In October 2023 World BEYOND War will be holding a weekly discussion each of four weeks of Shadows
with the author Peter Manos as part of a small group WBW book club
limited to a group of 18 participants. We will send each participant a
signed paperback, and let you know which parts of the book will be
discussed each week along with the Zoom details to access the
discussions.
When: For one hour on four Saturdays, October 7, 14, 21, 28. The time is
Saturday
at 8 a.m. in Honolulu, 11 a.m. in Los Angeles, 12 noon in Mexico City, 2
p.m. in New York, 7 p.m. in London, 9 p.m. in Moscow, 9:30 p.m. in
Tehran, and 11:30 in New Delhi, and
Sunday at 7 a.m. in Auckland
Where: Zoom (details to be shared upon registration)
This is a small group series with limited space of up to 18 people.
Sign up to reserve your spot and allow for enough time to receive the
book. We look forward to reading and discussing this important book with
you!
SIGN UP HERE.
About the Book:
Although Shadows is primarily the story of
seventy-eight-year-old Edna O’Hare’s seemingly quixotic campaign (like
the author's?) against the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (now called
the Sentinel), it includes the stories of a young woman’s struggle to
assert her independence from a domineering father and accept her
sexuality; of a former Marine’s difficult decision to allow his brother
to care for their troubled mother; of an air force sergeant’s dealing
with drug use and cheating on the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota;
of a missile launch officer facing the truth of what her job really
means; and of a family physician’s seduction and black mail into silence
about the dangers of the GBSD.
Reviews:
A note from Helen Caldicott:
"Dear Peter, your book is magnificent, mirroring
everything I would have said and believe. It needs much, much wider
exposure. —Helen"
An excerpt from Kirkus Reviews:
In this novel, a widow in North Dakota protests the purchase of a new
missile system to be based near her home—and her life is threatened as a
result. Edna O’Hare is a 78-year-old widow haunted by dreams of nuclear
apocalypse. Her home is less than a mile away from an ICBM missile
base, with her land spangled with Minuteman missiles like so many
“poison mushrooms.” When she discovers the government intends to replace
those missiles with a newer crop to the tune of billions of dollars,
she is motivated to stage a protest at the base, a quixotic mission that
only succeeds in getting her arrested. Her urgency and clarity are
impressive: “One side will launch their rockets if they receive a
warning that the other side has attacked. And they’ll do this even if
the warning is a mistake. And then billions of people will die. We need
to get rid of them.” . . . she presses on, and her efforts finally begin
to earn an audience while drawing the attention of powerful political
figures with a vested interest in the new missiles, including her
distasteful brother-in-law, Earnest. Edna’s life becomes endangered, and
as her protests gather fellow travelers, she doggedly persists . . .
this is a gripping work of fiction, both morally challenging and
politically astute . . . A thoughtful and provocative thriller that’s
delightfully quirky as well.
About the Author:
Peter J. Manos, a retired consultation-liaison psychiatrist and
member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, has long been
troubled by the existence and use of nuclear weapons. On learning of
the air force’s plans for a new, unnecessary, expensive and dangerous
land-based ICBM, he decided to write a novel to about it.
Dr. Manos is author of Care of the Difficult Patient: A Nurse's Guide (with Joan Braun, R.N.); Lucifer's Revenge, a novel of magical realism; Dear Babalu: Letters to an Advice Columnist
illustrated by Toby Liebowitz, which was a finalist in the Next
Generation Indie Book Awards competition; and a young adult sci-fi
novel, A Girl Named Cricket, which received an honorable mention in the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards contest.
Buying one ticket covers all four sessions plus the book.
SIGN UP HERE.
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