Start a diversity bookclub
In any community, there are diversity issues - the natives vs the newcomers, race issues that pit black against white, gay and straight clashes, classism - and often, we're not equipped to talk about them. Dialogue that approaches the issues head-on sometimes is too difficult, we avoid it, or we talk "at" rather than "with" those we perceive to be different from ourselves. We demonize the other and try to prove them wrong rather than understand their point of view. We don't bridge, but create both metaphoric and literal gated communities instead.
Can literature help?
That's the question I'm asking myself this spring. Because I have a commitment to read more this year, and because I want to create fiction and art myself out of my passion around diversity issues, I'm wondering if reading books can provide a community a way in to tough issues. I'm about to find out.
The "Bridging Differences Bookclub" will launch in April - for those 37days readers in Asheville or surrounding areas, please join us. We'll meet the first Monday of each month (beginning in April 2007) at 7pm at Malaprop's bookshop downtown.
Friends have sent an amazing list of suggestions for reading - from Richard Powers' The Time of Our Singing to Dave Eggers' What is the What to Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues to Suzanne Clores' Memoirs of a Spiritual Outsider to Amin Maalouf's In the Name of Identity to Reza Aslan's No God but God to David Berreby's Us and Them - and far beyond.
Do you have a book or two you'd recommend? I'm looking for suggestions of books (fiction, nonfiction, and memoir) that provide the reader with a new perspective, that allow us to hear new voices and explore culture, race, gender - a whole range of diversity issues - in a new way. What do you suggest we read?
I'll post the reading list as we move through the year, in case you'd like to follow along...
what about Willow Weep For Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah? I've also enjoyed most everything that bell hooks has done....
Posted by:ruby | 23 February 2007 at 18:57
MY FIRST WHITE FRIEND: CONFESSIONS ON RACE, LOVE AND FORGIVENESS by Patricia Raybon
Posted by:aurora fox | 25 February 2007 at 03:05
Could we also start an online diversity bookclub? please...;-) more than just the reading list--could we have some online discussions?
aurora
Posted by:aurora fox | 25 February 2007 at 03:06
How about Andrea Levy - Fruit of the Lemon and Small Island. They were fascinating, thought-provoking reads for me - as well as beautifully written. There are other novels of hers that I haven't read yet that may also touch on relevant themes....
Posted by:Donna Trenholm | 26 February 2007 at 09:15
fictional novel Sula by Toni Morrison,
includes in the story:
issues of "other"
of "light skin, dark skin, high yeller"
Southern Black folks who went North, etc.
Posted by:grace, T | 26 February 2007 at 15:17
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother, by James McBride
http://www.amazon.com/Color-Water-Black-Tribute-Mother/dp/1573225789/sr=8-2/qid=1172690201/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-3238672-2583944?ie=UTF8&s=books
it's the answer to the child's question: What color is God?
Beautiful book!
Posted by:diana | 28 February 2007 at 14:20
Kite Runner and The Namesake. i don't have the authors names handy, but these are two recently popular books that really give insight into other cultures. i would also suggest The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. (or any of her books really)
your reading group sounds great!
Posted by:jylene | 01 March 2007 at 07:00
I recommend JM Coetzee's "Disgrace." We read it for my bookclub and I was really suprised at the diversity of readings it provoked. It's also a quick, understated read. Here's a fun quote I pulled from Coetzee's Wiki page:
Rian Malan wrote that Coetzee is "a man of almost monkish self-discipline and dedication. He does not drink, smoke or eat meat. He cycles vast distances to keep fit and spends at least an hour at his writing-desk each morning, seven days a week. A colleague who has worked with him for more than a decade claims to have seen him laugh just once. An acquaintance has attended several dinner parties where Coetzee has uttered not a single word." [1]
Posted by:vanesscipes | 01 March 2007 at 09:34
"Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
I'd like to be on the email list for the club. I'm a past (future?) librarian who reads too many periodicals and too few books!
Posted by:Brenda Lux | 01 March 2007 at 23:37
These comments attributes are wierd here--I posted the comment aboUT MY FIRST WHITE FRIEND; and the one attributed to me later on about Andrea Levy is not my comment! could the names of the comment author's gotten switched here ? ! (too wierd...!)
maybe "Ruby" wrote the comment on Levy? because I didn't--I have not read those books...
but I do reccommend MY FIRST WHITE FRIEND.
Aurora
Posted by:Aurora Fox | 03 March 2007 at 16:28
hello.
i have some books listed here with links to reviews and a littl about the book. i think some of the may resonate with you, with the purpose of these book clubs.
Posted by:mahima | 02 April 2007 at 05:03
I am a freelance writer and I had the pleasure of interviewing an author of a recent diversity book. I won't even call it a book its a resource. This book had actual experiences of diversity backed by research and a large scale study. Something for every level of reader. The name of the book is Diversity Science Research Series, ISBN 1596821167. He offers free ebooks on his website that I listed.
Posted by:Robert Johnson | 07 April 2007 at 08:36