April: The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
 
Greetings! 
 
Thank you to all those who joined us for last week's discussion of  The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. We had a number of guests from all over the Silicon Valley join us for the meeting, since it was listed as a Silicon Valley Reads event. I'm glad to see that so many of you enjoyed the book and learned some fascinating history about the packhorse librarians and the wonderful work they did. 
 
Next month, on Tuesday, April 20th, at 6:30 PM we will be discussing The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. If you would like a book, please pick one up at the library by asking the Circulation Desk for one of the book club copies.
 
Here is the link for the upcoming Zoom meeting:
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/92703658806?pwd=cHdRejBTMjJXMXRvQTZhOFh5Szd2dz09
    Password: LGLbc
 
Happy reading and take care,
 
Grace Song
Librarian
gsong@losgatosca.gov
 
 

Upcoming Book Club Picks:
April
The hidden life of trees : what they feel, how they communicate : discoveries from a secret world
by Peter Wohlleben

Draws on up-to-date research and engaging forester stories to reveal how trees nurture each other and communicate, outlining the life cycles of "tree families" that support mutual growth, share nutrients and contribute to a resilient ecosystem. Illustrations.
Tentative list for the upcoming months- subject to change
May
The trouble with goats and sheep : a novel
by Joanna Cannon

In 1976 England, 10-year-olds Grace and Tilly, after their neighbor Mrs. Creasy goes missing, decide to take matters into their own hands and find her and bring her home, going door to door in search of clues and soon discovering that everyone on the Avenue has something to hide. A first novel.
June
Maybe - A biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg 

We haven't decided on a specific book yet - there aren't any new ones out, so we may try reading something else instead; see below.
 
World of wonders : in praise of fireflies, whale sharks, and other astonishments
by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

"From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction-a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us"
July
The book woman of Troublesome Creek : a novel
by Kim Michele Richardson

During Kentucky’s Great Depression, Pack Horse Library Project member Cussy Mary Carter, a young outcast, delivers books to the hillfolk of Troublesome Creek, hoping to spread learning in these desperate times, but not everyone is keen on her or the Library Project. Original.
August
My Family and Other Animals
by Gerald Durrell

Worn down by the miserable English weather, Gerry's family takes the unusual step - for a 1930s British family - of moving somewhere hotter. Treated to sunshine of Greece with its array of flora and fauna, young Gerald is in a budding naturalist's utopia, with the added bonus of being able to observe the unusual creatures known as his relatives.
September
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison

A new edition of the first novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author relates the story of Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old Black girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes, and the tragedy that results because of her longing to be accepted. Reprint.
October - either one of these two; open to suggestions
The Ohlone way : Indian life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay area
by Malcolm Margolin

Describes the culture of Native American inhabitants in the California Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans, offering insight into the daily lives, culture and rituals of the Ohlone while tracing their experiences under Spanish, Mexican and American regimes. By the author of The Way We Lived.
Braiding sweetgrass : indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants
by Robin Wall Kimmerer

"As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise.""
November
Weather
by Jenny Offill

"Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practice her other calling: she is a fake shrink. For years she has tended to her God-haunted mother and her recovering addict brother. They have both stabilized for the moment, but Lizzie has little chance to spend her new free time with husband and son before her old mentor, Sylvia Liller, makes a proposal. She's become famous for her prescient podcast, Hell and High Water, andwants to hire Lizzie to answer the mail she receives: from left-wingers worried about climate change and right-wingers worried about the decline of western civilization. As Lizzie dives into this polarized world, she begins to wonder what it means to keep tending your own garden once you've seen the flames beyond its walls. When her brother becomes a father and Sylvia a recluse, Lizzie is forced to address the limits of her own experience--but still she tries to save everyone, using everything she's learned about empathy and despair, conscience and collusion, from her years of wandering the library stacks . . . And all the while the voices of the city keep floating in--funny, disturbing, and increasingly mad"
Los Gatos Library
100 Villa Avenue
Los Gatos, California 95030
(408) 354-6891

www.library.losgatosca.gov