"We believe reading opens minds, develops empathy, empowers people, and is also a great time."

Read Books! is St. Paul's UCC community book club. We believe reading opens minds, develops empathy, empowers people, and is also a great time. To share with each other and our community the joy and power of reading fiction, members of our congregation contribute a recommendation and review of a new work of fiction each month. We hope you will find something that inspires and excites you.
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October, 2017
H is for Hawk
Recommendation and Review by: Scott Monett

​​H is Hawk is a memoir written by Helen MacDonald in which she takes you on her journey of training a goshawk. With each step of the hawk’s training MacDonald reflects on her relationship with her recently deceased father. As she successfully trains the hawk she simultaneously progresses through her grief over her father’s death. Although the book could be slow at times, I enjoyed how MacDonald wrestled with themes of connection and isolation, nature and society, and healing. 
September, 2017
A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines
Recommendation and Review by: Lexi Zengel

A Lesson Before Dying is a novel by Earnest J. Gaines about a young African American school teacher, Grant, in the Jim Crow Era. Grant is assigned the insurmountable task of teaching a man named Jefferson how to be human before he is given the electric chair for the murder of three men, despite being completely innocent. Jefferson found him in the wrong place at the wrong time, and being the only survivor of this situation, had the crime pinned on him. His godmother, Emma, wants him to learn how to walk to the chair with dignity, as to not let the white man end his life and crush his spirit. This novel is a testament to the racial injustice in the justice system in the early 1900s. Due to the current political climate and increasingly obvious social injustice that exists in the US today, this book provides more insight into the long history of mass incarceration and accusation of the black American population. Personally, this is the best book I have ever read, and I highly recommend it to anyone reading this.

August, 2017

"The White Tiger," Aravind Adiga
Recommendation and review by: Rev. Andrew Greenhaw

The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga, was the right book at the right time for me. I'd been in a bit of a fiction slump when I stumbled upon it. It had been months since I'd stuck with a novel past the first 100 pages. I must confess the brevity of the book was a selling point; I needed a win.
Fortunately, Adiga's novel has much more to offer than brevity. It is compelling, dark, vaguely psychotic and yet simultaneously deeply familiar.From the first page you are taken in by the ranting style of the narration: a series of letters written to the premier of China from a slightly deranged entrepeneur from Bangalore.  Over the course seven evenings the protaganist narrates his life story in these letters and draws the reader into his compelling journey.
The White Tiger brings forth issues of class and colonialism and the blindness that accompanies privilege. It is a great read; a profoundly illuminating page turner.

July, 2017
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"The Vegetarian, "by Han Kang
Recommendation/Review by Rachel Chappell

What would it be like to turn into a tree?  Not all at once, but slowly. This is the central theme of The Vegetarian.  For most of the book, the author uses important characters surrounding the main character to describe how she is turning into a tree. This is very useful because it easily elucidates themes winding through Korean culture. Women as objects, who controls a woman’s body, and sexuality are all explored using the thoughts and actions of characters surrounding the central character who is turning into a tree. The book is a rare combination of easy to read, thematically complicated, and filled with difficult characters. You should read this with a friend as it is a book that must be discussed. Perfect for church!