RLC Literary Evening Recap
Sept. 14, 2024
Below is a summary of the books that each member shared
Spencer - Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold onto What Matters - by Charan Ranganath, PhD pub. 2024
“Memory is far more than a record of the past. In this groundbreaking tour of the mind and brain, one of the world’s top memory researchers reveals the powerful role memory plays in nearly every aspect of our lives, from recalling faces and names, to learning, decision-making, trauma and healing.” Google Books
Nancy - Seriously…I’m Kidding - by Ellen DeGeneres pub. 2011
“a lively, hilarious, and often sweetly poignant look at the life of the much-loved entertainer as she opens up about her personal life, her talk show, and more. DeGeneres's amiably oddball riffs on everything from kale to catwalks to Jesus will make fans smile." (People)
Lynn - SmartLess Podcast Series
SmartLess with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus Podcast Series. Known for her character Elaine on Seinfeld. Among her many, many new projects is her podcast Wiser Than Me, where she’s getting wisdom from older women she deeply admires.
Joe - Veritasium: An Element of Truth an educational Podcast on Youtube with Derek Muller “videos about science, education, and anything else I find interesting.” Derek Alexander Muller is a South African-Australian science communicator and media personality, best known for his YouTube channel Veritasium.
Anthony - Bret Easton Ellis Writer on Youtube, Podcasts and Videos.
“Bret Easton Ellis is an American author and screenwriter. Ellis was one of the literary Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style. His novels commonly share recurring characters.” Wikipedia
Diane - The Life Impossible by Matt Haig pub. 2024
Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning. “When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.” Amazon
The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin Pub. 2023
A heartwarming story about the power of books to bring us together, inspired by the true story of the underground library in WWII Warsaw.
American Dirt - by Jeanine Cummins pub. 2022
A novel about a Mexican bookseller who has to escape cartel-related violence with her son, fleeing to the US. “If there's one good thing about terror, Lydia now understands, it's that it's more immediate than grief."
Sarah - Inventing New England by Dona Brown pub. 1995
Quaint, charming, nostalgic New England. Brown examines the irony of an industry that was based on an escape from commerce but served as an engine of industrial development, spawning hotel construction, land speculation, the spread of wage labor, and a vast market for guidebooks and other publications.
Lucy - Ghosts: A Graphic Novel by Raina Telgemeier pub. 2017
Raina Telgemeier has masterfully created a moving and insightful story about the power of family and friendship, and how it gives us the courage to do what we never thought possible.
Cass - The Story Teller of Casablanca - by Fiona Balpy pub. 2021
..evocative tale .. of a strange new city offers a young girl hope. Can it also offer a lost soul a second chance? WWII “We like to think we learned lessons from those wars and yet history continues to repeat itself, year after year."
The Beekeeper’s Promise by Fiona Balpy pub. 2018
The Beekeeper's Promise is but a small glimpse of life in Nazi-occupied France during WWII. But in telling the story of just one family, it illustrates what life must have been like for a great deal of French patriots in the countryside.
The Backyard Bird Chronicles - by Amy Tan pub. 2024
A gorgeous, witty account of birding, nature, and the beauty around us that hides in plain sight. “Unexpected and spectacular” —Ann Patchett
Lovely One: A Memoir - Katanji Brown Jackson pub. 2024
In her inspiring, intimate memoir, the first Black woman to ever be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States chronicles her extraordinary life story.
Susan - The Leopard - by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa pub. 2007
Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. … The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power … place it among the greatest historical novels of our time.
Billiards at Half Past Nine - by Heinrich Böll pub. 1965 Nobel Prize 1972
“The entirety of the narrative takes place on a day in the autumn of 1958, with flashbacks, and characters' retellings from memory by the characters.” Wikipedia
The novel examines the lives of three generations of architects and their responses to the Nazi regime and its aftermath.
Regeneration - by Pat Barker pub. 1992
The novel explores the experience of British army officers being treated for shell shock during World War I at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. The Regeneration Trilogy is a series of three novels by Pat Barker on the subject of the First World War. In 2012, The Observer named it as one of "The 10 best historical novels". Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road. Wikipedia
David - The Last Days of Summer - by Steve Kluger pub. 2008
The story of Joey Margolis, neighborhood punching bag, growing up goofy and mostly fatherless in Brooklyn in the early 1940s. A contemporary American classic—a poignant and hilarious tale of baseball, hero worship, eccentric behavior, and unlikely friendship.
Abaline - Real Friends pub. 2017and Best Friends - pub. 2019 by Shannon Hale Graphic Novels.
a true story about popularity, first crushes, and finding your own path.