African American Literature Discussion Group: November 2010

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

What they said...

The November 9 book discussion("I'm Still Standing") was good-very lively and all readers liked the book. Many felt Shoshana Johnson's writing could have been 'punchier', but all agreed the riveting final chapters more than made up for the book's slow start. Readers felt the terror experienced by the author was genuine and that while Johnson seemed somewhat 'niave'at the beginning of her tour of duty, all felt she showed great strength, if not heroism, in overcoming the results of her ordeal. A good read. Many book clubbers were happy to read non-fiction about war veterans!
Comment on this book or complete the opinion poll at the bottom right:

Monday, November 8, 2010

"I'm Still Standing:

Former POW, Shoshana Johnson, shares her story on "Larry King Live"

Thursday, November 4, 2010

YA author, Earl Sewell, speaks to IYC book club

Earl Sewell, author of the popular, Kimani Tru, teen series, among other titles, will speak to a book club for incarcerated girls at the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville, IL on Thursday, November 4.

Through the efforts of librarian and volunteer facilitator, Kelly Farrow, the book club has been meeting the needs of girls aged 13 years through 21 years who are housed at the medium security facility since 2007. Librarians, Susan K. McClelland (Evanston Public Library) and K.C. Boyd (Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, IL.) will also be facilitating the November 4 book club discussion.

Welcome to the African American Literature Discussion Group blog!

Whether you are new to our group or a long-standing participant, feel free to check here for dates and locations of our book discussions, book reviews, commentary on African American literature, library issues, author events, or merely to share a post about an issue of interest. The AAL book group meets the third Tuesday of each month in the Evanston Public Library first floor Small Meeting Room and is open to the public. A list of upcoming titles is available on the Evanston Public Library website and you may register and pick up copies of each month’s titles at the library’s second floor Reader’s Services desk.

Here's a complete list of books we've discussed!

Check us out on GoodReads too!

Till our next post, happy reading!

Sincerely,

Lesley Williams
Book Discussion Facilitator

Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 448-8620

What to Read Next...The Hanging Bridge

From guest reviewer Vaughan Jones: We all have had lessons in history in college, but being young, and never being in the Jim Crow environment, there was no real connection to the level of hate and white supremacy in the community. The book connected how the lynching and violence was used as a continuing campaign of subjugation to have a cheap and spiritually defeated labor force be brutalized for the slightest of infractions. It was like reading Theodore White's " Making of a President". It put the reader right there n Shubuta, Clark County MS. You felt like you were witnessing the barbarism and hate, at the scene. I can understand how the African Americans in Clarke County endured the environment and like the Jews of Europe, not all of them felt they had alternatives. They just had to endure. Just unbelievable. The book is completely readable for all levels and not making it as A. Bartlett Giamatti once called academic writing, "High Institutional". The focus was on the 2 separate lynchings of 6 young black residents (4 in 1918 and 2 in 1942), and how Clark County's continued to resist to any form of change. But your highlighting the work of Walter White and the early NAACP took so much courage, very few people understand the risks those people took in getting the story on the lynchings across the South. You also highlighted the real genocidal acts taking place outside of Mississippi in other areas, an example was the outright murder of the Black farmers in Arkansas. In a lot of ways, the US is not unlike other countries like Germany who want only to either brush over the barbarism and crimes. In the writing of "The Hanging Bridge, Prof. Ward transitioned and highlighted the work of the African Americans, who were able to get Early Childhood Care, through Head Start and the efforts of the county political leadership to manipulate and hinder any efforts to have any political or economic independence. This book would be a great addition to the curriculum of Evanston Township High School and surrounding high schools for the students to have the insight on why the language of demagogues is so dangerous. It is not unlike a virus that infects a population with the results being mob actions and murders.

African American Literature Discussion Group