Island Senior: Mullis Center Book Club Selects Upcoming Titles

“Island Senior” is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Peg­gy Sue McRae.

In my last Island Senior arti­cle, The Year of Covid-19, I took stock of the past year, a chal­leng­ing time for most of us, and took note of some of the good things that helped me through a whole year of Covid-19. Books and human con­tact through zoom were among the pos­i­tive influences.

Thanks to the Mullis Cen­ter Book Club, I read books I may not have cho­sen on my own but that trans­port­ed me to occu­pied France dur­ing WWII, New York City through an immigrant’s eyes, and life on the Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er. Each sto­ry, whether the adven­tures of Swedish octo­ge­nar­i­ans on a crime spree or Rus­sians suf­fer­ing the depri­va­tions of war offered us some­thing encour­ag­ing toward the resilien­cy of being human.

We have just select­ed our next books. The books have usu­al­ly been around long enough that you can find a sec­ond-hand copy. Librar­i­an Beth Hel­stein mod­er­ates the club and the books are often avail­able at the library in large print, audio for­mat, or as a down­load­able ebook.

We meet the sec­ond Mon­day of the month at 1:15 p.m. and, since the pan­dem­ic, we have been meet­ing via zoom. If you need help with Zoom, call or email the Library for help. Email bhelstien@sjlib.org for the Zoom meet­ing invi­ta­tion. We are an open club and hap­py to wel­come new readers.

April 12: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

A Vir­ginia slave nar­row­ly escapes a drown­ing death through the inter­ven­tion of a mys­te­ri­ous force that com­pels his escape and per­son­al under­ground war against slavery.

May 10: The Night Watch­man by Louise Erdrich

Based on the author’s grand­fa­ther, this his­tor­i­cal nov­el traces the expe­ri­ences of a Chippe­wa Coun­cil night watch­man in mid-19 cen­tu­ry rur­al North Dako­ta who fights Con­gress to enforce Native Amer­i­can treaty rights.

June 13: Emi­ly, Alone by Stew­art O’Nan 

New­ly inde­pen­dent wid­ow Emi­ly Maxwell dreams of vis­its by grand­chil­dren and mourns changes in her qui­et Pitts­burgh neigh­bor­hood before real­iz­ing an inner strength to pur­sue devel­op­ing opportunities.

July 11: The Per­fume Col­lec­tor by Kath­leen Tessaro

After receiv­ing a large inher­i­tance from a com­plete stranger, Lon­don socialite and new­ly­wed Grace Mon­roe search­es for the iden­ti­ty of her mys­te­ri­ous bene­fac­tor and uncov­ers the sto­ry of a unique woman who inspired one of Paris’ great­est per­fumers, which trans­forms her own life.

August 8: Pic­tures at an Exhi­bi­tion by Sara Houghteling

In the wake of WWII, Max, the son of an art deal­er and his pianist wife, wan­ders Paris in an effort to recov­er his family’s lost mas­ter­pieces, loot­ed by the Nazis dur­ing occu­pa­tion, uncov­er­ing in the process sto­ries about the hero­ism of Rose, his father’s beau­ti­ful gallery aide, the dis­ap­pear­ance of his clos­est friend and an old fam­i­ly secret.

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