Retirees Association
Book Club 2022-2023
Below is the list of books read by the Book Club during 2021-2022. More information about the Book Club and the books read can be found on the club's home page at Book Club.
WVURA Book Club
Friday, June 2, 2023
Friday, June 2, 2023
The June book was A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage. Amazon says that "A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century through each epoch's signature refreshment. As Standage persuasively argues, each drink is in fact a kind of technology, advancing culture and catalyzing the intricate interplay of different societies."
WVURA Book Club
Friday, May 5, 2023
The May book was Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas by Donna M. Lucey. Amazon says that in this seductive, multilayered biography, Lucey illuminates four extraordinary women painted by the iconic high-society portraitist John Singer Sargent. With uncanny intuition, Sargent hinted at the mysteries and passions that unfolded in his subjects’ lives.
Friday, May 5, 2023
The May book was Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas by Donna M. Lucey. Amazon says that in this seductive, multilayered biography, Lucey illuminates four extraordinary women painted by the iconic high-society portraitist John Singer Sargent. With uncanny intuition, Sargent hinted at the mysteries and passions that unfolded in his subjects’ lives.
Friday, April 7, 2023
The April book was The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln and the Struggle for American Freedom by H. W. Brands. Amazon says this book is a page-turning account of the epic struggle over slavery as embodied by John Brown and Abraham Lincoln—two men moved to radically different acts to confront our nation’s gravest sin.
WVURA Book Club
Friday, March 3, 2023
The March book was The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone by Edward Dolnick. An overview of the book says: The fast-paced and “engrossing account” (The New York Times Book Review) of “one of the greatest breakthroughs in archaeological history” (The Christian Science Monitor): two rival geniuses in a race to decode the writing on one of the world’s most famous documents—the Rosetta Stone.
Friday, March 3, 2023
The March book was The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone by Edward Dolnick. An overview of the book says: The fast-paced and “engrossing account” (The New York Times Book Review) of “one of the greatest breakthroughs in archaeological history” (The Christian Science Monitor): two rival geniuses in a race to decode the writing on one of the world’s most famous documents—the Rosetta Stone.
Friday, February 3, 2023
The February book was Einstein in Berlin by Thomas Levenson. Amazon says: In a book that is both biography and the most exciting form of history, here are eighteen years in the life of a man, Albert Einstein, and a city, Berlin, that were in many ways the defining years of the twentieth century.
January - Holiday Break
WVURA Book Club
Friday, December 2, 2022
The December book was The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsell. At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.
Friday, December 2, 2022
The December book was The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsell. At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.
Friday, November 4, 2022
The November book was Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb. This thrilling historical account of the capture of Eichmann is told with the kind of pulse-pounding detail that rivals great spy fiction.
WVU Book Club
Friday, October 7, 2022
The October book was Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande. Amazon says: In gripping accounts of true cases, surgeon Gawande explores the power and the limits of medicine, offering a view from the scalpel's edge.
Friday, October 7, 2022
The October book was Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande. Amazon says: In gripping accounts of true cases, surgeon Gawande explores the power and the limits of medicine, offering a view from the scalpel's edge.
WVURA Book Club
The book for discussion at the September meeting was Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. In this book, Krakauer constructs a multi-layer, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith in the isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities. The book has been adapted for a limited series streaming on HULU.
August - Summer Break
July - Summer Break