Kona Stories Book Clubs Schedule Set for April

Whether you are interested in fiction, travel, memoir, classics or non-fiction, Kona Stories community bookstore has a monthly book club for you.

Book groups are free if books are purchased from Kona Stories or a $5 donation is appreciated.

Bring a pūpū or beverage to share and come prepared to discuss the books listed below. You can choose to attend any or all of these groups.

Kona Stories is located in the Keauhou Shopping Center in the courtyard shops on the KTA side.

For more information, call Brenda or Joy at (808) 324-0350 or go online.

Book clubs meeting in April 2019 are:

Book Cover of “The Immortalists” by Chloe Benjamin. Courtesy photo from Kona Stories

April 9: Fiction Group will discuss The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
It’s 1969 in New York City’s Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes. The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in ’80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel struggles to maintain security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality. Both a dazzling family love story and a sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds. This group meets at 6 p.m. at Kona Stories Book Store.

Book cover of “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah. Courtesy photo from Kona Stories

April 16: Memoir Book Group will discuss Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. This group meets at 6 p.m. at Kona Stories Book Store.

Book cover of “Food Explorer” by Daniel Stone. Courtesy photo from Kona Stories

April 23: Non-Fiction Book Club will discuss The Food Explorer by Daniel Stone
In the nineteenth century, American meals were about subsistence, not enjoyment. But as a new century approached, appetites broadened, and David Fairchild, a young botanist with an insatiable lust to explore and experience the world, set out in search of foods that would enrich the American farmer and enchant the American eater. Kale from Croatia, mangoes from India and hops from Bavaria. Peaches from China, avocados from Chile and pomegranates from Malta. Fairchild’s finds weren’t just limited to food. From Egypt he sent back a variety of cotton that revolutionized an industry, and via Japan he introduced the cherry blossom tree, forever brightening America’s capital. Along the way, he was arrested, caught diseases, and bargained with island tribes. But his culinary ambition came during a formative era, and through him, America transformed into the most diverse food system ever created. This group meets at 6 p.m. at Kona Stories Book Store.