The Ferrum Book Club meets every month except December on the third Monday of the month at 6 p.m. All are welcome to join for any or all discussions.
Book for discussion October 19: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? A Novel of the Hollywood Blacklist, with author Amanda Cockrell joining us.
Location TBA. We will buy Amanda dinner on campus or nearby and possibly start dinner a little early.
Amanda’s overview of the novel:
Elizabeth Sydney’s film career spanned the Golden Age of Hollywood and barely survived Sen. Joe McCarthy’s infamous Red Scare hunt for Communists that produced a blacklist that shattered careers. Some of her costars and writer friends weren’t so lucky. Now she wants to be buried in her back yard and the will is invalid if she doesn’t get her way. A combustible assortment of industry friends, family, former lovers, a man no one has hitherto heard of, half a dozen charitable beneficiaries, and an ungovernable horde of media descend on the small California town where she retired and picked out a spot in her oak grove. As they try to break the will, her reasons begin to surface in the story of an old betrayal of friends by friends and by the country’s own government.
Amanda’s website with overview and review excerpts.
Hollins U Substack page with comments by Amanda about the novel.
Also known as the Time Traveler’s Book Club, this group usually discusses one novel per month – different kinds of novels chosen by the group in fall for the following year, and occasionally a nonfiction book.
This is a small community group open to anyone, not a Ferrum College organization. No sign-up or prior notice is required. If you haven’t finished a book (and don’t mind spoilers) or haven’t read the book but you’d like to hear a book discussion anyway and see what it’s like, just show up. Participants acquire the books on their own from a library or bookseller.
For more information and to get on the group’s email list, contact Lana Whited at Ferrum College, lwhited@ferrum.edu, or Susan Selvage, sselvage22@yahoo.com.
Discussion of books for 2027 is ongoing and will be finalized during this last meeting of 2026.
Nov. 16 Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Guiffre
December – no meeting
