Book Discussion Group

by Jan Herzog

All Kehilla members are invited to join us for our customary meetings on the second Monday of the month at 7pm.   Below are summaries of the books we will read in November and December, taken from Amazon.

Monday, December 14:  Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

Anita Diamant’s Boston Girl follows the life of one woman, Addie Baum, through a period of dramatic change. Addie is the spirited daughter of an immigrant Jewish family, born in 1900 to parents who were unprepared for America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End of Boston, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie’s intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can’t imagine—a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture, and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, to finding the love of her life, eighty-five-year-old Addie recounts her adventures with humor and compassion for the naïve girl she once was.

At the December meeting we will select books to read for next year.  We will have a longer meeting to  pick books; we will finish at 9:00 instead of 8:30.  Anyone can recommend a book.  Send the title and a brief synopsis of the book to jsklar3826@yahoo.com.  Also please find out how many books are in the Oakland and Berkeley libraries.  He will compile an “official list” and send it out before the Dec. 14th meeting. Everyone should come prepared to vote for the books they want to read; you can vote for as many books as you like.  Usually there is a cluster of 10-11 books that a significant majority of the members want to read.  If you can’t make the meeting, you can vote by absentee ballot.  Just send me your preferred titles before the Dec. 14th meeting.  For more information contact Jan Herzog jankaye@juno.com.