UUCV Book Group – Schedule and Books for 2025

January 26 – Solito by Javier Zamara (Darlene Smith leads discussion)

A memoir of a nine year old boy making the long arduous journey alone from El Salvador to the United States. A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home. Everyone who has any anti-immigrant sentiments need to read this, and it is gripping. 2022, 416 pp.

February 23 – The Vaster Wilds: A Novel by Lauren Groff (Bev Ayers-Nachamkin leads)

A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her. Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves. 2023, 272pp.

March 23 – Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski (Susan Rimby leads)

Nathan, Callie, and Andy are residents of down-and-out Locksburg, PA, a former coal and steel town that has seen better days. Each thinks they’ve gotten a raw deal in life, So, when each is faced with a morally ambiguous situation, they make questionable choices. The bulk of the plot deals with how they each navigate those choices.

Jaworoski is a graduate of Shippensburg University and models Locksburg after Shippensburg Borough. If you’re familiar with Shippensburg, you’ll recognize some of the settings. If you are familiar with the campus, you’ll recognize the names of some of the secondary characters. 2023, 261 pp.

April 27 – Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan, by Sima Samar (John Katz leads) March 23 – Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski (Susan Rimby leads)

The impassioned memoir of Afghanistan’s Sima Samar: medical doctor, public official, founder of schools and hospitals, thorn in the side of the Taliban, nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and lifelong advocate for girls and women. Sima Samar’s wide-ranging experiences both in her home country and on the world stage have given her inside access to the dishonesty, the collusion, the corruption, the self-serving leaders, and the hijacking of religion. And as a former Vice President, she knows all the players in this chess game called Afghanistan. With stories that are at times poignant, at times terrifying, inspiring as well as disheartening, Sima provides an unparalleled view of Afghanistan’s past and its present. 2024, 324 pp.

May 18 – The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Bev Motich leads)

Set in Chicken Hill, a small town near Pottstown Pennsylvania, where Black, Jewish, and European immigrants, rich and poor, old and young, collide—defending, fighting, entertaining, feeding, and sheltering one another. This cacophonous melody of characters with all of their schemes and dreams reveal how home is where you make it—and how all of these “outsiders” are anything but. 2023, 400 pp.

June 22 – The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi, by Wright Thompson (Susan Rimby leads)

Wright Thompson was born and raised within miles of the Emmett Till murder, but only learned about that horrific event a few years ago. After thorough research and interviews with first-person witnesses, Thompson gives us the context of the 1950s Mississippi Delta, the events surrounding Till’s murder, and the impact the murder had, particularly on Till’s surviving family and friends. Throughout this process, Thompson supports the people and institutions seeking justice for and preserving the memory of Till. 2024, 448 pp.

July 27 – The Black House by Peter May (Bev Ayers-Nachamkin leads)

Two bodies are found hanging from trees: one in Edinburgh, the other on the Isle of Lewis, the most northerly isle in the Outer Hebrides. Edinburgh cop Fin Macleod, originally from Lewis, is assigned to the case for no more reason than that he speaks Gaelic. Two narratives vie with each other. One involves Macleod’s struggles with confronting people whom he left behind years ago. The other, which eventually informs the first, is Macleod’s first-person memories of his life growing up on the island. The two narratives are brilliantly executed until they converge in an absolute stunner of an ending. For once in crime fiction, a detective confronting demons from his past is not merely a stock plot device. May gives it an urgency that, by novel’s end, makes perfect

sense. A gripping plot, pitch-perfect characterization, and an appropriately bleak setting drive this outstanding series debut. (Connie Fletcher, Booklist) 2012, 368pp.

August 24 – Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis (Brian McPherson leads)

The rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. This rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side, had his world come crashing down and is now serving 25 yrs in prison for defrauding investors. 2023, 288 pp.

September 28 – The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens (Bev Motich leads)

Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared. Thirty years before, Hana was someone else: Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia—until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. 2025, 312 pp.

October 26 – The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology by Nita A. Farahany (Keith Bittinger leads)

Summary: A new dawn of brain tracking and hacking is coming. Will you be prepared for what comes next? Imagine a world where your brain can be interrogated to learn your political beliefs, your thoughts can be used as evidence of a crime, and your own feelings can be held against you. A world where people who suffer from epilepsy receive alerts moments before a seizure, and the average person can peer into their own mind to eliminate painful memories or cure addictions. Paperback: 304 pages, Audio Book: 8 hrs 27 mins

November 23 – 2026 reading selections