UHMC Book Club 2023 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 27, 2023

BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY: A MEMOIR by Qian Julie Wang

When seven-year-old Qian is plucked from her warm and happy childhood surrounded by extended family in China, she finds a world of crushing fear and poverty instead. For five years she lived undocumented after immigrating with her parents to New York City. Shocked at where her family fits in comparison to their status as educated elites in China, she works shifts alongside her mother in Chinatown sweatshops. Unable to speak English, isolated and disregarded, Qian put into special education classes and humiliated by teachers and classmates when she struggles to pay attention because of hunger or exhaustion. Her memoir illuminates the cruelty and indignity of America’s immigration system, and the cost of making a home in a hostile land.

February 24, 2023

WALKING WITH THE WIND: A MEMOIR OF THE MOVEMENT by John Lewis, with Michael D’Orso

Lewis’s role in the Nashville Movement – a student-led effort to desegregate the city of Nashville through nonviolent sit-ins – made him a defining activist of his day and helped set the tone for the civil rights movement. Though he was repeatedly a victim of violence and intimidation, his belief in peaceful action, inspired by his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, became the core of his cause and vision. In this classic bestseller, John Lewis vividly captures America’s tumultuous civil rights era.

March 31, 2023

THE SENTENCE by Louise Erdrich

A beguiling ode to bibliophiles set in an unnamed bookstore in Minneapolis that very closely resembles BirchBark, the shop Erdich owns in real life. Her quirky, captivating characters – ex-con Tookie chief among them – care deeply about each other and our troubled world, but perhaps their deepest passion is for…books.

April 28, 2023

AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins

Lydia lives in Acapulco. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while cracks are beginning to show in Acapulco because of the cartels, Lydia’s life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. But after her husband’s tell-all profile of the newest drug lord is published, none of their lives will ever be the same. Forced to flee, Lydia and Luca find themselves joining the countless people trying to reach the United States. Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?

May 26, 2023

SPARKS LIKE STARS: A NOVEL by Nadia Hashimi

In the 1970s, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Kabul as the daughter of one of the President’s right-hand men. When the communist coup results in the murder of her entire family, Sitara escapes and is adopted by an American diplomat. Now a renowned surgeon, her world is rocked when the man who rescued her appears in her operating room, sending her on a search for answers.

September 29, 2023 

ME BEFORE YOU by Jojo Moyes

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life – steady boyfriend, close family – who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after a motorcycle accident. Will has always lived a huge life and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living. Brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common – a novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

October 27, 2023

MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult; Jennifer Finney Boylan

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

November 24, 2023

DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver

In transposing a Victorian epic novel, to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all his faith in the transformative powers of a good story.

December 8, 2023

SPIRIT OF THE VILLAGE: A MAUI MEMOIR by Jackie Pias Carlin

Jackie Pias Carlin’s story of growing up in a Maui Filipino sugar plantation neighborhood during the 50s.