Books & Brunch to discuss "The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough Feb. 20

The Books & Brunch group will meet at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 20 to discuss “The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough.

Books & Brunch discussions are for all Natiional Press Club members and guests.

The meetings are book discussions, not meetings with authors. The separate Books & Authors Committee holds regular “Book Raps” at which authors discuss their books and sign copies purchased at the event.

McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for “Truman” and “John Adams” and received National Book Awards for “The Path Between the Seas” and “Mornings on Horseback.”

In her New York Times review of “The Wright Brothers” Janet Maslin writes: “This concise, exciting and fact-packed book sees the easy segue between bicycling and aerial locomotion, which at that point was mostly a topic for bird fanciers and dreamers. … The Wrights read everything they could about flight and wrote to anyone who might reply, from the first experimenters to the Smithsonian Institution.

“Relaying on their imaginations, inexpensive materials, bicycle-related ideas about steering and modest sums they earned at the shop, they would ultimately embarrass the Smithsonian and its grandiose, government-funded flying experiments that were conducted on (and generally flopped right back into) the Potomac," Maslin says.

For most of us, the day is long past when you’re likely to think of the “romance of flight.” McCullough’s book could help you recapture some of this magic.

Books and Brunch alternates between non-fiction and fiction books at its discussions, which are usually held on the third Saturday of each month.

At the March 19 meeting the group will discuss, “The Buried Giant” by Kazuo Ishiguro. Kazuo Ishiguro is the author of six novels, including the international bestsellers The Remains of the Day (winner of the Booker Prize) and Never Let Me Go.

If you want to attend either Books & Brunch discussion please contact Jack Williams, the group’s chair, at [email protected].