Events

Please join the Rotary Book Discussion Group for the discussion of the book The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. All Rotarians and guests are welcome.

About the book:

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing development, the last thing they expected to uncover was a human skeleton. Who the skeleton was and how it got buried there were just two of the long-held secrets that had been kept for decades by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side, sharing ambitions and sorrows.  Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.  When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town’s establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community—heaven and earth—that ultimately sustain us.

https://www.lulakc.com/

REGISTER HERE - https://vhub.at/JH5ZC4

Driving Directions: (Google Maps does not work underground)

Warehouse Location: Our warehouse is located in an underground warehouse complex, so the following directions will be important. Once you enter Subtropolis, you will lose cell service, but there will be red Project C.U.R.E. signs to guide you the rest of the way. Do not put our physical address into a GPS, instead, use 9400 NE 41st St, Kansas City, MO 64161. To get to our facility from I-435: Take the NE Parvin Road exit, head east. At the stop sign turn right onto Arlington Ave. Turn right on Derrough Drive. Upon entering Subtropolis, go to the third stop sign and turn right (pillars are painted green). At the stop sign, turn left onto STC Drive. Turn right at the next available right. Our glass front door will be three businesses down on the right with a red Project C.U.R.E. sign above.

https://www.cafetriokc.com/

Heavy Hors d’oeurves (no meal)

& Cash Bar

$25/person

"Wrap up a good read!"

If you would like to participate, bring your favorite book from the past year — all wrapped up in festive paper.

We’ll exchange them at the party and everyone will leave with a new story to enjoy over the holidays.

https://grandstreetkc.com/

Please join the Rotary Book Discussion Group for the discussion of the book The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.  The book is available at Rainy Day Books and all Rotarians and guests are welcome.

About the book:

Early morning, August 1975, a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk.  This occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing.  Barbara isn’t just any thirteen year-old, she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents.  And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared.  Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.  As a painful search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds.  Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadows, Moore’s multithreaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances.