Bookshelf: St. Louis Chapter Hadassah Book Club

[about the club]
You might think a book club made up of members from the St. Louis Chapter Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, would focus on reading about their Jewish identity, but you’d be wrong. “We started in 2008 and initially thought we’d read books the Hadassah Magazine recommends, but we’ve branched out,” member Linda Spitzer Gavatin says. “We’ve read books by Jewish authors, and we’ve read books with no connection to being Jewish.”

The group has an affinity for books on history, archeology and the World War II era, and often reads books by local authors, who sometimes attend meetings to facilitate discussion. They have included Diane Bleyer, author of A Mother’s Right, and local attorney Michael Kahn, who penned The Mourning Sextant and the Rachel Gold mystery series. “Many of the books we’ve done, I probably wouldn’t have read, had it not been for book club,” Gavatin says. “And I’d be worse off for it, because we’ve read some good books.”

[about the book]
Standing Up: A Memoir of a Funny (Not Always) Life by Marion Grodin, daughter of comedian Charles Grodin, chronicles Grodin’s life as a comedian and screenwriter, her fight with breast cancer, a divorce, and various addictions (including to Haagen-Dazs ice cream). She approaches the trials of life with humor, and shows that it is possible to turn your life around from even the most dire circumstances.

[opinions]
>> “Marion Grodin’s experience makes me appreciate what I have and that my kids are growing up in Chesterfield and not in New York with a father who is rich and famous.” —Beth Mayer
>> “In reading the book, the depth of Grodin’s love for her parents and her ex-husband was apparent.” —Maxine Mirowitz
>> “Much of what happened to Grodin was because of who her father was, and she was honest about getting opportunities from him.” —Jerri Livingston

[former favorite]
The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

[up next]
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Photo by Bill Barrett
Pictured: Carla Rosen, Beth Mayer, Marcia Evers Levy, Vera Emmons, Maxine Mirowitz, Mimi Fiszel, Linda Spitzer Gavatin, Jerri Livingston