Interest Groups

League of Women Voters^®
of Marion and Polk Counties

Interest groups allow small groups of League members to pursue special interests.

Book Club. Foreign Policy. Foreign Policy Reports. Book Club Schedule for 2008-2009.

Book Club

Bea Epperson
May 6 Trip to Newport
A field trip is planned for the LWVMPC Book Club for May 6. The destination is the Sylvia Beach Hotel located at 267 NW Cliff in Newport. The hotel, which is on the Register of Historic Landmarks, was built between 1910 and 1913. It is now a place for booklovers with guest rooms furnished and named after different authors, including Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Jane Austin, Oscar Wilde and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Book Club will meet in the hotel's Agatha Christie Room at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6, to discuss the English mystery, The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield. While the novel is set in modern times, the reader is taken to old manor houses with gothic overtones and learns the many secrets of the Angelfield family complete with ghosts, a governess, topiary garden, and devastating fire. Surprises abound, even in postscript.
After the meeting, attendees will complete the evening with dinner either at the hotel or at a Newport restaurant. Walking on the beach is another activity to be enjoyed, and you might also be on the lookout for ghost-sightings in the various guest rooms.
Those wishing to stay overnight on May 6 should contact the hotel for reservations at 541-265-5428. Breakfast is included in the room rate. Do not delay to make reservations if you plan to spend the night since, with 20 guest rooms, space is limited.
Read Diane Setterfield's English mystery, The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel, before May 6 and come prepared to discuss it at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport.
Book Club Schedule for June and July
At both the June and July meetings, we will discuss the theme for the 2009-2010 year and ask that members come prepared with suggestions for book selections beginning in September.
June: The Book Club will meet on Wednesday, June 3. The book selection is: I Was a Potato Oligarch: Travels and Travail in the New Russia by John Mole. This is a nonfiction book about an outsider trying to start a new business in Russia. The book is a funny and frustrating account by the entrepreneur. The meeting will start at 2 p.m. at the home of Bea Epperson, 4840 Jones Road SE.
July: The Book Club will meet on Wednesday, July 1, at 2 p.m. at the home of Bea Epperson. The book selection is: People of the Book: a Novel by Geraldine Brooks. This is a fictional modern-day saga that follows a Jewish book written in the 1500s through the subsequent centuries.

Foreign Policy

The Foreign Policy group will not meet this month.

Foreign Policy Reports

Reports on highlights from some of the speakers hosted by the Foreign Policy Interest Group are available. They are:
China--Changes and Challenges Read report
The United Nations Today Read report

Book Club Schedule for 2008-2009

Meetings are on the first Wednesday of the month at 2 p.m. at the home of Bea Epperson, 4840 Jones Rd. S.E. However, check the Calendar each month in case of a change of location.
Theme: Around the World in Books
September 3, 2008 - The Caliph's house: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah
Morocco: Nonfiction

October 1, 2008 - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
S. America: Fiction

November 5, 2008 - I Was a Potato Oligarch: Travels and Travail in the New Russia by John Mole
Russia: Nonfiction

December 3, 2008 - Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed by Jeremy Diamond
Various countries of the world: Nonfiction

January 7, 2009 - The Prince of the Marshes by Rory Stewart
Iraq: Nonfiction

February 4, 2009 - The Zookeepers' Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman
Poland: fiction

March 4, 2009 - Gonzales & Daughter Trucking Company by Maria Ampara Escandon
Mexico: Fiction (Salem Library has a set of books to loan.)

April 1, 2009 - The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Tobin
U.S. : Nonfiction

May 6, 2009 - The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
England: Fiction (mystery)

June 3, 2009 - A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary
U.S. (Oregon): Nonfiction (memoir)

July 1, 2009 - People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks
Spain, Bosnia, Venice, Australia: Fiction

August 5, 2009 - TBD Choice of:
Three Cups of Tea by Gary Mortenson
Enough by Bill McKibben or
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Eric Larson (Salem Library has a set of books to loan.)

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