KDL Book Club Newsletter
 
Fall 2020
Welcome Back! New Book Club in a Bag Titles
Braiding sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Explains how developing a wider ecological consciousness can foster an increased understanding of both nature's generosity and the reciprocal relationship humans have with the natural world.
Daisy Jones & the Six : a novel
by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Two rising 70s rock-and-roll artists are catapulted into stardom when a producer puts them together, a decision that is complicated by a pregnancy and the seductions of fame. 
Here's to you, Jesusa!
by Elena Poniatowska

A sensitive account of the life of Jesʺsa Palancares de Aguilar follows the young woman from her childhood, through her role in the Mexican Revolution and difficult marriage, to her post-revolutionary criminal career, in a richly textured historical novel that offers an intriguing study of the most important events in Mexican history during the twentieth century. 
My Family and Other Animals
by Gerald Durrell

Tells the tale of naturalist Gerald Durrell's magical 1930s childhood on pre-war Corfu. In this book, he offers descriptions of his eccentric family and his encounters with the local creatures. It takes you into the Greek wilderness that enthralled Durrell the young naturalist.
Olive, again
by Elizabeth Strout

A sequel to Olive Kitteridge finds Olive struggling to understand herself while bonding with a teen suffering from loss, a woman who gives birth unexpectedly, a nurse harboring a longtime crush and a lawyer who resists an unwanted inheritance.
Such a fun age : a novel
by Kiley Reid

A story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both. 
This Tender Land
by William Kent Krueger

A powerful novel about an orphan's life-changing adventure traveling down America's great rivers during the Great Depression, seeking both a place to call home and a sense of purpose in a world sinking into despair.
White fragility : why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism
by Robin J DiAngelo

Groundbreaking book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when discussing racism that serve to protect their positions and maintain racial inequality.
The book of lost friends : a novel
by Lisa Wingate

A modern-day teacher discovers the story of three Reconstruction-era women and how it connects to her own students’ lives in this latest from the New York Times best-selling author of Before We Were Yours.
The glass hotel
by Emily St. John Mandel

The award-winning author of Station Eleven presents a tale of crisis and survival in the hidden landscapes of homeless campgrounds, luxury hotels, private clubs and federal prisons, where a massive Ponzi scheme is tied to a woman’s disappearance at sea.
The book of longings
by Sue Monk Kidd

A first-century intellectual fights the limitations imposed on women before an encounter with an 18-year-old Jesus leads to their marriage, his dangerous public ministry and her flight to safety in Alexandria. 
How to be an antiracist
by Ibram X. Kendi

A best-selling author, National Book Award-winner and professor combines ethics, history, law and science with a personal narrative to describe how to move beyond the awareness of racism and contribute to making society just and equitable.
The vanishing half
by Brit Bennett

Separated by their embrace of different racial identities, two mixed-race identical twins reevaluate their choices as one raises a black daughter in their southern hometown while the other passes for white with a husband who is unaware of her heritage.
Stamped : racism, antiracism, and you
by Jason Reynolds

A timely reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s National Book Award-winning Stamped From the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America while explaining their endurance and capacity for being discredited.
Leave the world behind : a novel
by Rumaan Alam

Sheltering in a New York beach house with a couple that has taken refuge during a massive blackout, a family struggles for information about the power failure while wondering if the cut-off property is actually safe.
Front desk
by Kelly Yang

Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California, even though the owner, Mr. Yao is a nasty skinflint who exploits them; while her mother (who was an engineer in China) does the cleaning, Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with demanding customers and other recent immigrants--not to mention being only one of two Chinese in her fifth grade class, the other being Mr. Yao's son, Jason.
Untamed
by Glennon Doyle

An activist, speaker and philanthropist offers a memoir wrapped in a wake-up call that reveals how women can reclaim their true, untamed selves by breaking free of the restrictive expectations and cultural conditioning that leaves them feeling dissatisfied and lost.
The book of two ways : a novel
by Jodi Picoult

Experiencing memories of a man other than her husband while surviving a plane crash, an end-of-life doula on the brink of a fateful decision envisions two disparate paths that find her staying with her family or reconnecting with the past.
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