BOOK CLUB BEAT
with Sherry Hemingway
Young Moms Design a Book Club
to Fit their Unpredictable Lives
Book Club Members: (Sitting l-r) Catherine Steffen,
Lindsay Millea, Laura Mankovsky, Trista Zukowski;
(Standing l-r) Michelle Paulson, Jacki Gargiulo,
Laura Brown, Sarah Peirce and Renee Ridgeway.
Members of Las Madres & Friends Book Club in Gilroy are busy, busy
women. They read, they raise children and they raise money for children’s
cancer – pretty much all at the same time.
Six years ago they started as a “super casual” mother’s social group doing
play dates. Gradually they morphed into a book club uniquely organized to
accommodate nursing, pregnant, and occasionally overwhelmed mothers of
small children who want to read and get out of the house.
When the little girl of one of their members developed terminal cancer,
the group also took on fundraising for Unravel, the non-profit organization
created in her memory to fight pediatric cancer. At times, they’ve been
willing to “throw out the book discussion” when Unravel had an urgent
need that required their immediate attention.
No book talk for the sake of their charity was fine. Like all good mothers,
they know their priorities.
Family-friendly Las Madres & Friends Book Club in Gilroy makes it easy
for moms to keep up their reading while raising children.
THE BOOK
F
The Nightingale Author Kristin Hannah
ollowing in the footsteps of last year’s Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel, “All the Light We Cannot
See” by Anthony Doerr, now comes “The
Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah. The two books, both
set during the Nazi invasion and occupation of France
during WWII, have distinctly different perspectives
of those years. “Light” was about hiding from the
Germans, “The Nightingale” is about resisting them.
“The Nightingale” is about two French sisters who,
in very different ways, struggle to survive and show
the courage to save the ones they love.
The book opens in Oregon in 1995, when
an elderly and terminally ill woman receives an
invitation. She is asked to come to Paris for a reunion
of WWII “passeurs,” those who helped people during
the war. The invitation means she must make the
decision whether or not to come to terms with her
long-hidden past.
The story flashes back in time to France in 1940,
when Germany is making its move on France.
Reckless and rebellious Isabelle, age 18, has once
again flunked out of finishing school. Swept into the
chaos of the invasion of Paris by the Germans, Isabelle
instinctively knows she can and will fight.
Meanwhile, in a bucolic village in the Loire Valley,
her elder sister, Vianne, believes the disruption will be
brief and her newly-drafted husband will return
soon. Soon, Germans occupy their village and
their officers choose the local homes in which
they will live. One of those homes belongs to
Vianne and her daughter. Vianne copes with a
smile for the sake of her house, food and the
safety of her family.
In Paris, Isabelle stumbles across a downed
British pilot in hiding, and through him finds
her mission. She will smuggle him into Spain.
The sisters have chosen different directions and
Vianne comes to believe her sister Isabelle will
be their doom.
Book clubs sometimes question whether
everything about World War II has already been
written, and then a book comes along to remind
us there are infinite stories about good and evil.
This one looks hard at the fine line between life
and death, and forces the unanswerable question:
What would you do to survive? What would you
do to save your loved ones?
The lady in Oregon must revisit those
questions and decide whether or not to get on an
airplane and face them.
Yes, there is yet another book about WWII
that you really must read.
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
MAY/JUNE 2016
gmhtoday.com
SHERRY HEMINGWAY
spent her childhood after
lights out with a book
and flashlight under the
covers. With degrees from
Kent State University and
Harvard University, her life-
long career was in journal-
ism and public relations.
Her hobbies are travel in
(very) remote countries,
volunteering, and two
book clubs.
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