Thank you to everyone who participated in our discussion both in the comments section of SPC and the articles on the website and at our meeting over Zoom about Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times edited by Carolina de Robertis.
Now it is time to select our next reading!
Each Tuesday, we’ll post a thread here on seniorplanet.org inviting you to comment on each section of the book. Then, during our final week of reading, we’ll host a group discussion over Zoom.
But first! We’ve put together a shortlist of engaging books suggested by our participants, Supporters, and staff. Now it’s up to you to pick which one we’ll read together next! Read on for details about each book, then take the poll at the end and tell us: What should the Senior Planet Book Club read next?
We’ll announce the result of the poll next Tuesday!
Have any feedback on book club? Tell us what you think in the comments below, join “The Book Club” Group on Senior Planet Community, or email supporters@seniorplanet.org!
The Books:
A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee
A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande
“The year is 1846. After the controversial annexation of Texas, the US Army marches south to provoke war with México over the disputed Río Grande boundary. Ximena Salomé is a gifted Mexican healer who dreams of building a family with the man she loves on the coveted land she calls home. But when Texas Rangers storm her ranch and shoot her husband dead, her dreams are burned to ashes. Vowing to honor her husband’s memory and defend her country, Ximena uses her healing skills as an army nurse on the frontlines of the ravaging war.Meanwhile, John Riley, an Irish immigrant in the Yankee army desperate to help his family escape the famine devastating his homeland, is sickened by the unjust war and the unspeakable atrocities against his countrymen by nativist officers. In a bold act of defiance, he swims across the Río Grande and joins the Mexican Army—a desertion punishable by execution. He forms the St. Patrick’s Battalion, a band of Irish soldiers willing to fight to the death for México’s freedom. When Ximena and John meet, a dangerous attraction blooms between them. As the war intensifies, so does their passion. Swept up by forces with the power to change history, they fight not only for the fate of a nation but for their future together.” – GoodReads.com
Together Tea by Marjan Kamali
“In Together Tea, Marjan Kamali’s delightful and heartwarming debut novel, Darya has discovered the perfect gift for her daughter’s twenty-fifth birthday: an ideal husband. Mina, however, is fed up with her mother’s years of endless matchmaking and the spreadsheets grading available Iranian-American bachelors. Having spent her childhood in Tehran and the rest of her life in New York City, Mina has experienced cultural clashes firsthand, but she’s learning that the greatest clashes sometimes happen at home. After a last ill-fated attempt at matchmaking, mother and daughter embark on a return journey to Iran. Immersed once again in Persian culture, the two women gradually begin to understand each other. But when Mina falls for a young man who never appeared on her mother’s matchmaking radar, will Mina and Darya’s new-found appreciation for each other survive?” – GoodReads.com
“Esmeralda Santiago’s story begins in rural Puerto Rico, where her childhood was full of both tenderness and domestic strife, tropical sounds and sights as well as poverty. Growing up, she learned the proper way to eat a guava, the sound of tree frogs in the mango groves at night, the taste of the delectable sausage called morcilla, and the formula for ushering a dead baby’s soul to heaven. As she enters school we see the clash, both hilarious and fierce, of Puerto Rican and Yankee culture. When her mother, Mami, a force of nature, takes off to New York with her seven, soon to be eleven children, Esmeralda, the oldest, must learn new rules, a new language, and eventually take on a new identity. In this first volume of her much-praised, bestselling trilogy, Santiago brilliantly recreates the idyllic landscape and tumultuous family life of her earliest years and her tremendous journey from the barrio to Brooklyn, from translating for her mother at the welfare office to high honors at Harvard.” – GoodReads.com
Take the poll!
Photo by Paul Schafer on Unsplash
COMMENTS
11 responses to “Senior Planet Book Club: Vote For Our Next Book!”
FWIW, if your library subscribes to hoopla (for streaming/downloading music, video, ebooks, comics & more) you can get “A rising man” there as an ebook, and “Together Tea” as an audiobook. If you speak Spanish “When I was Puerto Rican” is available in Spanish as an audiobook. No sign of “A ballad of love & glory” at all.
Hoopla has no waiting lists like other apps (Libby/Overdrive for instance).
Great tips, Joan!
Thank you for the info I’d never heard of that resource
You mention the book club will meet live online. Just wondering if this might get unwieldy. How many people have signed up for this so far? Thanks
Hi John, We have been hosting the book club online since April 2020 :) it’s been great so far. Would love to have you join us. Generally there are 15-30 people a month who join
I am interested in joining the book club. When does it meet on Zoom, day and time?
Loretta H. Campbell
Hi Loretta, we would love to have you! The book for next month will be decided next Tuesday and we meet on a Thursday at 4:30PM EDT. The exact date of the meeting is generally decided upon by the second week of the new book. Hope this helps!
Can I get these books at the library?
Hi Delyse,
Yes, we try to make sure the book is as widely available as possible. Also depending on the library near you if they do not have the book you can request it.
The first three books listed for voting this time all sounded really good. It was hard to choose only one.
So happy to hear it! Hope you can make it to this month’s discussion!
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