Island Senior: Mullis Center Book Club news

Wendy Waxman Kern — Contributed photo

The Mullis Cen­ter Book Club has a new coor­di­na­tor. Now that Beth Hel­stien has retired from the San Juan Island Library (thank you Beth!), Wendy Wax­man Kern, the library’s new Out­reach and Tech­nol­o­gy Coor­di­na­tor, will be facil­i­tat­ing the Mullis Cen­ter Book Club.

Wendy pre­vi­ous­ly served as San Juan County’s 4‑H Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor and has a rich back­ground in com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice. She has a deep love of books and lan­guage and for­mer­ly lived in Ger­many for 13 years. Wendy enjoys spend­ing time with her fam­i­ly, which, she says, also includes reading.

The book club has vot­ed and we now have a new list of books select­ed for the months of August through Decem­ber. The club meets via Zoom on the sec­ond Mon­day of each month at 1:15 p.m. All are wel­come. To par­tic­i­pate, email Wendy at wwaxman.kern@sjlib.org for the Zoom meet­ing invitation.

Upcom­ing book selec­tions include:

• August 8 – The Last Chance Library by Freya Samp­son – When her beloved library is threat­ened, library assis­tant and intro­vert June Jones is forced out of her com­fort zone to join a ded­i­cat­ed band of patrons fight­ing to save their library.
• Sep­tem­ber 12 – Their Eye Were Watch­ing God by Zora Neale Hurston – One of the most impor­tant and endur­ing books of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry, Their Eyes Were Watch­ing God brings to life a South­ern love sto­ry with the wit and pathos found only in the writ­ing of Zora Neale Hurston.
• Octo­ber 10 – All the Light We Can­not See by Antho­ny Doers – Beau­ti­ful, stun­ning­ly ambi­tious instant New York Times best­seller about a blind French girl and a Ger­man boy whose paths col­lide in occu­pied France as both try to sur­vive the dev­as­ta­tion of World War II. Win­ner of the Pulitzer Prize.
• Novem­ber 14 – All that She Car­ried by Tiya Miles – A renowned his­to­ri­an traces the life of a sin­gle object hand­ed down through three gen­er­a­tions of Black women to craft a “deeply lay­ered and insight­ful” (The Wash­ing­ton Post) tes­ta­ment to peo­ple who are left out of the archives. Nation­al Book Award Winner.
• Decem­ber 12 – The Guest List by Lucy Foley – A wed­ding cel­e­bra­tion turns dark and dead­ly in this deli­cious­ly wicked and atmos­pher­ic thriller rem­i­nis­cent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times best­selling author of The Hunt­ing Par­ty.

The library tries to have sev­er­al copies of our cho­sen book on hand includ­ing in large print and often has audio. I usu­al­ly lis­ten to the audio ver­sion and have been able to bor­row them for free through the online ser­vice called Libby.

If you wish to learn how to access books through smart­phones, tablets, or eRead­ers with the Lib­by app or Hoopla, bring your device in to the San Juan Island library dur­ing their Tech Café on Tues­days from 10 a.m. to noon.

Says Wendy, “There are a few copies of The Last Chance Library, the August book club selec­tion, ready for pick­up at the Library. We also have book­marks avail­able to help you save the date and keep track of the titles at a glance.”

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