     Kin by Tayari Jones        Discussion leader:  Diane WooleverA historical fiction novel exploring the deep bond between two motherless friends, Annie and Vernice, in 1950s/1960s Louisiana. The story follows their diverging paths – one to
college, one searching for her mother. It explores themes of the Southern Black family,
friendship, and trauma. Tayari Jones is the author of the critically acclaimed novel An
American Marriage, 2018.

October 26  The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon       Discussion leader and program coordinator:  Sandy Holt with Sister to Sister

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon is a young adult romance novel that follows two teenagers who cross paths in New York City of the course of a single, life- changing day.

November 24    Book Chat   Discussion leader and program coordinator:  

December 22:  Book Chat and Christmas book exchange

January 26  Clear by Carys      Discussion leader:  Judith Hurdle

John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining
occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades,
with only the animals and the sea for company. Unfolding during the final stages of the
infamous Scottish Clearances—a period of the 19 th century which saw whole
communities of the rural poor driven off the land in a relentless program of forced
evictions—this singular novel explores what binds us together in the face of
insurmountable difference, the way history shapes our deepest convictions, and how
the human spirit can endure despite all odds. Moving and unpredictable, “a love letter to
the scorching power of language” (The Guardian), Clear is “a jewel of a novel”

February 23  Chasing Bright Medusas by Benjamin Thomas Schlesser       Discussion leader:  Kathy Evans

Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather by Benjamin Taylor is a concise,
acclaimed 2023 biography that chronicles the life and artistic evolution of one of
America’s most celebrated 20th-century authors.
A slim volume that is beautifully written. Even if you have never been a Willa Cather fan
I think you will enjoy this summary of a unique woman.

March 23  Mona”s Eyes  Discussion Leader :  Karen Hug

Every Wednesday, Henry picks up Mona after school and takes her to see a great
work of art.  Just one.  A different masterpiece every Wednesday for a year.   Fifty-

two weeks of consummate beauty before that beauty vanishes from Mona’s sight
forever.  Together, Mona and her grandfather will experience a full range of
emotions; their enchantment as well as their sadness will be complete.  From
Botticelli to Basquiat, Mona will discover not only the power of art but also the
meaning of generosity, doubt, melancholy, loss and revolt.  Each week, a new work
of art, and each week another step toward an open-hearted embrace of life.

April 27  That Librarian by Amanda Jones    Discussion leaders and Public Policy Chair:  Ann Ruggaber, Susan Stuart

May 25 Book Discussion and Selection

A document with the previously suggested book titles for 2027-28 and a short synopsis will be available in advance.  There will be a discussion of the choices and voting will take place in person and/or by email.

June 22  Yesteryear by Caro Clare Burke  Discussion leader:  Carol Holcomb

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a
handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there
are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade
fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie’s
followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women?
The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast?
They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living
the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it. Until one morning she
wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all
familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than
electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly
a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for
her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her
fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it
really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a
brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she
must escape by any means possible.
A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a
gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood

July 27  The Correspondent by Virginia Evans         Discussion leader:  Renee Caprile

A critically acclaimed debut epistolary novel that tells the story of 73 year old retired
lawyer, Sybil Van Antwerp, through her letters and emails. The book, a slow burn
character study, explores themes of aging, grief, and self-reflection as Sybil confronts
her past through correspondence with friends, family and even famous authors. But
beyond the page, she has spent the last 30 years keeping people at arm’s length until
letters from someone in the past force her to examine the most painful periods of her
life. The novel is being adapted into a film starring Jane Fonda.Re

August 24

Ordinary Grace by William Kerry Krueger   Discussion leader:  Linda Cronk

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold
root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff
comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of
innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old
Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many
forms.
Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when
tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family—which includes his Methodist minister father;
his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years
kid brother—he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and
betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his
years.
Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a
brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to
understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable
novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.