Join us Wednesday, December 3, 2025 at 5:30 for our next Cactus Book Club. We’re thrilled to have the Medical College of Wisconsin - Division of Infectious Diseases lead the discussion in belated honor of World AIDS Day. We’re reading the 1994 Lambda Award winning memoir My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story by Abraham Verghese. “When the Ethiopian-born son of Indian schoolteachers, emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Johnson City, Tennessee, in the mid-1980s, he finally felt at peace ‘in my own country' at last. But his work at the Johnson City Medical Center soon led him into a shadow world of Bible-belt AIDS, often without the support of his colleagues”…”Verghese brought a singular perspective to Johnson City: as a doctor unique in his abilities; as an outsider who could talk to people suspicious of local practitioners; above all, as a writer of grace and compassion who saw that what was happening in this conservative community was both a medical and a spiritual emergency”.
Recommended bookseller: Lions Tooth
“The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Division of Infectious Disease offers a wide range of inpatient and outpatient clinical services related to the care of patients with infectious diseases. The goal of the division is to provide excellent inpatient and outpatient care and consultative services to the patients receiving care at Froedtert Hospital, the VA Medical Center and our regional partners. Division faculty have close collaborative relationships with a variety of public health and community partners where they work collaboratively to improve the care of vulnerable population in our region, and to reduce the impact of infectious diseases on the populations we serve. The department provides care to more than 900 individuals living with HIV in the Froedtert & MCW Infectious Diseases Clinic and prescribes HIV prevention medication to more than 1000 patients. We also provide HIV linkage to care services, social work case management, and RN case management to patients living with HIV. The Infectious Diseases Division collaborated with the Froedtert & MCW Emergency Medicine Department to implement the first emergency-room based universal HIV screening initiative in Wisconsin.“ Learn more about MCW’s ID Divison: hereABOUT US: Cactus Book Club (CBC) meets on the first Wednesday of the month from 5:30-7:30 in the back room at Cactus Club. Each month a different community organization, collective, mutual aid group, or business chooses the book & recommended bookseller then leads the discussion. We read sociopolitical fiction and non-fiction, with a focus on works by women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and/or otherwise under-published groups. You don’t have to finish reading the book to attend. All book club meetings are free. No registration required. 18+. CBC is part of our ongoing Cactus+ programming. Contact kelly@cactusplus.org with questions or suggestions.
Interested in leading a book club? Apply here SUMMARY:Cactus Book Club: “My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story” by Abraham Verghese ORGANIZER:Cactus Club URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.cactusclubmilwaukee.com/events/cbc-dec3-2025-2/ TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR