ZLAC Book Club — June 24, 2025

For Members and Their Guests

A Thousand Mornings: Poems

by Mary Oliver

Meeting location is the clubhouse. You may bring your own dinner or snack. BYOB.

Book description from GoodReads.com:

In A Thousand Mornings, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her life’s work, transporting us to the marshland and coastline of her beloved home, Provincetown, Massachusetts. In these pages, Oliver shares the wonder of dawn, the grace of animals, and the transformative power of attention. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her adored dog, Percy, she is ever patient in her observations and open to the teachings contained in the smallest of moments.

Our most precious chronicler of physical landscape, Oliver opens our eyes to the nature within, to its wild and its quiet. With startling clarity, humor, and kindness, A Thousand Mornings explores the mysteries of our daily experience.

Learn more at GoodReads.com.

You don’t have to read the book to attend!

If you're looking to support small businesses, consider shopping locally with Mysterious Galaxy Books, Warwicks Books, La Playa Books, and Bluestocking Books. Most have free or discounted shipping, and in some cases free local delivery. Purchases from Bookshop.org also support small bookstores. This book is also available at the library!

The book club includes a rating system!

We think it’s fun to know what our ZLAC community thinks of a book! The system is from 1 to 5, with 2.5 being that you would recommend the book with some hesitation. Anything between 2.5 to 5 is how much you liked it. And anything below 2.5 is how much you hated it.

Don't be shy, all views and opinions are welcome! We will collect the scores and average them, then post the ZLAC score in the following month's Eight Oars newsletter.

Can't make the in-person meeting? No problem! Email your score to: carolynw.ca@gmail.com AND valeriekayelewis@gmail.com, and you will be included in the scoring.

TGIF at ZLAC

For ZLAC Members and Their Guests

June 20, 2025, 5:00-8:30 PM

Let’s get together! BYOB. Please bring an appetizer or light dinner item to share.

No dishwashing! Susan Wills is hosting and will provide disposable plates, cups, utensils, and napkins.

No RSVP necessary. Just show up, and bring friends!

Teen Girls' Introduction to Rowing Class

Grades 6-12

May 31, 2025

Saturday, 11:30 am to 2:30 pm

There is no charge for this class, but you must register below by adding the class to your cart and checking out. Participants will learn the essentials of rowing both on the water and on the rowing machine. Participants will learn the language of the sport, how to complete the rowing stroke, and how to row with others. After completing the beginning rowing class, participants will be ready to take a full Learn to Row class and/or start as a novice rower in the Juniors Rowing Program. 

Contact juniors@zlac.org with any questions.

Please choose quantity below, then click on the “Add to Cart” button. A popup window will appear where you can complete the registration. (If the popup window doesn’t appear immediately, please refresh the page and click on the button again. If it still doesn’t appear, your browser may have popup windows disabled. You can either enable popups or try again with a different browser.)

ZLAC Book Club — May 27, 2025

For Members and Their Guests

The Glass Castle

by Jeannette Walls

Meeting location is the clubhouse. You may bring your own dinner or snack. BYOB.

Book description from GoodReads.com:

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

Learn more at GoodReads.com.

You don’t have to read the book to attend!

If you're looking to support small businesses, consider shopping locally with Mysterious Galaxy Books, Warwicks Books, La Playa Books, and Bluestocking Books. Most have free or discounted shipping, and in some cases free local delivery. Purchases from Bookshop.org also support small bookstores. This book is also available at the library!

The book club includes a rating system!

We think it’s fun to know what our ZLAC community thinks of a book! The system is from 1 to 5, with 2.5 being that you would recommend the book with some hesitation. Anything between 2.5 to 5 is how much you liked it. And anything below 2.5 is how much you hated it.

Don't be shy, all views and opinions are welcome! We will collect the scores and average them, then post the ZLAC score in the following month's Eight Oars newsletter.

Can't make the in-person meeting? No problem! Email your score to: carolynw.ca@gmail.com AND valeriekayelewis@gmail.com, and you will be included in the scoring.

