UHMC Book Club 2024 Book List
The UHMC Book Club brings UHMC faculty, staff, students, and community members together for discussion and sharing ideas based on books selected on topics relating to diversity, education, equity and the human condition. Dorothy Tolliver, Retired UHMC Librarian, leads rich discussion that develops members’ expression and knowledge, while making connections with colleagues and community members.
Copies of the books are available in HSPLS.
Join the UHMC Book Club on the last Friday* of the month, 8:30 am, virtually led by Professor Dorothy Tolliver.
*Dates and books are subject to change.
Check our calendar for updates. For information on the UHMC Book Club, contact Joyce Yamada (yamadajo@hawaii.edu; 984-3663). Sponsored by: the UHMC Faculty & Staff Development & the UHMC Library
January 26, 2024
TRUST by Herman Diaz
An overarching novel that becomes more exhilarating and profound with each new layer and revelation, engaging the reader in a treasure hunt for the truth that confronts the reality-warping gravitational pull of money, and how power often manipulates facts. (Pulitzer Prize Book)
February 23, 2024
THE SWEETNESS OF WATER by Nathan Harris
In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle. The Walkers, wracked by the loss of their only son to the war, hire the brothers to work their farm. Parallel to their story runs a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers. When their secret is discovered, the resulting chaos, including a murder, unleashes convulsive repercussions on the entire community.
March 29, 2023
THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS by Laurie Frankel
Claude is five years old, the youngest of five brothers. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.
April 26, 2024
THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC by Julie Otsuka
Tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” a century ago and traces the extraordinary lives of these women, from their arduous journeys by boat, to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; from their experiences raising children who would later reject their culture and language, to the uprooting arrival of war.
May 31, 2024
REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES: A NOVEL by Shelby Van Pelt
A widow’s unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium – and the truths she finally uncovers about her son’s disappearance 30 years ago.
September 27, 2024
NEWS OF THE WORLD: A NOVEL by Paulette Jiles
In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.
October 25, 2024
LIGHT IN THE CREVICE NEVER SEEN by Haunani-Kay Trask
Poetry. In an expanded edition of the first book of poetry by an indigenous Hawaiian to be published in North America, Haunani-Kay Trask describes the wounded beauty and the fiery origins of her native land. Through Trask’s eyes we see a Hawaiʻi of living contradictions.
November 29, 2024
THE COLOR OF AIR: A NOVEL by Gail Tsukiyama
Alternating between past and present – from the day of the volcano eruption in 1935 to decades prior – “The Color of Air” interweaves the stories of Daniel, Koji, and Mariko to create a rich, vibrant, bittersweet chorus that celebrates their lifelong bond to one to one another and to their immigrant community. As Mauna Loa threatens their lives and livelihoods, it also unearths long held secrets simmering below the surface that meld past and present, revealing a path forward for them all.
December 27, 2024
LIES AND WEDDINGS by Kevin Kwan
In the globetrotting tale that takes us from the black sand beaches of Hawaii to the skies of Marrakech, from the glitzy bachelor pads Los Angeles to the inner sanctums of England’s oldest family estates, Kevin Kwan unfurls a juicy, hilarious, sophisticated and thrilling plotted story of love, money, murder, sex, and the lies we tell about them all.
