The book club selections for Fall semester 2021 were selected by the members of the club.

September 14, 12-1 p.m. (ET): The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - online through Zoom.

Synopsis:
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect? The Vanishing Half is a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing.

October 12, 12-1 p.m. (ET): The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels - online through Zoom.

Synopsis:
Small-town Appalachia doesn't have a lot going for it, but it’s where Brian is from, where his family is, and where he’s chosen to return to die. Set in 1986, a year after Rock Hudson’s death shifted the public consciousness of the epidemic and brought the news of AIDS into living rooms and kitchens across America, it is a novel that speaks to the question of what home and family means when we try to forge a life for ourselves in a world that can be harsh and unpredictable. This is a beautifully written, emotional book, perfectly capturing the struggles and stigmas so many people with AIDS had to deal with, especially in the 80s, but also today.

November 16, 12- 1 p.m. (ET): Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore - online through Zoom.

Synopsis:
It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order...

Check Goodreads for more info about the selected books and authors!