Plano Reads: July Book Clubs

Second Tuesday Book Club

Tuesday, July 12 at 7 p.m. 

In-person at Schimelpfenig Library 

Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese 

Available as Print | eBook 

When Franklin Starlight is called to visit his father, he has mixed emotions. Raised by an old man he was entrusted to soon after his birth, Frank is haunted by the brief and troubling moments he has shared with his father, Eldon. When he finally travels by horseback to town, he finds Eldon on the edge of death, decimated from years of drinking. The two undertake a difficult journey into the mountainous backcountry, in search of a place for Eldon to die and be buried in the warrior way. As they travel, Eldon tells his son the story of his own life – from an impoverished childhood to combat in the Korean War and his shell-shocked return. Through the fog of pain, Eldon relates to his son these desolate moments, as well as his life’s fleeting but nonetheless crucial moments of happiness and hope, the sacrifices made in the name of love. And in telling his story, Eldon offers his son a world the boy has never seen, a history he has never known. 

Examples:

Guy on Fire: 130 Recipes for Adventures in Outdoor Cooking by Guy Fieri, available as eBook 

Operation BBQ: 200+ Smokin’ Recipes from Competition Grand Champions by Stan Hays, available as Print 

Weber’s Ultimate Grilling: A Step-by-Step Guide to Barbecue Genius by Jamie Purviance, available as Print 

How to Grill Vegetables: The New Bible for Barbecuing Vegetables Over Live Fire by Steven Raichlen, available as Print 

Everyday Barbecue: All Year Outdoor Grilling by Andreas Rummel, available as Print 

Serial Griller: Grillmaster Secrets for Flame-Cooked Perfection by Matt Moore, available as Print and eBook 

Brown Bag Book Club

Thursday, July 28 at 12 p.m. 

In person at Parr Library – bring your lunch and discuss the featured book 

Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener 

Available as Print | Large Print | eBook | eAudiobook 

In her mid-twenties, at the height of tech industry idealism, Anna Wiener – stuck, broke, and looking for meaning in her work, like any good millennial – left a job in book publishing for the promise of the new digital economy. She moved from New York to San Francisco, where she landed at a big-data startup in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble: a world of surreal extravagance, dubious success, and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent on domination, glory, and, of course, progress. Anna arrived amidst a massive cultural shift, as the tech industry rapidly transformed into a locus of wealth and power rivaling Wall Street. But amid the company ski vacations and in-office speakeasies, boyish camaraderie and ride-or-die corporate fealty, a new Silicon Valley began to emerge: one in far over its head, one that enriched itself at the expense of the idyllic future it claimed to be building.