May 22 - Splendid and the Vile

At our meeting on April 24th, we discussed Someone Like You by Karen Kingsbury. Everyone gave it a passing grade but most aren't planning on reading other books by the author. We felt the writing was good but the religious elements felt forced and the story contrived.


Our next meeting is a week earlier than usual due to the Memorial Day holiday. We will meet on Monday, May 22nd to discuss the Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. Copies of the book are available at the desk. Discussion sheets can also be picked up or are available here.

The Splendid and the Vile summary: "The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers a fresh and compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz. On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold the country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally-and willing to fight to the end. Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports-some released only recently-Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family."

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