In these new COVID-19 times, we had to pivot along with the rest of the world to find a creative way to continue programming otherwise cancel the event completely. That’s how we ended up with our first ever completely online event - our book club discussion. The original event was scheduled for a Friday evening, so we decided to keep the same day and time but switch to Zoom for our discussion. Although we all would have much rather been together, it was great to use the technology of the times to chat about our book club pick. For this season, we have been reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. We chose this book because of Rachel Carson’s pioneering work in the field of environmentalism and her contributions as a female science writer. We all felt that it was time to read this classic book, plus it would be a change to move from a garden book to an environmental book.
The first few chapters of the book can be a bit difficult to power through with scientific data and some dismal outlooks on a pesticide ridden world, but we found that in the end the book provided so many different scenarios that tug on your heart strings and make you consider pesticide usage throughout the world.
Our book club discussions are always warm and welcoming because there is never any pressure to be an expert on a book or topic, and the group never shames anyone for not finishing. We have a few starter questions to kick of conversation, but then things flow naturally and the topics continue to drive a good discussion. At one point, we were brainstorming women that were/are like Rachel Carson in their fight to save the environment, and we ended up talking about Linda Chalker-Scott and her commitment to being the female myth buster of the horticultural world! If you haven’t heard of her yet, you should check out her work here.
All in all another great event with a small, but mighty group of women in horticulture. We hope you’ll join us next time for our book club discussion, whether it is in person or online. Stay tuned to our social media for book club picks and we hope you’ll read along!