Donor Club prepares for one-woman book review, tea

The Donor Club of Elgin will present its traditional book review and tea at 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at the First United Methodist Church, 216 E. Highland Ave., Elgin.

Tickets cost $12 and will be available from members or by calling Jacque at (847) 888-8586. Limited tickets will also be sold at the door. Tea, coffee and cookies will be served. There will be homemade cookies, peanut brittle, breads and cupcakes for sale as well as some gently-used books. A basket raffle will also be held.

This year marks Barbara Rinella's 23rd year of giving book reviews for the Donor Club. This year's selection is "The American Lion, Andrew Jackson In The White House" by Jon Meacham.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the book tells the story of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. According to the Random House Web site, "Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy."

Every year, Rinella has performed one-woman shows dramatizing current biographies. This year, Jackson's beautiful wife, Rachel, appear to talk about their exciting love, their improper marriage, her feelings about a husband that is elevated to idolatry as the hero of the Battle of New Orleans and her heartbreaking - literally - treatment of the media? Or, perhaps it will be the very lovely, strong-willed Emily Donelson, Rachel's niece that will tell of her aunt's romance and death which would result in Emily's role as Jackson's White House hostess.