The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

 Five women meet in a park in Palo Alto to watch their children play.  All are educated but are in Palo Alto because of their high achieving husbands.  They talk - about many things and some things they keep secret.  Eventually they talk about books and, through books, more about themselves. Their Wednesday meetings take on necessary importance.  And when they realize how unsatisfying some of their reading is, they talk about writing.  With writing is more sharing and more acknowledgement of their own possible achievements.  And so it goes.  Chicklit perhaps but I bet it would initiate plenty of book group conversation.

Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

 Our book group chose this because of the local connection but it has turned out to be a hit across the country.  Michelle grew up in Eugene the daughter of a white father and a Korean mother.  She did not make life easy for her parents and struggled with her mixed heritage.  Following her mother's death, Michelle wrote this memoir to explore that difficult relationship and to honor her Korean connection.  Now a recognized indie musician in a band called Japanese Breakfast, she is not afraid to expose all her flaws.  In the end her story is an example of the way we can break through our past mistakes, start over, and embrace all that we are. 

Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen

I think my book group chose this book of short stories to gain some insight into contemporary China.  Well, I'm not sure what I am taking away from these 10 stories.  They certainly don't play to stereotype.  Most don't even really end.  Some hint at magical realism and some just left me with a dissatisfied sense of understanding.  Chen is a journalist and it does seem like she went looking for a story, reported what she saw and then just decided, "there. done."  I guess maybe she is saying, "We are a large, diverse country and not what the west expects."  If pulling back the curtain was her intent, I am still not sure what it is I am meant to see. 

The Last Bookshop in London by Madelin Martin

 In 1939, young Grace Bennett and her best friend Viv want nothing more than to leave the quiet streets of Norfolk for the excitement of London.  Both dream of working at Harrod's but without recommendations from a previous employer, that can't happen.  Viv is not above a little white lie and fakes a letter which lands her a coveted job on Harrod's shopping floor.  Grace, instead, must rely on the generosity of her mother's friend and temporarily work as an assistant to the curmudgeonly Mr. Evans,` owner of Primrose Hill Books.  Tucked away on a side street, far away from stylish Paternoster Row where multiple bookstores looked out on each other, the shop is dusty and disorganized. With little interest in reading, Grace hopes she can survive her 6 months of employment with enough skill that she will earn her a good  recommendation and be off to join Viv.  But the war and the blitz and Grace's own journey to self discovery change all that. A warm fuzzy tribute to the power of reading and small book stores everywhere.

The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

 In 1862 Marie Blackbird sewed seeds into the hem of her skirt. Whatever might happen with the approaching soldiers, she knew she would need to grow the food to sustain her family. In 2002, Rosalie Iron Wing struggles to find her way back to her Dakhota roots.  The emptiness she carries is the result of choices she has made to survive, choices that separated her both from her past and possibility of the future she hoped to share with her son.  In between the lives of the two women is a family story of stolen lands, kidnapped children, and brutal educational practices. As much as this is the history of a Native American family, it is also a warning about the loss of the native farming tradition, of forgetting to cherish the earth that sustains us and the mistakes we make when faced with the promise of wealth.

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

 Mileva Mirec was born with a hip defect that made her limp.  Convinced that this made her unattractive and unsuitable for marriage, she threw herself into the study of the mathematics and physics she loved.  Luckily her father supported her studies.  Even luckier she met a young brilliant physicist who seemed to find her mind attractive enough to propose marriage.  His name was Albert Einstein.  Unfortunately Mileva was expected to step back from her studies to raise their children.  However she never stopped grappling with the tricky questions that Albert shared.  As their marriage unravels,  a trip on a train causes her to provide a specific perspective on one of those problems.  Mileva disappears into obscurity.  Albert develops his Theory of Relativity but whose idea was it really?

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

 So here's a bit of history I didn't know.  During the Revolutionary War, the British promised freedom to any slave who would help them defeat the colonists.  Unfortunately the British lost but before there was any kind of USA and before the Red Coats headed back to England, they tried to make good on their promise.  They collected the names of any Negro who could show that they had helped and put those identified on ships to Nova Scotia with promises of free land. This record became the real "Book of Negroes."  Pages of this book can be found in museums in Canada, England and our National Archives Public Records Office.  The promise of free land was not so real.  

This is the story of Aminata Diallo who could` have been one of the names in that book.  But her story starts much earlier.  As an 11 year old girl, in 1745, she is taken from her village and marched to the West Coast of Africa where she joined hundreds of others on a ship bound for the Americas. Her mother had trained her to deliver babies and her father had taught her to read some of the Koran but neither parent survived to make the horrible journey across the Atlantic.  For various reasons, Aminata has some freedom to move about the ship and, as she does, those who are chained together call out their names to her.  As she moves back and forth, she calls them back proving that she will remember.  It is a belief in many of the West African cultures that you die twice.  Once when your body dies and again when your name is no longer spoken. This struggle to remember is one of my favorite parts of the book.

Hill wisely starts the book with Aminata's adult story so you know she not only survives but has obtained a position of some importance.  Knowing this made the heart braking story of her life possible to read.  This is one of the best personal slave stories I have ever read.  I hope that the strong and brilliant ways she manages to make her way to freedom were just as possible as the horrible side of slavery was true.  And that we will remember.