Sylvan Way Nonfiction Book Group

The Sylvan Way Nonfiction book group have gone virtual! Below you will find information regarding the dates, book titles and options to join the virtual book discussion using our Zoom App!

Join by video by clicking on the link below or dial in by phone.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connection options:

If you are a first time participant, please register here. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dates, times and book discussion schedule:

I. Tuesday, February 16th – Rough Magic: riding the world’s loneliest horse race by Lara Prior-Palmer

Description:  At the age of nineteen, Lara Prior-Palmer discovered a website devoted to "the world's longest, toughest horse race"--an annual competition of endurance and skill that involves dozens of riders racing a series of twenty-five wild ponies across 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. On a whim, she decided to enter the race. As she boarded a plane to East Asia, she was utterly unprepared for what awaited her. Riders often spend years preparing to compete in the Mongol Derby, a course that re-creates the horse messenger system developed by Genghis Khan, and many fail to finish. Prior-Palmer had no formal training. She was driven by her own restlessness, stubbornness, and a lifelong love of horses. She raced for ten days through extreme heat and terrifying storms, catching a few hours of sleep where she could at the homes of nomadic families. Battling bouts of illness and dehydration, exhaustion and bruising falls, she decided she had nothing to lose. Each dawn she rode out again on a fresh horse, scrambling up mountains, swimming through rivers, crossing woodlands and wetlands, arid dunes and open steppe, as American television crews chased her in their jeeps. Told with terrific suspense and style, in a voice full of poetry and soul, Rough Magic captures the extraordinary story of one young woman who forged ahead, against all odds, to become the first female winner of this breathtaking race."--Dust jacket flap.

This book is available in print form from a book kit.  Please contact Elisabeth at edemmon@krl.org if you would like a copy.  Other formats, though limited in number available, are accessible through the KRL Catalogue as well as the downloadable link at https://krl.overdrive.com/

II. Tuesday, March 16th - “Life Undercover” by Amaryllis Fox 

Description: The New York Times Amaryllis Fox's riveting memoir tells the story of her ten years in the most elite clandestine ops unit of the CIA, hunting the world's most dangerous terrorists in sixteen countries while marrying and giving birth to a daughter.  Life Undercover is exhilarating, intimate, fiercely intelligent—an impossible to put down record of an extraordinary life, and of Amaryllis Fox's astonishing courage and passion.

This book will be available from a book kit after February 16th.  Please contact Elisabeth at edemmon@krl.org if you would like a copy.  Other formats, though limited in number available, are accessible through the KRL Catalogue as well as the downloadable link at https://krl.overdrive.com/

III. Tuesday,  April 20th - “Inheritance: memoir of genealogy, paternity, and love” by Dani Shapiro

The acclaimed and beloved author of Hourglass now gives us a new memoir about identity, paternity, and family secrets--a real-time exploration of the staggering discovery she made last year about her father, and her struggle to piece together the hidden the story of her own life"--

This book will be available from a book kit after March 16th.  Please contact Elisabeth at edemmon@krl.org if you would like a copy.  Other formats, though limited in number available, are accessible through the KRL Catalogue as well as the downloadable link at https://krl.overdrive.com/

IV. Tuesday, May 18th at 10am “Hidden Valley Road:  Inside the Mind of an American Family” by Robert Kolker

Description:  Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after the other, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institutes of Mental Health. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering,

**Book Kit and Downloadable. Contact Elisabeth at edemmon@krl.org if you have any questions.

V. Tuesday, June 15th at 10am: - Becoming by Michelle Obama

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private. A deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations.

This book will be available from a Book Group kit and can be picked up at the Sylvan Way Branch Help Desk.  It is also available from the KRL Downloadables link at  https://www.krl.org/download