Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat with our guest Ken Larking, Danville City Manager. In our first mini book club, we review “The Which Way Tree” by Elizabeth Crook and the deep themes it explores including love, kindness and absolution. We discuss the delight of quirky characters, the importance of finding the right book for you, and Russell’s quest for a fun book about owls.

Books/Authors we discuss include:

• “The Which Way Tree” by Elizabeth Crook
• Michael Crichton
• Tom Clancy
• “Jack Reacher” series by Lee Child
• Dick Francis
• “Our Country Friends” by Gary Shteyngart
• “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
• John Grisham
• “Joe Pickett” series by C.J. Box
• “Walt Longmire” series by Craig Johnson
• “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• “Tuck Everlasting” by Natalie Babbit
• “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
• “Razorblade Tears” by S.A. Cosby
• “The Monster at the End of this Book (Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover)” by Jon Stone

Lost in Translation? We prefer Found in Translation! The reading challenge this month is to read a book that has been translated from another language. Russell, Rachael, and Rachel discuss some of their most recent reads and a few classics.

Books we discuss include:

• “The Cat Who Saved Books” by Sōsuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai
• “Princess Jellyfish” manga series by Akiko Higashimura
• “Spy x Family” manga series by Tatsuya Endo
• “Cat + Gamer” manga series by Wataru Nadatani, translated by Zack Davisson
• “Delicious in Dungeon” manga series by Ryoko Kui, translated by Taylor Engel
• “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas
• “The Door-to-Door Bookstore” by Carsten Henn, translated by Melody Shaw
• “When the Cranes Fly South” by Lisa Ridzén, translated by Alice Menzies
• “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman, translated by Henning Koch
• “My Friends” by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith
• “I Who Have Never Known Men” by Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz
• “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• “Beowulf” translated by Seamus Heaney
• “No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison” by Behrouz Boochani, translated by Alenka Ropret, Omid Tofighian
• “The Pillow Book” by Sei Shonagon

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat with our guest Michelle Larking, Secondary ELA teacher at Galileo Magnet High School and enthusiastic supporter of reading and literature. Michelle shares her recent reading journey in pursuit of meeting her Goodreads goal, Galileo’s new library at the John M. Langston campus, and whether humans will ever run out of new stories to tell. Russell certainly won’t and we don’t think authors will either.

Books we discuss include:

• “My Friends” and others by Frederik Backman
• “Monster in the Moonlight” by Annelise Ryan
• “The Correspondent" by Virginia Evans
• “Dear Mr. Henshaw” by Beverly Cleary
• “You Know Me All” by Ring Lardner
• “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea” by Yukio Mishima, translated by John Nathan
• “The Elephant Vanishes” by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin, Alfred Birnbaum
• “We All Want Impossible Things” and “Sandwich” by Catherine Newman
• “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”, “Evidence of the Affair” and others by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• “Abscond” by Abraham Verghese
• “Transcendent Gardening” by Ed Falco
• “We Are All Guilty Here” by Karin Slaughter
• “Blob” by Maggie Su
• “Poor Deer” and “Choette” by Claire Oshetsky
• “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury
• “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler
• “The Walking Dead” by Robert Kirkman, illustrated by Tony Moore
• Poetry by Langston Hughes
• “Kitchen” by Banana Yoshimoto
• “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah
• “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
• “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon” by Kevin Fedarko
• “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson
• “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop