April 14th - Jan

THE PLUM TREE by Ellen Marie Wisemen
Meeting date:  Friday, April 14th at 11:30 a.m.

A deeply moving and masterfully written story of human resilience and enduring love, The Plum Tree follows a young German woman through the chaos of World War II and its aftermath.

"Bloom where you're planted," is the advice Christine Bolz receives from her beloved Oma. But seventeen-year-old domestic Christine knows there is a whole world waiting beyond her small German village. It's a world she's begun to glimpse through music, books--and through Isaac Bauerman, the cultured son of the wealthy Jewish family she works for. 

Yet the future she and Isaac dream of sharing faces greater challenges than their difference in stations. In the fall of 1938, Germany is changing rapidly under Hitler's regime. Anti-Jewish posters are everywhere, dissenting talk is silenced, and a new law forbids Christine from returning to her job--and from having any relationship with Isaac. In the months and years that follow, Christine will confront the Gestapo's wrath and the horrors of Dachau, desperate to be with the man she loves, to survive--and finally, to speak out. 

Set against the backdrop of the German homefront, this is an unforgettable novel of courage and resolve, of the inhumanity of war, and the heartbreak and hope left in its wake. 

March - Linda

TAHOE DARK by Todd Borg

When Tahoe resident Jonas Montrop is kidnapped, his father pays the ransom but is then murdered. The next day, four robbers in hoodies and hockey masks take down an armored truck loaded with cash destined for a casino at Lake Tahoe. The company's boss calls Tahoe Detective Owen McKenna. As McKenna tracks the robbers, he finds two of them murdered in the grisliest of ways. McKenna uncovers evidence that implicates a young woman named Evan Rosen in all three murders. Evan worked for the father of the kidnap victim, and she had a powerful motivation for wanting the robbers dead. Evan is arrested and charged with murder. The problem is that McKenna doesn't believe Evan did it. The only way to save her from death row is to find the real killer. But this killer is smarter and meaner than any McKenna has ever caught. It looks like McKenna and Evan are both going to die before the killer is finished..

Everyone but Rachelle attended as she had to work and Frances who was out of town.  Nancy's sister Eileen joined us at Panera Bread.  All liked the book and being it's set in Tahoe, a familiar locale we could envision where the action is.

February - Rachelle

Anne Frank,  The Diary of a Young Girl

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
Everyone attended in downtown Roseville at ___________________