Like to walk and talk? Read hidden gems and get to know some great people? Join us for the Northside Walking Book Club on third Fridays at 2 p.m. We gather at Lakeview Library, and then take a walk in the neighborhood while discussing a book. You can pick up the book in advance at Lakeview Library so you'll be ready to discuss it at the meeting--just let staff know you're looking for the Northside Walking Book Club book. Dogs and strollers are welcome! Call the library at 608-246-4547 for more details and to let us know if you'd like to join us.
"The Seed Keeper" by Diane Wilson
"A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhóta family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.
Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakhóta people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn’t return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited.
On a winter’s day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband’s farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron—women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools.
Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors." -- Amazon.com
