Events

Novels on Aging Book Club

Elders in Action will be hosting a book club devoted to exploring an emerging fictional genre: Novels on Aging. Over the last 50 years novelists have become much more interested in writing about older adults, and from a variety of perspectives. Their work provides rich resources for interpretations of the meaning of aging in cross-cultural and historical circumstances.

The club meets the third Friday of each month from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Elders in Action Conference Room, Suite 290, 1411 SW Morrison, in downtown Portland. Contact Cynthia Arnott, NOA Book Club Coordinator, at cynthiaarnott@gmail.com for more info and to sign up for the book club newsletter.

December 21th
Movie Review - LINCOLN being shown at all major movie theaters

January 18
ALL PASSION SPENT by Vita Sackville-West (174 pgs.)
English, 1931, Virago Press, Ltd. 1983) In 1860, as a young girl of 17, Lady Slane nurtures a secret, burning ambition-to become an artist. She becomes, instead, the wife of a great statesman and the mother of 6 children. Seventy years later, released by widowhood, and to the dismay of her pompous children, she abandons the family home for a tiny house in Hampstead. Here she recollects the dreams of youth, and revels in her newfound freedom with her odd assortment of companions. All Passion Spent echoes some of Sackville-West's primary concerns: people's place in society, society's constrictions on people, and women's control of their lives. Sackville-West, voiced by Lady Slane, disavowed feminism and like her friend Virginia Woolf, considered the issues raised were issues of human rights rather than women's rights.

February 15
Dreamland by David K Randall
(American, W.W. Norton, 2012)Randall, a senior reporter at Reuters who has also written for The New York Times,embarked on his own investigation [of sleep and sleep disorders], traveling the country to interview sleep specialists of all descriptions, from those in the lab to those who frequent courtrooms as experts in the new discipline of sleep forensics. What results is a thoroughly enjoyable overview of a familiar yet remarkably foreign terrain.

March 15
The Wild Life by Molly Gloss
(Oregonian, Houghton Mifflin, 2001)Beautifully written and historically accurate, "Wild Life" is a highly original tale set at the very edge of civilization, where one woman takes on the untamed world of nature,and in the process, discovers much about the deepest recesses of her very own human nature. Putting a surprising, revitalizing, feminine spin on the classic legend of Tarzan and other wildman sagas, award-winning novelist Molly Gloss delivers a rich portrait of America's northwestern frontier at the start of the twentieth century.

April 19
The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison
(American, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2012)Books on Aging Discussion Group 2. Sad sack Benjamin takes a job as caregiver to 19-year-old Trev, who suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. After Benjamin gets fired, he and Trev go on the world's most unlikely road trip -- and Benjamin comes to terms with his life. "….a highway ballad, a book that, like so many before it, adheres to the notion that America's open roads are portals to catharsis and redemption. It's a story of heartbreak and healing, and it opens with a portrait of a defeated man." – Kevin Canfield, The Daily Beast

May 17
A Trick of the Light (A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel) by Louise Penny
(Canadian, Minotaur Books 2011)Penny, elevating herself to the pantheon that houses P.D. James, Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters, demonstrates an exquisite touch with characterization, plotting and artistic sensitivity. And there could be no better explanation of A.A. than you will find here. - Kirkus Review Winner of the Anthony Award for Best Crime Novel 2012, Finalist for the Agatha Award for Best Mystery of 2011, New York Times Notable Book, Publishers Weekly's Best Mystery/Thriller Books for 2011. Not mentioned in reviews is that a good portion of the novel's main characters are older adults.

June 21
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
(American, 1987, Modern Library Classics)Called a "magnificently crafted story...brimming with wisdom" by Howard Frank Mosher in The Washington Post Book World, the novel has, since its publication in 1987, established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century. Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage.

The book club meets the third Friday of every month at Elders in Action in downtown Portland. For more information contact Cynthia Arnott (Book Club Coordinator) at cynthiaarnott@gmail.com
Participation is free.