Birmingham-Southern invites faculty, staff, alumni, and the larger community to be part of our Virtual Book Clubs. Our first-ever book clubs, hosted by the Office of Alumni Engagement, launched this summer with an amazing turnout, bringing members of our community together from across the country.

This fall, we are offering 10 book clubs, five of which are novels and commentaries focused on pandemics. Discussions, led by two facilitators over Zoom, will aim to examine life during pandemics and times of contagion. The other five book clubs will focus on systemic racism, which you can read about here.

There is no charge for this program. All you need to do is choose a book (purchase, borrow, or check out from your local library), agree to ground rules for the discussion, and commit to finishing the book before the virtual meeting. To allow for discussion, book clubs will be limited to 12 participants each.

Here’s how you can participate:

• Sign up online starting September 8 through the Eventbrite links below.
• Reading period ends October 23.
• Book Clubs will meet the week of October 26.

You can also purchase the books from the BSC Bookstore by visiting the Bookstore website and following these steps:

1. Click on Fall 2020
2. For “Department,” click on ALUM
3. For “Course,” click on FBook Club
4. For “Section,” select All for a list of the 10 books

“Year of Wonders” by Geraldine Brooks
Facilitators: Rachael Lee ’02 and Brooke Coleman, BSC First Lady
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna’s eyes, we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, “Year of Wonders” is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. Written with stunning emotional intelligence, Brooks blends love and learning, loss and renewal into a spellbinding and unforgettable read.

Rachael Lee ’02, M.D. currently serves as UAB Medicine’s healthcare epidemiologist and assistant professor in the UAB Division of Infectious Diseases. In this role, she leads the Infection Prevention team for the entire health system, which spearheads precautions and protocols for disease outbreaks that directly impact UAB’s hospitals, campus, and greater community. Lee also received her medical degree from the UAB School of Medicine, where she completed her medicine residence and infectious diseases fellowship.

Brooke Coleman is married to BSC President Daniel Coleman and is proud to support our community in many different ways, promoting the historic leadership role the College and its alumni play in our state and around the world. A native of Birmingham, she graduated from Smith College before earning her M.A. in History from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. with a focus in nonprofit management from Yale University School of Management. Coleman has endeavored to use that education to serve nonprofits in a volunteer leadership capacity, building broad experience in governance, fundraising, and strategic planning with a variety of organizations, including Creative Montessori School, Birmingham Education Foundation, The Women’s Fund, and Holy Family Cristo Rey High School. The focus of her graduate studies in history was the politicization of epidemics in American history, so she is eager to discuss “Year of Wonder” in the context of our current experience.

“The End of October” by Lawrence Wright
Facilitators: Renée Harmon ’83 and Hanna Schock ’83
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons – microbiologist, epidemiologist – travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city. Already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic, Henry’s wife, Jill, and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta, and the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling scientific, religious, and governmental institutions and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases, Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.

Renée Brown Harmon ’83, M.D. received her medical degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed a residency in Family Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. She, together with her husband, Harvey Scott Harmon ’82 M.D., maintained a thriving medical practice in the Birmingham area until Harvey retired due to a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in 2010. She then practiced solo until retiring in December 2019. Harmon is the author of “Surfing the Waves of Alzheimer’s: Principles of Caregiving That Kept Me Upright,” a teaching memoir that details her and Harvey’s life with Alzheimer’s disease and offers guidance to other caregivers.

Hanna Schock ’83 is a school psychologist, experienced teacher, and curriculum writer. She is also the creator of Picture Book Theology, a website which encourages using secular picture books in ministry for all ages. This work has allowed her to integrate and transform her passions for teaching, literature, and building meaningful spiritual connections. She lives in Hoover with her husband, Bill Schock MPPM ’95.

“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel
Facilitators: Lenore Vickrey ’74 and Amy Abeyta, Director of Communications
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end. Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.

Lenore Vickrey ’74 has been vice president for communications at the Alabama Rural Electric Association of Cooperatives (AREA) and editor of Alabama Living Magazine since June 2012. Alabama Living is the official publication of the electric cooperatives of Alabama and the largest circulation magazine in the state. Before joining AREA, Vickrey was director of communications at the Business Council of Alabama, director of communications at Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery, and an award-winning reporter and editor at the Montgomery Advertiser and the Alabama Journal. She has written freelance articles for national and regional publications.

