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SATURDAY | JUNE 21 | 10:30 – 11:30 AM
HSU GALLERY | Onsite Book Discussion & Tour

For Bowers Members Only: A Book Club Experience

Books at Bowers: Touring Through the Pages is a Bowers Docent Guild sponsored book club that pairs a topical book with a museum art experience.

The June book selection is paired with the exhibition Art of the Pacific Islands. The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides is one of the NY Times 10 Best Books of the Year. The Wide Wide Sea transports the reader to this fateful and thrilling voyage with the words of Cook’s own men, oral tradition of the Indigenous people of the Pacific Ocean, and comprehensive research. “With The Wide Wide Sea, Hampton Sides has crafted an enthralling new account of Cook’s last voyage and death, based on careful research that sensitively balances European attitudes and Indigenous reactions.” (John B. Hattendorf, professor emeritus, editor in chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History. ) Hardover, 354 pages, copyright 2024.

Following the in-person discussion in the Hsu Gallery, a docent-led tour of the Art of the Pacific Islands exhibition will showcase some of the cultural practices and locations discussed in the book.

Admission is free and space is limited to 30 Bowers Museum members. A confirmation email will be sent to participants prior to the event.