I skipped posting about our November discussion, Grant Park; but if you haven't read it yet I urge
This month we're taking it a bit slower, with Terry McMillan's I Almost Forgot About You. Georgia Young, a 50-something successful optometrist with two grown (sort of) daughters is in a rut. After learning that a former flame has recently died, Georgia decides to sell her home and practice, explore a new career as a designer, and take off on a cross-country train ride, while coincidentally looking up her past loves (including her ex husbands) to see what she has, or has not learned from them. Of course life intervenes, in the form of family crises.
McMillan gave an interview to Code Switch on NPR in which she discusses how Georgia's journey reflects her own, and those of her readers, many of whom have been fans for decades. "Life is a lot of stops and starts, but when you get in your 50s, you see there is a finish line, and I want to go out sliding into home," says McMillan.
Does Georgia's story resonate with you? Join us next Tuesday January 17th for our meeting at the Gibbs-Morrison Center and let's talk! Copies of the book are available at the 2nd floor desk of the Evanston Pubic Library; call 847-448-8620.
Other discussions of African AMerican interest coming up this month:
History Book Discussion Group: The Defender
Venue Main LibrarySeminar Room
The
History Book Discussion Group reads The Defender: How the Legendary
Black Newspaper Changed America, by Ethan Michaeli. The story of
Chicago’s black paper and its influence throughout the nation, from
Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency to Barack Obama’s, which The New York Times
called “an extraordinary history. . . deeply researched, elegantly
written.”
Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Discussion Group: Kindred
Venue Main LibrarySeminar Room
This
combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a
cornerstone of black American literature. The novel follows Dana, an
African-American woman in 1976, who is suddenly and inexplicably
wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a white boy
from drowning, she realizes the challenge she has been given: to
protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own
great-grandmother.
African American Literature: Detroit: an American Autopsy
An
exposé of Detroit, icon of America’s lost prosperity, from Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff. Back in his broken hometown,
LeDuff searches through the ruins for clues to its fate, his family’s,
and his own. Once the richest city in America, Detroit is now the
nation’s poorest. It is an eerie and angry place of deserted factories
and abandoned homes and forgotten people. LeDuff sets out to uncover
what destroyed his city, and shares an unbelievable story of a hard town
in a rough time filled with some of the strangest and strongest people
our country has to offer.
Keepinitreal: The Other Wes Moore
Venue Main LibrarySeminar Room
Two
kids with the same name were born blocks apart in the same decaying
city within a few years of each other. One grew up to be a Rhodes
Scholar, army officer, White House Fellow, and business leader. The
other is serving a life sentence in prison. Here is the story of two
boys and the journey of a generation.