New Member Tea

For ZLAC Members

Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 2:00 pm

Please join us for afternoon tea to welcome, honor, and celebrate our new ZLAC members!

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to membership@zlac.org by April 30.

ZLAC Book Club — April 22, 2025

For Members and their Guests

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

by Elif Shafak

Meeting location is the clubhouse. You may bring your own dinner or snack. BYOB.

The book club includes a rating system.

We think it’s fun to know what our ZLAC community thinks of a book! The system is from 1 to 5, with 2.5 being that you would recommend the book with some hesitation. Anything between 2.5 to 5 is how much you liked it. And anything below 2.5 is how much you hated it.

Don't be shy, all views and opinions are welcome! We will collect the scores and average them, then post the ZLAC score in the following month's Eight Oars newsletter.

Can't make the in-person meeting? No problem! Email your score to: carolynw.ca@gmail.com AND valeriekayelewis@gmail.com, and you will be included in the scoring.

Book description from GoodReads.com:

'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away...'

For Leila, each minute after her death brings a sensuous memory: the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her. . .

You do not need to have read the book to attend!

If you're looking to support small businesses, consider shopping locally with Mysterious Galaxy Books, Warwicks Books, La Playa Books, and Bluestocking Books. Most have free or discounted shipping, and in some cases free local delivery. Purchases from Bookshop.org also support small bookstores.

ZLAC Book Club — March 25, 2025

For Members and their Guests

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain

Note that this fall we’ll discuss James: A Novel, by Percival Everett. This is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s novel, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view. It has been described as thrilling, harrowing, and darkly humorous.

Meeting location is the clubhouse. You may bring your own dinner or snack. BYOB.

The book club includes a rating system.

We think it’s fun to know what our ZLAC community thinks of a book! The system is from 1 to 5, with 2.5 being that you would recommend the book with some hesitation. Anything between 2.5 to 5 is how much you liked it. And anything below 2.5 is how much you hated it.

Don't be shy, all views and opinions are welcome! We will collect the scores and average them, then post the ZLAC score in the following month's Eight Oars newsletter.

Can't make the in-person meeting? No problem! Email your score to: carolynw.ca@gmail.com AND valeriekayelewis@gmail.com, and you will be included in the scoring.

Book description from Amazon.com:

The novel's preeminence derives from its wonderfully imaginative re-creation of boyhood adventures along the Mississippi River, its inspired characterization, the author's remarkable ear for dialogue, and the book's understated development of serious underlying themes: "natural" man versus "civilized" society, the evils of slavery, the innate value and dignity of human beings, and other topics.

You do not need to have read the book to attend!

If you're looking to support small businesses, consider shopping locally with Mysterious Galaxy Books, Warwicks Books, La Playa Books, and Bluestocking Books. Most have free or discounted shipping, and in some cases free local delivery. Purchases from Bookshop.org also support small bookstores.

TGIF at ZLAC

For ZLAC Members and Their Guests

March 21, 2025, 5:00-8:30 PM

Let’s get together! BYOB. Please bring an appetizer or light dinner item to share.

No dishwashing! Susan Wills is hosting and will provide disposable plates, cups, utensils, and napkins.

No RSVP necessary. Just show up, and bring friends!

Saint Patrick’s Day Party

For ZLAC Members and Their Guests

March 18, 2025, 5:00-9:00 PM

Thank you to everyone who purchased tickets. Online ordering is now closed. If you are still interested in attending, please contact Susan Wills at zlaccrewxi@gmail.com, in case she has more availability.

TGIF at ZLAC

For ZLAC Members and Their Guests

February 21, 2025, 5:00-8:30 PM

Let’s get together! BYOB. Please bring an appetizer or light dinner item to share.

No dishwashing! Susan Wills is hosting and will provide disposable plates, cups, utensils, and napkins.

No RSVP necessary. Just show up, and bring friends!

ZLAC Book Club — February 13, 2025

For Members and their Guests

Bel Canto

by Ann Patchett

This meeting will be held at the home of ZLAC member Valerie Lewis. You may bring your own dinner or snack. BYOB.