Amy Bickers Abeyta was named Director of Communications at BSC in 2019. She began her career in 1997 at The Times, a Gannett newspaper in Shreveport, Louisiana, where she was an award-winning features writer. She worked at Southern Living, one of the country’s most popular lifestyle magazines, from 2003 until 2010. Her work has also appeared in HGTV Magazine and Coastal Living. Abeyta is the author of “The Geography of You and Me: A Memoir,” and spoke about coping with trauma and grief at TEDxBirmingham 2016. Her TEDx talk has garnered more than 50,000 views on YouTube.

“Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World” by Laura Spinney
Facilitators: Elvin Hilyer ’69 and Walter Dowdle
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

In 1918, the Italian-Americans of New York, the Yupik of Alaska, and the Persians of Mashed had almost nothing in common except for a virus – one that triggered the worst pandemic of modern times and had a decisive effect on the history of the twentieth century. The Spanish flu of 1918-1920 was one of the greatest human disasters of all time. It infected a third of the people on Earth – from the poorest immigrants of New York City to the king of Spain, Franz Kafka, Mahatma Gandhi and Woodrow Wilson. But despite a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people, it exists in our memory as an afterthought to World War I. In this gripping narrative history, Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind’s vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test.

Elvin Hilyer ’69 spent his career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), retiring as Associate Director for Policy Coordination. He previously served as Deputy Executive Officer and Principal Management Official of the CDC. He directed the Executive Secretariat and was the last point of clearance and approval for issues and materials going to the CDC Director. Hilyer was involved in every major public health issue during 21 years in the Office of the Director, which took him to offices and labs around the world. After retiring, he spent 10 years in Uganda, Sudan, and Ghana as representative of The Carter Center in disease eradication and control programs. He headed up a central secretariat in each country to establish a national-to-village level structure. Hilyer then returned to CDC full time under contract to work with several centers in emergency preparedness and continuity of operations. During this time, he was involved in the influenza pandemic of 2009-2010.

Walter Dowdle, Ph.D. served as long-term Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and as Deputy Director for several years before retirement. Other positions at CDC included Assistant Director for Science, Coordinator for AIDS, Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases, Chief of the Respiratory Virology Branch, Director of the WHO Coordinating Centers at CDC for Influenza and for Virus Reference and Research, and Supervisory Research Microbiologist. He was President of the American Society for Microbiology and President of the Armed Forces Epidemiologic Board. Dowdle has also co-authored four books and numerous other publications on topics including disease eradication and influenza. He was Chair of the U.S. Inter-Agency Advisory Pandemic Influenza Work Group and a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Virus Diseases. Since retirement, he has been a major mover for the eradication of polio with the Task Force for Global Health as Director of Poliovirus Laboratory Containment Preparedness and the Antiviral Drugs Initiative. Directly relative to our current book club discussion, Dowdle is the person who informed the then Director of CDC in 1976 that a variant of the flu virus similar to the 1918 variant had been identified in Ft. Dix recruits.

“The Pull of the Stars” by Emma Donoghue
Facilitators: Jennifer H. Waters ’86 and Sima Lal Gupta ’99
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

In a 1918 Dublin, Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders – Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumored Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. Over three days, in the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. In “The Pull of the Stars,” Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.

Jennifer Howard Waters ’86 graduated from BSC with a double major in religion and psychology. She has worked for the College her entire professional career, working more than 20 years in admission and recruiting, before retiring from the Director of Admission role in May 2016. After only a few months away from BSC, Waters returned to work in the Alumni Engagement Office and assumed the role of Director of Alumni Engagement in May 2018. She is married to fellow BSC grad Thomas Waters ’86, and they have two daughters, one a 2015 BSC graduate and the other a current sophomore. Their love for BSC runs deep and their connections are many: Thomas is in his second year of service as President of the Alumni Board and their daughter, Mary Kate Waters-Wright ’15, has served the last three years on the Young Alumni Council.

Sima Lal Gupta ’99, M.D. has more than 15 years of clinical experience in both private and public sectors of health care. She is the founder and former chief optometrist of Eyedeology Vision Center + Optique in Atlanta. Gupta is also a co-founder and board member of Seeking Her Empowerment, a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization. She is former Associate Professor and Program Director at Ansal University, Gurgaon, India, and currently serves Aletheia House in Birmingham as Health Services Director.