Vermont Reads Discussion: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

CHESTER, Vt. – “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” is the book selection for Vermont Reads 2023. Whiting Library is grateful to Vermont Humanities for making this program possible. “Last Night at The Telegraph Club” explores themes of self-acceptance, familial and cultural ties, US/China relations, LGBT and Feminist history, McCarthyism and xenophobia, music of the 1940s and 1950s, and the Asian-American experience, among others.

Our discussion will be led by Suzanne Brown. Suzanne is a retired visiting assistant professor at Dartmouth College, and has led Vermont Humanities Council and New Hampshire Humanities Council book discussions for more than 30 years. Focusing on 19th and 20th century American and English literature, she holds a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. She has published her own short fiction and articles on the short story form. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany and received a fiction-writing grant from the New Hampshire Arts Council. She has worked with veterans’ book discussion groups and helped a nationwide program for them, editing the anthology “Echoes of War.” She has worked as program scholar for the Literature and Medicine Program, facilitating book discussions for healthcare providers.

Malinda Lo’s book is about teenager Lily Hu, who is fully immersed in the life and culture of San Francisco’s Chinatown, home to Chinese immigrant families like hers. But as she comes of age in the 1950s, her passion for rockets and space exploration is matched by her curiosity about the Telegraph Club, located in a neighboring part of the city her parents have asked her to avoid.

Books are available to borrow from the library. Call 802-875-2277 to reserve a copy.