Summer Reading

With summertime comes slower days and more time to relax and do the things we’ve always wanted to do. So why not consider joining our Parish Book Club? You can bring your book with you while traveling, while at the beach or pool, or even while relaxing on your back porch with a cup of coffee on those endless summer days.

The group meets once a month to discuss a particular book, and they’ve planned out their reading schedule for the next several months. If any of these books interest you, we hope you join them!

June: “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalinithi and Abraham Verghese
For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, this inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?

June Meeting: Thursday, June 15th at 7:00 pm (St. Francis Hall)

July: “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown
For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.

July Meeting: Thursday, July 20th at 7:00 pm (St. Francis Hall)

August: “Madonnas of Leningrad” by Debra Dean
Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina’s grip on the everyday. An elderly Russian woman now living in America, she cannot hold on to fresh memories—the details of her grown children’s lives, the approaching wedding of her grandchild—yet her distant past is miraculously preserved in her mind’s eye.

August Meeting: Thursday, August 17th at 7:00 pm (St. Francis Hall)

September: “The Wright Brothers” – David McCullough
The #1 New York Times bestseller from David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize—the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly—Wilbur and Orville Wright.

September Meeting: Thursday, September 21st at 7:00 pm ( St. Clare Room)

October: “The Last Days of Night” by Graham Moore
A thrilling novel based on actual events, about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America—from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and author of The Sherlockian.

October Meeting: Thursday, October 19th at 7:00 pm (St. Francis Hall)

November: “Belgravia” by Julian Fellowes
The New York Times bestselling novel about scandalous secrets and star-crossed lovers. On the evening of 15 June 1915, the great and the good of British society have gathered in Brussels at what is to become one of the most tragic parties in history – the Duchess of Richmond’s ball. For this is the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, and many of the handsome young men attending the ball will find themselves, the very next day, on the battlefield.
For Sophia Trenchard, the young and beautiful daughter of Wellington’s chief supplier, this night will change everything. But it is only twenty-five years later, when the upwardly mobile Trenchards move into the fashionable new area of Belgravia, that the true repercussions of that moment will be felt. For in this new world, where the aristocracy rub shoulders with the emerging nouveau riche, there are those who would prefer the secrets of the past to remain buried…

November Meeting: Thursday, November 16th at 7:00 pm (St. Francis Hall)