Nonfiction Book Discussion
Tuesday February 25th at 12:00 (noon), at Latham Library and online via Zoom.
Please contact librarian@thetfordlibrary.org for the Zoom link and to RSVP if you plan to attend in person (in case of bad weather, etc).
This month’s title: West With The Night, by Beryl Markham
From group leader E D M Landman MD:
The classic memoir of Africa, aviation, and adventure—the inspiration for Paula McLain’s Circling the Sun and “a bloody wonderful book” (Ernest Hemingway).
Beryl Markham’s life story is a true epic. Not only did she set records and break barriers as a pilot, she shattered societal expectations, threw herself into torrid love affairs, survived desperate crash landings—and chronicled everything. A contemporary of Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa, Markham left an enduring memoir that soars with astounding candor and shimmering insights.
A rebel from a young age, the British-born Markham was raised in Kenya’s unforgiving farmlands. She trained as a bush pilot at a time when most Africans had never seen a plane. In 1936, she accepted the ultimate challenge: to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west, a feat that fellow female aviator Amelia Earhart had completed in reverse just a few years before. Markham’s successes and her failures—and her deep, lifelong love of the “soul of Africa”—are all told here with wrenching honesty and agile wit.
The book may be obtained from your local library, via interlibrary loan, possibly as an audio or e-book via ListenUp Vermont or in New Hampshire, New Hampshire Downloadable Books. Users need only get a barcode number from their local library to use the services. Or you can obtain the book from your favorite local bookseller, or via www.bookfinder.com, the aggregator site for booksellers both large and small from all over the world, and for books both new and secondhand.
All are welcome and we look forward to seeing you.