Jewish Press of Pinellas County

Authors to connect with readers via new Zoom Book Club


Tampa area book lovers can now join fellow bibliophiles from near and far to participate in a virtual book club and chat with the authors.

The Tampa JCCs and Federation is launching the Zoom Book Club in October. Members of the club will meet monthly to discuss one of six selections including various genres of fiction and non-fiction.

The entire series is $18 including one of the featured books of your choice. Participants can join in for as many programs as they wish.

“The member will receive the book of their choice and have the opportunity to virtually talk with some of the top authors in the country about their books,” said Brandy Gold, the Tampa JCCs and Federation’s arts and culture director.

Besides allowing authors to connect directly with the book club, an advantage to the Zoom format is that local members can invite family and friends from anywhere in the U.S. to join and share in the experience, Gold explained.

Information and membership signup and book selection are available at JewishTampa.com/bookclub.

The selections are:
“Metropolis”
by B. A. Shapiro
Sunday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m.

Shapiro is the bestselling, award-winning author of several screenplays and 10 books including “The Collector’s Apprentice,” “The Muralist “and “The Art Forger.” “Metropolis” is a spellbinding, psychological suspense novel, featuring a cast of six characters, each with many secrets and from very different walks of life. Their lives intersect when a harrowing incident occurs.

“The Lobotomist’s Wife”
by Samantha Greene Woodruff
Sunday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.

This is Woodruff’s debut novel about a radical medical procedure performed on people’s brains to remedy mental illness until the 1950s. It’s the story of a brilliant doctor championing the miracle procedure and his wife who comes to see him becoming a reckless, deluded megalomaniac.

“Deliberately Divided, Inside
the Controversial Study of Twins
and Triplets Adopted Apart,”
by Nancy Segal
Sunday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m.

Nancy Segal is a psychology professor and director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University in Fullerton, which makes her a natural to delve into this controversial and heart-rending story. In the book, Segal reveals the inside stories of the New York City adoption agency that deliberately separated twins and triplets in the 1960s, and the disturbing study that tracked the children’s development while never telling their adoptive parents.

“The Last Thing He Told Me,”
by Laura Dave
Sunday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m.

Laura Dave’s sixth novel is a thriller featuring a female furniture maker and her husband, a specialist in privacy software, happily married and raising his teenage daughter. One afternoon the woman receives a note from her husband with just two words: “protect her.” Then, her husband disappears.

“An Affair of Spies,”
Ronald H. Balson
Sunday, March 12 at 7 p.m.

Ronald Balson is the author of seven novels including winning the National Jewish Book Award for “The Girl from Berlin.” “An Affair of Spies,” his latest book, is set in New York City in 1941, when college student Nathan Silverman, who fled Germany after his uncle is arrested on Kristallnacht, notices a recruitment poster and decides to enlist and fight the Nazi regime.

“Atomic Anna,”
by Rachel Barenbaum
Sunday, May 7 at 7 p.m.

“Atomic Anna” brings three generations of women working together, traveling through time, to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past. The women grapple with the power of changing the past by each contributing their unique, brilliant talents.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.