3 RAPS SHEET n SUMMER 2022 RAPS Group Reports Book Group THE RAPS BOOK GROUP has continued to meet through the summer, still using Zoom. We have had some very intense discussions, and are becoming more and more comfortable with remote meetings, though we continue to miss having coffee and dessert together. In May we read Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, a delightfully funny story featuring a very diverse group of people at an apartment showing who are confronted—or perhaps taken hostage—by a bank robber who has failed in robbing the nearby bank. It is a book one reads slowly, taking time to laugh, and to appreciate the common issues confronting the apartment seekers. In June we read The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan. It was a beautifully written book, catching the dreams and the failures of those who farmed in western Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, and northern Texas. This had once been fertile grassland, but it was plowed to grow wheat, and then in the late l930s became almost unlivable as the wind picked up the now unprotected dry soil and created great dust clouds. Steinbeck wrote about those who fled westward; this book is about those who stayed. Desperate for a more cheerful, hopeful book, we selected Amor Towles’s new novel, The Lincoln Highway, and discussed it on July 19. It is the tale of three adolescents and an eight-year-old who set out from Nebraska to go to San Francisco, and instead, due to a series of events and decisions, followed the Lincoln Highway to New York. The book meanders as we follow the varied thinking patterns and actions of each boy. The story is told from multiple points of view, and the reader identifies with each. The varied perspectives created a rich discussion. Most of us liked the book immensely. In July we read The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams. The Book Group meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 1:30 p.m. Traditionally we have met in the homes of various members; currently we are using Zoom for our discussions and may continue in this way for a time. All RAPS members are welcome to join the group. —Joan Shireman Bridge Group THE BRIDGE GROUP is not meeting in August. We hope the COVID situation will allow us to continue playing in person, beginning in September. If you have questions concerning RAPS bridge, please contact Steve Brennan, 503-889-0146. My email address is: the.steve.brennan@gmail.com. —Steve Brennan Hiking Group THE HIKING GROUP will take on the Wilson River Trail off Highway 6 in the Tillamook State Forest on August 23. The plan is to start at Footbridge and walk east to Jones Creek, a 7.6-mile in-and-out hike with a potential for a car shuttle. On a sunny but very breezy day in late June, four members hiked the Mosier to Hood River section of the Historic Columbia River Highway Trail, through the Mosier Twin Tunnels, approximately 4.5 miles of asphalt trail with a car shuttle. If you’re interested in joining the August 23 hike, contact Tom Dieterich at tjdieterich@earthlink.net. RAPS hikers Tom Hard, Mary Lane Stevens, Cilla Murray, and Tom Dieterich pause while hiking the Historic Columbia River Highway Trail. The Hiking Group’s next foray into the great outdoors will be the Wilson River Trail in the Tillamook State Forest on August 23.
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