Sweet Reads Book Club: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Moshe Ludlow’s fortunes have flourished since he desegregated his dance hall, booking both Black and Jewish entertainers to draw lively crowds. With such success, he envisions moving to Downtown Pottstown, alongside other prosperous members of the local Jewish community. His wife Chona has no interest, insisting that she will remain in their apartment above her store in Chicken Hill, a dilapidated neighborhood where poor immigrant Jews and African Americans live side-by-side. As Chona falls ill, the Ludlows’ lives intersect with those of Nate Timblin, Moshe’s janitor at the theater, his wife Addie, and Nate’s nephew Dodo, a young deaf boy whom the state seeks to institutionalize at the insidious Pennhurst State School and Hospital in James Mc Bride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. 

Enjoy a sweet treat, good company, and a great book every month at the Sweet Reads Book Club. Don’t have time for a traditional book club? Join the VCPL Facebook Club to discuss this month’s book on your schedule at bit.ly/vcpl_fbbookclub.