CCC Cares Book Club

The book club was revived by the CCC Cares Wellness Sub-committee from the original Book Club and Lunch started by Rose DeNardo. The Wellness sub-committee shares information and initiates activities that help employees live healthier lives by maintaining lower stress levels, healthy eating habits and mental health awareness.

Current Book

June 2024

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg

Summary: Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a now-classic novel about two women: Evelyn, who’s in the sad slump of middle age, and gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode, who’s telling her life story. Her tale includes two more women—the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth—who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, offering good coffee, southern barbecue, and all kinds of love and laughter—even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present will never be quite the same again.

July 2024

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

Summary: Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised . . . and curious. Their parents are all clear on one point–not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother’s good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it’s immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious–and dark–their family’s past is. The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over–and this summer, the cousins will learn everything.

August 2024

Reading with Patrick by Michelle Kuo

Summary: Recently graduated from Harvard University, Michelle Kuo arrived in the rural town of Helena, Arkansas, as a Teach for America volunteer, bursting with optimism and drive. But she soon encountered the jarring realities of life in one of the poorest counties in America, still disabled by the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. In this stirring memoir, Kuo, the child of Taiwanese immigrants, shares the story of her complicated but rewarding mentorship of one student, Patrick Browning, and his remarkable literary and personal awakening. Convinced she can make a difference in the lives of her teenaged students, Michelle Kuo puts her heart into her work, using quiet reading time and guided writing to foster a sense of self in students left behind by a broken school system. Though Michelle loses some students to truancy and even gun violence, she is inspired by some such as Patrick. Fifteen and in the eighth grade, Patrick begins to thrive under Michelle’s exacting attention. However, after two years of teaching, Michelle feels pressure from her parents and the draw of opportunities outside the Delta and leaves Arkansas to attend law school. Then, on the eve of her law-school graduation, Michelle learns that Patrick has been jailed for murder. Feeling that she left the Delta prematurely and determined to fix her mistake, Michelle returns to Helena and resumes Patrick’s education–even as he sits in a jail cell awaiting trial. Every day for the next seven months they pore over classic novels, poems, and works of history. Little by little, Patrick grows into a confident, expressive writer and a dedicated reader galvanized by the works of Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, Walt Whitman, W. S. Merwin, and others. In this powerful memoir that “avoids the education-as-savior cliché,” as James Forman, Jr. and Arthur Evenchik write, Kuo is herself transformed as she contends with the legacy of slavery and he questions of what constitutes a “good” life and what the privileged owe to those with bleaker prospects.

All CCC Cares book selections are available through the Camden County Library System.
Or check your local library system for copies.

Advance registration is encouraged even if you are unsure about your attendance.
Registering in advance allows the facilitator to contact interested bookworms regarding schedule conflicts or reading progress to determine date/time changes, if needed.

Common questions and answers about the book club.

For more information please contact, Rose DeNardo at rdenardo@camdencc.edu.