The book club includes a rating system.

We think it’s fun to know what our ZLAC community thinks of a book! The system is from 1 to 5, with 2.5 being that you would recommend the book with some hesitation. Anything between 2.5 to 5 is how much you liked it. And anything below 2.5 is how much you hated it.

Don't be shy, all views and opinions are welcome! We will collect the scores and average them, then post the ZLAC score in the following month's Eight Oars newsletter.

Can't make the in-person meeting? No problem! Email your score to: carolynw.ca@gmail.com AND valeriekayelewis@gmail.com, and you will be included in the scoring.

Book description from Goodreads.com:

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening — until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.

You do not need to have read the book to attend!

If you're looking to support small businesses, consider shopping locally with Mysterious Galaxy Books, Warwicks Books, La Playa Books, and Bluestocking Books. Most have free or discounted shipping, and in some cases free local delivery. Purchases from Bookshop.org also support small bookstores.

TGIF at ZLAC

For ZLAC Members and Their Guests

January 24, 2025, 5:00-8:30 PM

Let’s get together! BYOB. Please bring an appetizer or light dinner item to share.

No dishwashing! Susan Wills is hosting and will provide disposable plates, cups, utensils, and napkins.

No RSVP necessary. Just show up, and bring friends!

ZLAC Book Club — January 9, 2025

For Members and their Guests

Table for Two

by Amor Towles

This meeting will be held at the home of ZLAC member Valerie Lewis, as the clubhouse will be closed for maintenance. You may bring your own dinner or snack. BYOB.

The book club includes a rating system.

We think it’s fun to know what our ZLAC community thinks of a book! The system is from 1 to 5, with 2.5 being that you would recommend the book with some hesitation. Anything between 2.5 to 5 is how much you liked it. And anything below 2.5 is how much you hated it.

Don't be shy, all views and opinions are welcome! We will collect the scores and average them, then post the ZLAC score in the following month's Eight Oars newsletter.

Can't make the in-person meeting? No problem! Email your score to: carolynw.ca@gmail.com AND valeriekayelewis@gmail.com, and you will be included in the scoring.

Book description from Goodreads.com:

The millions of readers of Amor Towles are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter six stories set in New York City and a novella in Los Angeles. The New York stories, most of which are set around the turn of the millennium, take up everything from the death-defying acrobatics of the male ego to the fateful consequences of brief encounters, and the delicate mechanics of compromise which operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In Towles’s novel, Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September, 1938, with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself — and others — in the midst of Hollywood’s golden age.

Throughout the stories, two characters often find themselves sitting across a table for two where the direction of their futures may hinge upon what they say to each other next.

Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting historical fiction.

You do not need to have read the book to attend!

If you're looking to support small businesses, consider shopping locally with Mysterious Galaxy Books, Warwicks Books, La Playa Books, and Bluestocking Books. Most have free or discounted shipping, and in some cases free local delivery. Purchases from Bookshop.org also support small bookstores.

ZLAC Holiday Tea — December 15, 2024

For all members and their guests. Bring the kids! Prospective members welcome too!

Please RSVP here.

Details in the flyer below.

Friendsgiving at ZLAC — November 17, 2024

For all members and their guests. Prospective members welcome too!

Details in the flyer below.

ZLAC’s Restorative Discussion — October 26, 2024

For ZLAC members only. Details in the flyer below.

Please RSVP here by October 19 to reserve your spot!

Halloween Costume Karaoke Party — October 25, 2024

For all members and their guests. Prospective members welcome too!

Details in the flyer below.

ZLAC Book Club — October 22, 2024

For Members and their Guests

Hamnet

by Maggie O’Farrell

This meeting will be in-person at ZLAC. You may bring your own dinner or snack. BYOB.

The book club includes a rating system.

We think it’s fun to know what our ZLAC community thinks of a book! The system is from 1 to 5, with 2.5 being that you would recommend the book with some hesitation. Anything between 2.5 to 5 is how much you liked it. And anything below 2.5 is how much you hated it.

