Check weekly Connections for details as we firm up our selection.

From the author of Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World. To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century. Leader: Debby Kern

“Bell… tackles everything from racism to his life growing up as a Blerd (Black nerd) to his struggles to find his comedic voice in this illuminating memoir.” —Entertainment Weekly

“At times funny, at times somber, this debut will be enjoyed by fans of United Shades … and anyone who enjoys comedy with a personal touch.”—Library Journal

Leader: Linda Sander

Environmental science professor examines the interactions African Americans have with the “great outdoors” in terms of access and engagement. Uses the fields of cultural studies, critical race studies, geography, and environmental history to discuss the confluence of race and the environment and highlight advances for the future. Leader: Fred Frayer

A memoir of growing up as a mixed-race child in apartheid South Africa where the author’s very existence was evidence of a serious crime that could have led to horrific consequences for his parents. Mostly through the eyes of a child, this book takes a thoughtful and honest look at the absurdity and brutality of a social and legal system based specifically on racial bias. It is also a warm, funny, and loving account of the author’s strong, devoted, and loving mother and the author’s own strength and ability to make the most of every situation.  Leader: Lorrie McKinley

Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine. In simple but vivid detail, Velma Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women, she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal, friendship, community and forgiveness “speaks straight to the heart with clarity, sweetness and wisdom”. Leader: Debby Kern

Chava, a golem created in Poland, arrives in late nineteenth-century New York City and meets Ahmad, a jinni recently released from his prison in a flask in New York’s Little Syria. This beautifully-crafted historical fantasy title explores how these two non-human beings experience and view humanity, and Wecker navigates themes of immigration and assimilation—as well as loneliness—with empathy and care. Leader: Roger Bove

Baptist as historian places emphasis on the role of extreme violence in the workings of the slave system. He explains through economic analysis how slavery was essential to the development of the nation and ultimately to the violent construction of the capitalist world in which we live. Leader: John Weygandt

This is the story of a seven-year-old Hawaiian girl that is diagnosed with leprosy and sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka’i.  It is a wonderful historical fiction that spans her entire life in a heart-warming and life affirming story.  Both educational and interesting. Leader: Pat Shorten

A powerful meditation on what immigrants sacrifice to achieve a home in the world.  In the early 20th century, a Korean fisherman’s daughter has a wealthy stranger’s child, marries a pastor and moves to Japan.  A four generation saga of a Korean family. Leader: Pat Bove