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Women and Books Discussing In the Shadow of the Mountain by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado

In-Person and Virtual Program

Join the book club for a hybrid (in-person and online) discussion of In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado.

This is a hybrid event and will be hosted in-person in the Community Meeting Room at West Hollywood Library as well as on WebEx Meetings via the following link:

https://lacountylibrary.webex.com/lacountylibrary/j.php?MTID=maa8a00d769f8b023cc81d2d603b7184c

Co-sponsored by the City of West Hollywood Women's Advisory Board. Please contact the library to borrow a print copy of the book. eBook and eAudiobook are available through OverDrive/Libby app.

Attendance is limited, and advance registration is required for in-person attendees. Please register every individual in your party. This will be used to save your spots in the program. We cannot guarantee availability for any unregistered attendees.

This event is held in-person. LA County Public Health strongly encourages masks and physical distancing indoors regardless of vaccination status. Masks will continue to be available for customers upon request. Please see the Guidelines for Attendees during the registration process for more information.

Summary provided by the publisher:

Endless ice. Thin air. The threat of dropping into nothingness thousands of feet below. This is the climb Silvia Vasquez-Lavado braves in her page-turning, pulse-raising memoir chronicling her journey to Mount Everest.

A Latina hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. Deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she’d suffered as a child, she started climbing. Something about the brute force required for the ascent—the risk and spirit and sheer size of the mountains and death’s close proximity—woke her up. She then took her biggest pain as a survivor to the biggest mountain: Everest.

"The Mother of the World," as it’s known in Nepal, allows few to reach her summit, but Silvia didn’t go alone. She gathered a group of young female survivors and led them to base camp alongside her. It was never easy. At times hair-raising, nerve-racking, and always challenging, Silvia remembers the acute anxiety of leading a group of novice climbers to Everest’s base, all the while coping with her own nerves of summiting. But, there were also moments of peace, joy, and healing with the strength of her fellow survivors and community propelling her forward.

In the Shadow of the Mountain is a remarkable story of heroism, one which awakens in all of us a lust for adventure, an appetite for risk, and faith in our own resilience.

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