Small Town Book Club Builds Kinship with Discourse on Duo Memoirs "Lab Girl" and "M Train"

The total eclipse of the sun was an awesome day of celestial majesty.  At dusk,  the local bookstore in  CA held their monthly drop-in book group to discuss 2 fascinating memoirs:  "M Train" by Patti Smith winner of the NME Best Book Award & a Grammy for The Best Spoken Word Album."  The second autobio was "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren.  It won the Nat'l Book Critics Circle Award.  Smith is an award winning-songwriter and a break-out punk rock artist.  Smith is also a poet & visual artist.  Her previous memoir "Just Kids" about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe & their ascent from anonymity into celebrities as artists: Mapplethorpe for his iconic black/white photographs and Smith with her 1st breakout single "Here Comes the Night" co-written with Bruce Springsteen. "Just Kids" won the Nat'l Book Critics Award.  Jahren is a geobiologist whose extensive research & scientific studies are her lifeline.  Her dedicated research has contributed to advancing environmental conservation and observations.  These two women, an accomplished artist & scientist have made names for themselves in their respective fields & forged with great insight & skill into the literary world.  The book club meeting was a fortuitous scheduling falling on the eve of the solar eclipse.  Jahren's consuming fascination with botany & science was shared with millions who looked upward to the skies in jubilation at yesterday's celestial phenomena.  Smith, in addition to being a musical, visual and literary award winning writer is known for her social activism.  The small but in tune group shared their reflections on the lives of these remarkable women.  More importantly, yesterday was a day for sharing a universal wonder & the joys of exchanging viewpoints and regarding each other.  The solar eclipse is not something that comes around often in one's lifetime.  But coming together to share thoughts & listening to others can & should happen daily.