Everything Books: 1-20-17

FOLK Book Club meets Tuesday

FOLK Book Club meets Tuesday

Friends of the Libraries, Kona Book Club meets at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday on the Kailua-Kona Public Library lanai.

This month’s selection is “The Three-Year Swim Club” by Julie Checkoway.

Checkoway brings to life one of the most remarkable “lost” stories in athletic, Olympic and swimming history. She incorporates a fascinating history of Hawaii, Japan and the Olympics to help tell the story of a Hall of Fame swimming coach who dreamed of making champions from the children of poverty-stricken, uneducated Japanese and Philippine- American sugar cane cutters on Maui. Local resident and swim club member Jerry Miki will be in attendance.

The club next meets in February to discuss “The Sympathizer” by Viet Thanh.

Nonfiction book club to discuss Wulf novel

Kona Stories hosts a nonfiction book club discussing “The Invention of Nature” by Andrea Wulf on Tuesday.

The group meets at 6 p.m. at the bookstore. Book groups are free if books are purchased at Kona Stories, or a $5 donation is requested.

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 in “The Invention of Nature.”

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. In this biography, 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.

Info: Brenda or Joy, 324-0350, www.konastories.com.