Book Group: Wild Swans

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Program Description

Event Details

Join us for the Pacific Beach Library's monthly book discussion!  Our group meets in a hybrid format, so you can choose whether you'd prefer to join us in-person in the PB Library's Community Room or virtually (please send an email to cwainwright@sandiego.gov for this year's Zoom login info).  September's selection is: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China  by Jung Chang.

Description:  An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of three generations of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution.  Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

 

If you'd like to check out a print copy of the book, they are available 1 month before each discussion at the Pacific Beach Library's Circulation Desk.  Please call 858-581-9934 x0 before coming to pick it up so that staff may confirm availability.

Book Discussion Calendar

  • January 9, 2025: Select titles to discuss in 2025
  • February 13: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store  by James McBride
  • March 23: The Gambler Wife  by Andrew D. Kaufman
  • April 10: The Color of Water  by James McBride
  • May 8: The Phoenix Crown  by Kate Quinn & Janie Chang
  • June 12: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation  by Imani Perry
  • July 10: How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States  by Daniel Immerwahr
  • August 14: 1984  by George Orwell 
  • September 11: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China  by Jung Chang
  • October 9: The Women  by Kristin Hannah
  • November 13: One Book, One San Diego selection (to be announced)
  • December 11: The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth  by Zoë Schlanger
  • January 8, 2026: Select titles to discuss in 2026
  • February 12, 2026: James  by Percival Everett

Accessibility

Need disability-related modifications or accommodations? Information and program content can be made available in alternative formats upon request by emailing JFRogers@sandiego.gov.