November: The Firebrand and The First Lady

We're so excited for November's book club choice, The Firebrand and The First Lady by Patricia Bell-Scott. You can get the book with a 15% discount at Foggy Pine or you can order online and have it shipped to your home or download the ebook. In addition to the discount, make your purchase in store to get a free bookmark signed by the author!

Because of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, we decided to change the day and time of this month's meeting. Instead of meeting on the last Saturday of the month, as usual, we're meeting on November 18th at 7:30pm. As usual, we're meeting at the bookstore and will share a bottle of wine while we discuss the book. However, we're going to take part of our meeting time to discuss the first six books we'll read together in 2018.

A finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and longlisted for the National Book Award, The Firebrand and the First Lady is the riveting history of the unlikely friendship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Pauli Murray, a granddaughter of a mixed race slave and a lesbian, who became a lawyer and civil rights pioneer. The reader discovers the important work they each did, taking stands for justice and freedom, while learning more about each incredible woman. 

In 1938, the twenty-eight-year-old Pauli Murray wrote a letter to the President and First Lady, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, protesting racial segregation in the South. Eleanor wrote back. So began a friendship that would last for a quarter of a century, as Pauli became a lawyer, principal strategist in the fight to protect Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and a co-founder of the National Organization of Women, and Eleanor became a diplomat and first chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. 

A recipient of the Lillian Smith Book Award, nominated for the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award, and a finalist for the Georgia Author of the Year--this novel has garnered much acclaim. We're honored to have it on this year's book club list.