The SLORAM Book Club meets on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 2PM at Mt. Carmel Church, 1701 Fredericks Street, SLO. Books reviewed by the Club are read & recommended by Members. The books always elicit observations and critiques that are interesting & informative. The Club discussion has a round-the-table format.
April 28
“Wedemeyer Reports” by Albert C. Wedemeyer. Presented by Russ Bik. A first-hand objective dispassionate examination of World War II, postwar policies, and grand strategy by 4-star General Wedemeyer.
May 26
“A Fever in the Heartland” by Timothy Egan. Presented by Bob Zdenek. It’s the roaring 20’s. It is also the height of the Ku Klux Klan influence in America’s heartland set into motion by D.C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators all proudly claimed membership. The author, a Pulitzer Prize winner, gives us a very interesting saga of how a predatory con man became one of the most powerful people in 1920s America, with a plan to rule the country—and how a grisly murder of a woman brought him down.
June 23
“The First American” by H. W. Brands. Presented by Bill Woodson. USA’s 250th anniversary is here. Get in the mood by reading a great biography of Benjamin Franklin. It was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist. Franklin was something else. Here are some of the hats he wore simultaneously: journalist, father, inventor, provocateur, moralist, ladies’ man, diplomat, propagandist, revolutionary, tinkerer and humorist. The author brings to life one of the most delightful, bawdy, brilliant, original, and important figures in American history.
July 28
“The Fish That Ate the Whale” by Rich Cohen. Presented by Bernie Troy.
The fascinating untold tale of Samuel Zemurray, the self-made banana mogul who went from penniless roadside banana peddler to kingmaker and capitalist revolutionary.
A Best Book of the Year by San Francisco Chronicle and The Times-Picayune.
August 25
“Becoming Earth, How the Planet came to Life” by Ferris Jabr. Presented by Bob Zdenek. A journey through the hidden workings of our planetary symphony—its players, its instruments, and the music of life—and an invitation to reexamine our place in it.