Agency: Books Inc

Description: Read and discuss books that address vital community issues with other HOBA volunteers. The book club meets for an hour and a half each month for informal, friendly discussions on pertinent political and social issues. Join us for one or all of our Book Club meetings. And don't worry if you don't finish the entire book; bring your insights to share with the group anyway! And, if you have time after, the group always goes out for Bubble Tea or a late night snack - come join us!

Volunteer Minimum Age: 18

Join the HandsOn Bay Area Book Club group on www.goodreads.com! Make suggestions for future reading and see the books we've read in the past.

June Book
>When You Are Engulfed in Flames
David Sedaris
Trying to make coffee when the water is shut off, David considers using the water in a vase of flowers and his chain of associations takes him from the French countryside to a hilariously uncomfortable memory of buying drugs in a mobile home in rural North Carolina. Culminating in a brilliant account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, David Sedaris's sixth essay collection is a new masterpiece of comic writing from "a writer worth treasuring.

July Book

Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth
William Bryant Logan

In these brief, elegant essays, the author raises the concept of dirt to new levels. Logan, a monthly columnist for the New York Times, looks at soil formation and development. His topics range from quarries and the foundations of cathedrals to graveyards and earthworms, from husbandry in ancient Rome to composting in Florida. Logan pays tribute to the dung beetle as a symbol of renewal; he notes that dirt is the source of many drugs that work against infectious diseases (penicillin, streptomycin). He discusses the many forms of clay and the agricultural practices of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the Iroquois. Dirt is a natural history of the soil and our connection with it.

August Book
The House on Dream Street: Memoir of an American Woman in Vietnam
Dana Sachs

Part memoir and part travelogue, The House on Dream Street offers a compelling glimpse into Vietnam more than 20 years after the war. Author Dana Sachs foregoes the history lesson and instead takes us into the day-to-day lives of working-class people attempting to succeed in a fledgling capitalist economy. Captivated by the once-forbidden country during a visit in 1989, Sachs returned two years later, took a room with a young family, and set out to immerse herself in the culture.

September Book
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less
Terry Ryan

While her sometimes abusive husband drank away a third of his weekly take-home pay, Evelyn Ryan kept her ever-growing family afloat by entering every contest she came across, beginning with Burma Shave roadside-sign jingles. In post-World War II America, money, appliances, food, excursions-anything you could think of-were routinely offered to the person who sent in the best jingle, essay, or poem, accompanied, of course, by the company's box-top or other product identification. Although she more often won prizes of products, such as a case of Almond Joy candy bars, Mrs. Ryan once won enough for a down payment on a house just as her family was being turned out of their two-bedroom rental house. She entered so many contests, often several times under different forms of her name, that hardly a week went by without some prize being delivered by the postman. Charmingly written by one of her 10 children, this story is not only a chronicle of contesting, but also of her mother's irrepressible spirit. With a sense of humor that wouldn't quit, she found fun in whatever life sent her way, and passed that on to all her children who, despite the poverty they grew up in, lived and still live happy, useful lives.

This project is approved for volunteers with the following restrictions: Allow Pending Members

Impact Areas: Citizen Action/Academy, Community Enrichment

Interests: There are no interests specified for this project.

Skills: There are no skills specified for this project.