Book Discussion 1: (in person) The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tuskiyama

Our September book: The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tuskiyama ---------------------------------------- Summary: "The Samurai's Garden" is historical fiction and takes place in the late 1930s during the Japanese invasion of China. Twenty-year-old Chinese painter Stephen is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese village to recover from tuberculosis. He is cared for by Matsu, a housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also spiritual insight. Matsu is devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world. Stephen learns to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soulmate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy. The author, Gail Tsukiyama, is half-Chinese and half-Japanese; her mother was from Hong Kong and her father was from Hawaii. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and has said her primary cultural influence growing up was the Chinese culture. Sources: Amazon - The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama The Talon - Q&A with Writers Week Featured Writer Gail Tsukiyama ---------------------------------------- Announcements: Book Recommendations are in! The poll has been announced!!! Please cast your vote, as the polls will be closing at the end of the day on Friday, September 18 th, 2026. The next poll or any announcements will be emailed from: [email protected]. Feel free to search for this email, as MeetUp emails tend to land in SPAM or SOCIAL mailboxes. ---------------------------------------- Donations: If you would like to make a small contribution to support our costs, please email Michelle at [email protected] for donation information. We are all Volunteers: Note that no one makes a profit; donations are strictly used to cover our costs. ---------------------------------------- Join us at this IN-PERSON event. The restaurant details are typically located in the right-hand corner of your screen on this meetup event page. If you can't attend, consider joining us to discuss the same book at the online meetup we call "Book Discussion 2". We also encourage you to join both Book Discussion 1 (in-person) & Book Discussion 2 (virtual) and treat yourself to the full experience of ideas and discussion. Details are in a separate meetup event. ----------------------------------------