Adult Spiritual Growth Opportunities

Open Minds Book Group

St. Mark’s Open Minds Book Group will resume monthly meetings in September via Zoom, on the 3rd or 4th Friday of the month from 9:00 – 10:30 AM. New members are welcome!

Co-leaders Celeste Pardee and Ann Reaban are excited to present our Fall lineup on the theme of stewardship, that is, the responsible management and care of resources, organizations, or the people entrusted to us.

Books may be borrowed from the Pima County Public Library or purchased (new or used) from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Bookshop.org, which supports local booksellers.

Zoom link will be emailed.

After her father’s death, Kitty Robertson leaves her job and moves to her childhood home in the country, determined to preserve her family’s small apple orchard. Single-handedly, she struggles with bone-grinding work, broken machinery, and a mountain of debt during the Great Depression. This is an inspiring tale of courage, goodness, and unexpected rewards during a grim time.

Set during the Mexican Revolution and flu epidemic of 1918, this story captures a town and country in flux and the destiny of one family that adopts a disfigured baby, Simonopio, abandoned under a bridge and covered with bees. As he grows up, this gifted boy, protected by his swarm of bees, is a cause for wonder with his visions of things to come.

During the summer of 1939, Mrs. Pretty, the widowed owner of a farm in Suffolk, hires a local man to excavate the earth mounds on her property. When he confirms her hunch that the mounds cover buried treasure, the project attracts professional archeologists and competing museum directors. As the characters seek answers in the burial site, it’s clear that the past is never left behind.

Through meditative stories, Norris offers a timeless tribute to an area of the Great Plains that is both desolate and beautiful, harsh and forgiving, stepped in history and myth. She offers us a “gift of hope and balance, a place to begin” understanding this region and the assurance that wherever we go, we can chart our own spiritual geography.