Adult Book Club

Under the Tulip Tree

by Michelle Schocklee

Please join us for the June meeting of our Adult Book Club scheduled for Tuesday, June 9, at 1:30 pm.  We will be discussing the book “Under the Tulip Tree” by Michelle Shocklee.

Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland’s dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena’s banker father has retreated into the bottle, her sister is married to a lazy charlatan and gambler, and Rena is an unemployed newspaper reporter. Eager for any writing job, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers’ Project. There, she meets Frankie Washington, a 101-year-old woman whose honest yet tragic past captivates Rena.

As Frankie recounts her life as a slave and the events of the Civil War, Rena is horrified to learn of all the older woman has endured―especially because Rena’s ancestors owned slaves. While Frankie’s story challenges Rena’s preconceptions about slavery, it also connects the two women whose lives are otherwise separated by age, race, and circumstances. But will this bond of respect, admiration, and friendship be broken by a revelation neither woman sees coming?

Copies of the book are available for checkout at the library.

 

What: Adult Book Club

When/Where:   Tuesday, June 9, at 1:30 p.m. – East Troy Lions Public Library

There will be no Friday Book Club in June as the Library is closed for the ET Lions Club Music Festival.

Book Cover feature woman walking in a field with back turned towards a tree.

East Troy Lions Public Library Adult Book Club Reading List 2026

January: Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold

February: House Rules by Jodi Picoult

March: Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

April: Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

May: The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston

June: Under the Tulip Tree by Michelle Shocklee

July:  Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict writing as Heather Terrell

August: The Little Liar by Mitch Albom

September: Deserving of Murder by Mary Ann Noe

October: Forty Autumns by by Nina Willner

November: Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

December: Following Atticus by Tom Ryan