Book Clubs

Date: March 30, 2026
Time: 12:00 pm

Dream Within a Dream by Hal McFarland

In 1943, during the height of World War II, an event occurred in Boone County, Kentucky, that put the war news on page two from August 17 until the 21st. The headlines throughout the nation focused on a murderous rampage that took place at Rosegate, the sprawling summer home of the politically ambitious Vice-Mayor of Covington, Kentucky. Carl Kiger and his six-year-old son, Jerry, were brutally shot fifteen times while Jennie, his wife, was critically wounded. When the 15 year old daughter, Joan, unharmed by the incident, is arrested, the lives of Mafia hit men, small town officials, and prominent attorneys are intertwined as they each sort out the truth.

Date: April 6, 2026
Time: 6:00 pm

Little Heathens by Milldred Armstrong Kalish

I tell of a time, a place, and a way of life long gone. For many years I have had the urge to describe that treasure trove, lest it vanish forever. So, partly in response to the basic human instinct to share feelings and experiences, and partly for the sheer joy and excitement of it all, I report on my early life. It was quite a romp.

So begins Mildred Kalish’s story of growing up on her grandparents’ Iowa farm during the depths of the Great Depression. With her father banished from the household for mysterious transgressions, five-year-old Mildred and her family could easily have been overwhelmed by the challenge of simply trying to survive. This, however, is not a tale of suffering.

Kalish counts herself among the lucky of that era. She had caring grandparents who possessed—and valiantly tried to impose—all the pioneer virtues of their forebears, teachers who inspired and befriended her, and a barnyard full of animals ready to be tamed and loved. She and her siblings and their cousins from the farm across the way played as hard as they worked, running barefoot through the fields, as free and wild as they dared.