January Book Clubs at Kona Stories

Kona Stories Book Store offers a variety of book clubs that meet monthly to discuss books of fiction, travel and non-fiction.

The fiction group meets the second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m., the travel group meets the third Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m., and the non-fiction group meets the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m.

The book groups are free if the books purchased are from Kona Stories or if a $5 donation is made.

You can choose to attend any of all of the groups.

Bring pupus or a beverage and come prepared to discuss the following books:

Travel Group is discussing: “The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain” by Bill Bryson on Jan. 17, 2017

“The Road to Little Dribbling,” by Bill Bryson

In 1995, Iowa native Bill Bryson took a motoring trip around Britain to explore that green and pleasant land. The uproarious book that resulted, “Notes from a Small Island,” is one of the most acute portrayals of the United Kingdom ever written.

Two decades later, Bryson now a British citizen set out again to rediscover his adopted country. In these pages, he follows a straight line through the island from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath and shows us every pub, stone village, and human foible along the way.

Whether he is dodging cow attacks in Torcross, getting lost in the H&M on Kensington High Street, or more seriously contemplating the future of the nation’s natural wonders in the face of aggressive development, Bryson guides us through the old and the new with vivid detail and laugh-out-loud humor. Irreverent, endearing, and always hilarious, “The Road to Little Dribbling” is filled with Bill Bryson’s deep knowledge and love of his chosen home.

Bill Bryson s bestselling books include “A Walk in the Woods” (now a major motion picture starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte), “Notes from a Small Island,” “I’m a Stranger Here Myself,” “In a Sunburned Country,” “A Short History of Nearly Everything” (which earned him the 2004 Aventis Prize), “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid,” “At Home, and One Summer.” He lives in England with his wife.

This group meets at 6:30 p.m. at Kona Stories Book Store.

The Non-Fiction Group is discussing: “The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf” on Jan. 24, 2017

“The Invention of Nature” by Andrea Wulf

The acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world and in the process created modern environmentalism.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was the most famous scientist of his age, a visionary German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. Among his most revolutionary ideas was a radical conception of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. In North America, Humboldt’s name still graces towns, counties, parks, bays, lakes, mountains, and a river. And yet the man has been all but forgotten.

In this illuminating biography, Andrea Wulf brings Humboldt’s extraordinary life back into focus: his prediction of human-induced climate change; his daring expeditions to the highest peaks of South America and to the anthrax-infected steppes of Siberia; his relationships with iconic figures, including Simon Bolivar and Thomas Jefferson; and the lasting influence of his writings on Darwin, Wordsworth, Goethe, Muir, Thoreau, and many others.

Brilliantly researched and stunningly written, “The Invention of Nature” reveals the myriad ways in which Humboldt’s ideas form the foundation of modern environmentalism and reminds us why they are as prescient and vital as ever.

This group meets at 6 p.m. at Kona Stories Book Store.