Reading is essential for brain health.
Studies find that reading helps to reduce stress, provide mental stimulation, increase knowledge, expand vocabulary, increase awareness, improve memory and strengthen analytical skills. Reading helps build memory and fight brain aging, so if you’re looking for a monthly activity to stimulate your brain, consider joining a book club!
The book club at Wesley Homes Lea Hill has been very busy reading 90 books over the past eight years! Shirley Martinsen, the founder of the Lea Hill Book Club, shared their process in preparing and discussing a book each month. She said, “The conversation is enhanced if you have background on the writer, so I suggest our members do a little research before they come to discuss the book.” She went on to add, “Disagreement is good because it can lead to some interesting discussions.”
Shirley has been working hard since May 2007 to create a successful, active and engaging book club on the Lea Hill campus. As of today, there are 12 members. What makes this book club extra special is the diverse array of opinions shared through their lively discussions. This isn’t a typical book club. Many book clubs are strictly social and seldom reach the topic of discussion. If you want to have an intelligent and in depth discussion on a thought-provoking book, then should consider joining the Lea Hill book club. When a librarian offered to prepare discussion questions for this group of women, Shirley looked around the room and said, “We’re all educated women. We can handle this ourselves!”
Shirley worked as a registered nurse for Wesley Homes and Judson Park and went on to become the assistant director of Nursing and the director of Staff Education. The other book club members are former educators, nurses and women seeking intelligent, in-depth conversations.
When asked to name her favorite book, Shirley had a difficult time choosing just one. She listed several favorites including, “The Man Who Loved China,” “Walking the Gobe,” “Water for Elephants,” “Anatomy of Desire,” “Whistling Season” and “Sons of the Profits.” This group meets at John’s Club every third Monday to discuss their chosen book provided by the King County Library. John’s Club is a comfortable club room located on the second floor of Eby Lodge at Lea Hill. The members often meet to discuss their 
monthly book on the overstuffed sofas and chairs that surround the large fireplace. The Lea Hill book club chose the book, “Seabiscuit” by Laura Hillenbrand to honor the Eby family and their love of horses.
The King County Library comes monthly to the Fireside Room at Lea Hill to bring books for residents to check out or exchange, including the supply of book club books for Shirley and her team. Many Lea Hill residents have trouble reading the fine print, so the Librarians accommodate the residents with large print books or books on tape for those who request them. For those who just can’t enjoy the voice of a book on tape, Wesley Homes offers a special opportunity for book lovers through Wesley Homes Home Health services. If you are unable to read or have difficulty reading, just call Home Health. They’ll send a personal storyteller to your bedside!
To contact Wesley Homes Home Health to schedule a consultation CLICK HERE
See below for the Complete List of Books Read by the Lea Hill Book Club.
- “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
- “The City of Fallen Angels” by John Berendt
- “The Madonnas of Leningrad” by Debra Dean
- “The Highest Tide” by Jim Lynch
- “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder
- “Seabiscuit” by Laura Hillenbrand
- “My Antonia” by Willa Cather
- “A Long Way Gone” by Ismael Beah
- “Cry, the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton
- “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” by Kim Edwards
- “The Bookseller of Kabul” by Asne Seirstad
- “Stones from the River” by Ursula Hegi
- “The Work of Wolves” by Kent Meyers
- “The Emperor’s Children” by Claire Messud
- “Where the Heart is: by Billie Betts
- “The Secret River” by Kate Greenville
- “Botany of Desire” by Michael Pollan
- “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Aexie
- “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
- “A Memoir Heart Earth” by Ivan Doig
- “The Pickup” by Nadine Gordimer
- “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson, David Mortenson and Oliver Rolin
- “The Other Bolyn Girl” by Phillpa Gregory
- “The Inconvenient Wife” by Megan Chance
- “Mrs. Woolfe and the Servants” by Alison Light
- “A Good Dog: The Story of Orson Who Changed My Life” by Jon Katz
- “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf
- “Digging to America” by Anne Tyler
- “Inspite of the Gods: the Strange Rise of Modern India” by Edward Luce
- “Breathing Lessons” by Anne Tyler
- “Broken for You” by Stephanie Kallos
- “A Thread of Grace” by Mary Dora Russell
- “No-No-Boy” by John Okada
- “Dreamers of the Day” by Mary Doria Russell
- “The Lemon Tree” by Sandy Tolan
- “The Man Who Loved China” by Simon Winchester
- “Run” by Ann Patchett
- “The Queen of Palmyra” by Minrose Gwin
- “The Lost City of Z” by David Grann
- “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” by Mark Haddon
- “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, A Year of Food Life” by Barbara Kinsolver
- “One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd” by Jim Fergus
- “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamont
- “New Mercies” by Sandra Dallas
- “Madison House” by Peter Donahue
- “Walking the Gobi” by Helen Thayer
- “Sons of the Profits” by Bill Speidel
- “The Curve of Time” by M. Wylie Blanchet
- “The Loney Polygamist” by Brady Udall
- “Honolulu” by Alan Brenert
- “Work Song” by Ivan Doig
- “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson
- “Love and Summer” by Trevor William
- “The Time of Our Lives” by Tom Brokaw
- “Cleopatra” by Stacy Shiff
- “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein
- “The Postmistress” by Sarah Blake
- “The Thunderbolt Kid” by Bill Bryson
- “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” by John Boyne
- “A Memoirs Heart Earth” by Ivan Doig
- “Strength in What Remains” by Tracy Kidder
- “Riding the Bus with My Sister” by Rachael Simons
- “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom
- “La’s Orchestra Saves the World” by Alexander Smith
- “The Distant Hours” by Kate Morton
- “The Search” by Nora Roberts
- “Sutton” by J.R. Moehringer
- “The Bonus Army” by Paul Dickson and Thomas Allen
- “American Wife” by Curtis Sittenfeld
- “The Round House” by Louise Erdlich
- “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- “A Short History of Women” by Kate Walbert
- “Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
- “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemmingway
- “Healer” by Carol Cassella
- “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain
- “The Chaparone” by Laura Moriarty
- “Songs of Willow Frost” by Jamie Ford
- “Prague Winter” by Madeleine Albright and Bob Woodward
- “Whistling Season” by Ivan Doig
- “Stella Bain” by Anita Shreve
- “Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald” by Therese Ann Fowler
- “The Aviator’s Wife” by Melanie Benjamin
- “Life is a Wheel” by Bruce Weber
- “Under the Wide and Starry Sky” by Nancy Haran
- “Private Life” by Jane Smiley
- “One Summer” by Bill Bryson
- “The Valley of Amazement” by Amy Tan
- “Run” by Ann Patchet
- “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford
