Morning Book Club
Meets on the second and fourth Mondays of the month from 10:30am-12:00pm. This is a friendly gathering to share your reading and a cup of coffee, there are no assigned titles.
Afternoon Book Club meets on the 2nd Wednesday at 1:00pm.
February: Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West.
J. B. West, chief usher of the White House, directed the operations and maintenance of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenueand coordinated its daily lifeat the request of the president and his family. He directed state functions; planned parties, weddings and funerals, gardens and playgrounds, and extensive renovations; and, with a large staff, supervised every activity in the presidential home. For twenty-eight years, first as assistant to the chief usher, then as chief usher, he witnessed national crises and triumphs, and interacted daily with six consecutive presidents and first ladies, as well as their parents, children and grandchildren, and houseguestsincluding friends, relatives, and heads of state. J. B. West, whom Jackie Kennedy called one of the most extraordinary men I have ever met, provides an absorbing, one-of-a-kind history of life among the first ladies. Alive with anecdotes ranging from Eleanor Roosevelts fascinating political strategies to Jackie Kennedys tragic loss and the personal struggles of Pat Nixon, Upstairs at the White House is a rich account of a slice of American history that usually remains behind closed doors..
March Selection: Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein
Evening Book Club will meet on the 4th Wednesday at 6:30pm.
February selection: Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast
“In her first memoir, Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, and documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast’s memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents. When it came to her elderly mother and father, Roz held to the practices of denial, avoidance, and distraction. But when Elizabeth Chast climbed a ladder to locate an old souvenir from the “crazy closet”–with predictable results–the tools that had served Roz well through her parents’ seventies, eighties, and into their early nineties could no longer be deployed. While the particulars are Chast-ian in their idiosyncrasies–an anxious father who had relied heavily on his wife for stability as he slipped into dementia and a former assistant principal mother whose overbearing personality had sidelined Roz for decades–the themes are universal: adult children accepting a parental role; aging and unstable parents leaving a family home for an institution; dealing with uncomfortable physical intimacies; managing logistics; and hiring strangers to provide the most personal care -.
March selection: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Copies of the current selection are available through the Circulation Desk. For more information call (401)789-9507 ext. 4 or email lee-anngalli@narlib.org.
