Virtual ‘Quick Reads’ Book Group Returns, Featuring a Discussion of News of the World by Paulette Jiles, moderated by Esther Bushell
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd drifts through northern Texas, performing live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. At a stop in Wichita Falls, Captain Kidd is offered a fifty dollar gold piece to deliver a young orphan, raised by the Kiowa tribe, back to her relatives near San Antonio. Unfolding in gorgeous prose, News of the World is a vivid portrait that captures a beautiful and hostile land, and a masterful exploration of the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.
Esther Bushell taught English at Greenwich High School, and when she retired in 2003, she created Literary Matters and began a second career as a book group facilitator. Literary Matters also hosts book events for authors such as E.L. Doctorow, David Brooks, Jim Lehrer, Nicholas Kristof, Jon Meacham, Lori Gottlieb, and Tara Westover.
Tuesday, January 26
7:30pm – 8:30pm
The session will be held virtually on Zoom. A meeting link and password will be emailed the day before to all enrollees. Copies of the book or audiobook may be ordered through Barrett Bookstore.
Ticket price: $15 DCA members/$20 public
To support the DCA and events like this, please contribute if you can when you register.
Register online by noon on Monday, January 25, or contact the DCA at 203-655-9050 extension 10. Enrollment limited to the first 24 people.
Virtual Summer ‘Quick Reads’ Book Group Featured a Discussion of Waiting for Eden, moderated by Esther Bushell
The session was held virtually on Zoom.
Part mystery, part thriller, part unconventional love story, this novel explores with gravity and sensitivity the profound questions of love and fidelity, duty and honor, and how one creates a life worth living. This short book is less than 200 pages. A certified bioethicist will co-moderate with Esther Bushell, and offer her perspective about the issues raised.
Virtual Summer ‘Quick Reads’ Book Group Featured a Discussion of The All of It, moderated by Esther Bushell
The session was held virtually on Zoom.
Jeannette Haien’s award-winning first novel, The All of It, relates the seemingly simple tale of a parishioner confiding in her priest, but the tangled confession brings secrets to light that provoke a moral quandary not only for the clergyman but also for the reader. This short book (145 pages) has both the power and resonance of myth.