MORNING BOOK

Please join us for our next to last meeting for the year, Monday, June 2, at 10 AM.  We will be discussing The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride.  Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania was the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.  As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

Fay Weber will not only host the meeting but she will also lead our discussion.  Mandy Knight will provide refreshments.  Fay’s address is 2089 E. Skyline Dr.; La Habra Heights.  Carpooling is advisable if possible.  Phone numbers:  562-697-2101 (home); 562-631-5262 (cell).  I will provide a Zoom connection the week prior for those of you that cannot be with us in person.  Please let Fay and Mandy know whether you will be attending in person so they can plan accordingly.

Also, remember that the deadline for submission to me for books for next year is Friday, May 16.  I need title, author, number of pages, and brief description.  I will then compile a list for voting prior to the June 2 meeting.

I look forward to seeing you.

Ann Topjon    562-665-1724