By popular request, I'm adding the rest of the books that Wednesday Afternoon Book Club will be reading this year. There are some thought-provoking selections here. Consult the Events calendar for dates when Book Club meets.

April's book is The Hidden Life of Trees, What They Feel, How They Communicate, by Peter Wohlleben. From The Guardian: "A book called The Hidden Life of Trees is not an obvious bestseller but it’s easy to see the popular appeal of German forester Peter Wohlleben’s claims – they are so anthropomorphic. Certainly, a walk in the park feels different when you imagine the network of roots crackling with sappy chat beneath your feet. We don’t know the half of what’s going on underground and beneath the bark, he says: 'We have been looking at nature for the last 100 years like [it is] a machine.' "

This one is a bit of a departure for me, but one of the pleasures of a book club is that one reads books one might not otherwise. I'm looking forward to seeing how I get along with it.

In May, we have Forest Dark, by American novelist Nicole Krauss. From Amazon: "One of America’s most important novelists" (New York Times), the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The History of Love, conjures an achingly beautiful and breathtakingly original novel about personal transformation that interweaves the stories of two disparate individuals—an older lawyer and a young novelist—whose transcendental search leads them to the same Israeli desert."

And our last book of the club year, for June, is Lincoln in the Bardo by American George Saunders, whose original and experimental voice comes through in this, his first novel. I first encountered him through his short stores because as a Southerner, how could I resist a book called CivilWarLand in Bad Decline?

The setting of Saunders' novel, the bardo, is an intermediate space between life and rebirth where the grieving American president visits the crypt of his young son, Willie.

From Good Reads: "Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices—living and dead, historical and invented—to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?"

At the May meeting of Book Club, perhaps we can begin to discuss selections for next year's list. Hope to see you soon.