Books that Bind August 2024 – The Berry Pickers
Reading: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
Date: Thursday, August 15 at 12:00 PM EDT
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.
In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.
For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.
Books that Bind Building bonds through books and conversation. Our club reads a wide range of authors and genres. Books that Bind is the official Book Club of the Interchurch Center located in the Morningside/ Harlem area of New York City, NY. The club was established in 2011 to build bonds and friendship through a shared love of books among the various tenants of the building and neighbored.
2024 Books That Bind Book Club List
January 18th – The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
February 15th – Dear Juliet: Letters from the Lovestruck and Lovelorn to Shakespeare’s Juliet in Verona by Giulio Tamassia
March 7th – It’s not what you think: An American Woman in Saudi Arabia by Sabeeha Rehman (Author Visit)
April – Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
May – How to Kill a Man and Get Away With It by Katy Brent
June – Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
July – Woman of the Post by Joshunda Sanders
August – The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
September – Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Hayes
October – A Touch of Moonlight by Yaffa S. Santos
November – Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray & Irene Vallejo
December – 2025 Book Selection
