Many months ago, Steve Lotter asked me to write up a history of the Jewish Federation Book Club, but my experience—going on ten years—doesn’t start at the beginning of the group. When I joined, Monika Wayne was the Activities Director of the Fed. She organized the Book Club’s schedule and lunches and wrote small articles about our upcoming books. Learning that I’m a writer and seeing that I attended every session, Monika asked if I’d take over writing what she called “the blurb.” Over time, my version of the super-short article for the Fed’s newsletter expanded to reflect points of interest brought up by the people reading and discussing these books.
The first author-included session we conducted was with Maine poet and memoirist Elizabeth Garber. She joined us for questions and answers about her book, Implosion: A Memoir of an Architect’s Daughter. This was so long ago that video chatting was new to us all. Elizabeth’s video image came across horizontally, so while the rest of us sat around one table at the Fed, I held my laptop sideways.
Years later, when Covid hit, we moved our sessions entirely to Zoom. Now that we have several members who live too far away to attend in person, we will keep using Zoom. Nevertheless, Steve Lotter continually encourages us to meet in person whenever possible, helping us evolve toward the hybrid version of our video chats. With Steve’s expertise and primo equipment, we now get to sit comfortably at the Fed, see our invited authors up on a big screen during the Zoom, and still have our away-from-Indiana members join us for those sessions.
All our guest presenters have authored the books they presented, with the exception of Professor Peter Blasenheim from Colorado College. A novel he often used in his South American history classes, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado, was much beloved by our group. The list of guest speakers below brings us up to date, with anticipation of renowned creative writing instructor Jonathan Blum, who will join us in September.
2018 — Elizabeth W. Garber, Implosion: A Memoir of an Architect’s Daughter
2021 — Professor Peter Blasenheim on Jorge Amado’s Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon
2023 — Lori Rader-Day, mystery novel Death at Greenway
2024 — Elizabeth W. Garber, Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year
2025 — Reuven Fenton, road-trip novel Goyhood
2026 — Saul Golubcow, detective series The Cost of Living and Other Mysteries
September 2026 — Jonathan Blum, short-story collection The Usual Uncertainties
Beth Buechler,
Community Contributor
Upcoming Book Discussions (Subject to Change):
August 20: Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica (Murder Mystery)
September 17: The Usual Uncertainties by Jonathan Blum (Short stories) — Hybrid Zoom at Fed with Author
October 8: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn (Magical Realism)
November 12: The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin (Historical Fiction)
December 10:Heart of a Stranger by Angela Buchdahl (Memoir, Spiritual Guide)
Unless otherwise directed, the Federation Book Club meets via Zoom at 4 PM on the 2nd Thursday of the month.
Contact info@thejewishfed.org with “Book Club” in the subject if you’d like to join.