Don't be shy, all views and opinions are welcome! We will collect the scores and average them, then post the ZLAC score in the following month's Eight Oars newsletter.

Can't make the in-person meeting? No problem! Email your score to: carolynw.ca@gmail.com AND valeriekayelewis@gmail.com, and you will be included in the scoring.

England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young alike. The end of days is near, but life always goes on. A young Latin tutor—penniless and bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman. Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family's land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is just taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.

You do not need to have read the book to attend!

If you're looking to support small businesses, consider shopping locally with Mysterious Galaxy Books, Warwicks Books, La Playa Books, and Bluestocking Books. Most have free or discounted shipping, and in some cases free local delivery. Purchases from Bookshop.org also support small bookstores.

Teen Girls' Introduction to Rowing Class

We’re sorry: This class is now full. If you would be interested in a future learn-to-row class, would you please contact juniors@zlac.org? Thank you very much.

Grades 6-12

October 12, 2024

Saturday, 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM

There is no charge for this class, but you must register below by adding the class to your cart and checking out. Participants will learn the essentials of rowing both on the water and on the rowing machine. Participants will learn the language of the sport, how to complete the rowing stroke, and how to row with others. After completing the beginning rowing class, participants will be ready to take a full Learn to Row class and/or start as a novice rower in the Juniors Rowing Program. 

Contact juniors@zlac.org with any questions.

ZLAC Annual Meeting 2024

Tuesday, September 24, 2024 at 6:30 pm

(Doors open and refreshments served at 6:00 pm.)

For ZLAC members only. See details below.

Important: Please RSVP Here >>

Teen Girls' Introduction to Rowing Class

Grades 6-12

September 22, 2024

Sunday, 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM

We’re sorry: This class is sold out.

There is no charge for this class, but you must register below by adding the class to your cart and checking out. Participants will learn the essentials of rowing both on the water and on the rowing machine. Participants will learn the language of the sport, how to complete the rowing stroke, and how to row with others. After completing the beginning rowing class, participants will be ready to take a full Learn to Row class and/or start as a novice rower in the Juniors Rowing Program. 

Contact juniors@zlac.org with any questions.

ZLAC Book Club — September 19, 2024

For Members and their Guests

The Speed of Dark

by Elizabeth Moon

This meeting will be in-person at ZLAC. You may bring your own dinner or snack. BYOB.

The book club includes a rating system.

We think it’s fun to know what our ZLAC community thinks of a book! The system is from 1 to 5, with 2.5 being that you would recommend the book with some hesitation. Anything between 2.5 to 5 is how much you liked it. And anything below 2.5 is how much you hated it.

Don't be shy, all views and opinions are welcome! We will collect the scores and average them, then post the ZLAC score in the following month's Eight Oars newsletter.

Can't make the in-person meeting? No problem! Email your score to: carolynw.ca@gmail.com AND valeriekayelewis@gmail.com, and you will be included in the scoring.

In the near future, disease will be a condition of the past. Most genetic defects will be removed at birth; the remaining during infancy. Lou Arrendale, a high-functioning autistic adult, is a member of the lost generation, born at the wrong time to reap the rewards of medical science. He lives a low-key, independent life. But then he is offered a chance to try a brand-new experimental “cure” for his condition. With this treatment Lou would think and act and be just like everyone else. But if he was suddenly free of autism, would he still be himself? Would he still love the same classical music—with its complications and resolutions? Would he still see the same colors and patterns in the world—shades and hues that others cannot see? Most important, would he still love Marjory, a woman who may never be able to reciprocate his feelings? Now Lou must decide if he should submit to a surgery that might completely change the way he views the world . . . and the very essence of who he is.

You do not need to have read the book to attend!

If you're looking to support small businesses, consider shopping locally with Mysterious Galaxy Books, Warwicks Books, La Playa Books, and Bluestocking Books. Most have free or discounted shipping, and in some cases free local delivery. Purchases from Bookshop.org also support small bookstores.