On behalf of Worship and Ministry, this is just a quick announcement to let you know that we’ll be reconvening our book club discussion in late March or early April during forum. (The specific date to be announced soon.)
Last summer, we read Mark Sundeen’s nonfiction book, The Man Who Quit Money.
This time around, we’ll be reading a novel, Trace Chevalier’s The Last Runaway. Honor Bright, the main character, is a Quaker who gets involved with the Underground Railroad.
Here’s a description from Goodreads:
In New York Times bestselling author Tracy Chevalier’s newest historical saga, she introduces Honor Bright, a modest English Quaker who moves to Ohio in 1850, only to find herself alienated and alone in a strange land. Sick from the moment she leaves England, and fleeing personal disappointment, she is forced by family tragedy to rely on strangers in a harsh, unfamiliar landscape.
Nineteenth-century America is practical, precarious, and unsentimental, and scarred by the continuing injustice of slavery. In her new home Honor discovers that principles count for little, even within a religious community meant to be committed to human equality.
However, drawn into the clandestine activities of the Underground Railroad, a network helping runaway slaves escape to freedom, Honor befriends two surprising women who embody the remarkable power of defiance. Eventually she must decide if she too can act on what she believes in, whatever the personal costs.
A powerful journey brimming with color and drama, The Last Runaway is Tracy Chevalier’s vivid engagement with an iconic part of American history.
You may purchase the book from a bookstore or online retailer, get it from the library, or we will have a few copies available in the meetinghouse to sign out. A few of us also have copies we can loan.
