We gather on the 4th Sunday of the month at 2pm at Barnes & Noble Booksellers Cafe on Promenade in Eagan for our book discussion. There is an attempt to read a variety of books and authors. Book title suggestions are welcome. All interested readers are welcome to join in the discussion. Let’s all read together faithfully!
April 26 The Women by Kristin Hannah
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student, Frankie hears those words, it’s a revelation. It is 1965 and the world is changing. She sees a different path for her life. She joins the Army Nurse Corps and is shipped to Vietnam. She is as green as the men serving there, it is over whelming. As is her return to a changed world.
May 24 The Distance Between Us by Maggie O’Farrell
At the same instant two people on opposite sides of the world who don’t know one another suddenly feel they are in danger for their very lives. They each flee. The novel explores what happens next.
June 28 The Pretender by Jo Harkin
The novel is inspired by a footnote to history. The true story of little known Simnel, who was a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion and ended up working as a spy in the court of Henry VII. The Pretender is a portrait of British monarchy and life within the court with a cast of heroes and villains drawn from 15th century England.
July 26 Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles
In 1918 as the Great War rages, Jessie Carlson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group helps to restore French communities ruined by the war. Working close to the front Jessie establishes children’s libraries, turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears. In 1987 Wendy Peterson stumbles across a passing reference to Jesse and becomes obsessed with discovering her fate.
August 23 The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez
When celebrated author, Alma Cruz inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, she turns it into a place to bury her untold stories – literally. Alma wants her characters to rest in peace, but they have other ideas and the cemetery becomes a mysterious sanctuary for their true narratives.
September 27 Strangers in Time by David Baldacci
A WWII story set in London during the blitz. Two teens on their own in London during the blitz meet up with one another. Both have lost all contact with their family. They meet a “protector”, who has also recently experienced the death of his wife. Together they rediscover the spirit of family they each have lost. They need to
trust each other as bombs fall to survive.
October 25 The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamel
The novel opens in Tehran in 1953 with the backdrop of the American influenced Iranian Coup. A young couple in love is separated in the crush of the main square of Tehran on the eve of their marriage. Unable to find one another they go their separate ways. They are reunited 60 years later having led separate, independent lives in America. What happened that day in the square?
November 22 People of Means by Nancy Johnson
Two women. Two pivotal moments. One dream for justice and equality. The first moment is 1959, the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. The second comes in 1992 with the ruling from the trial of the officers in the Rodney King beating. The novel offers a glimpse into the quest for racial equality, the pursuit of personal and
communal success and the power of love and family ties.
December No Organized Discussion – Share a Book with a Friend!