All:
First, apologies for the delay in reaching out.
The book club had a reportedly lovely meeting on May 18th to discuss Digging to
America by Anne Tyler.
On May 13th my husband and I welcomed our first
child, a baby boy named Jack, who has completely monopolized our time since,
but we've enjoyed every minute!
Chip Jerry communicated to me that it was
decided at the May meeting to have one final meeting this spring and then take
a hiatus in July and August. Additionally, he suggested that for the sake of
time, we forgo the usual vote and instead have the group read Ta-Nehisi Coates'
Between the World and Me.
- In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions
about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a
father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for
understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have
built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but
falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited
through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and
murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body
and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with
this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?Between the World
and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a
letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the
story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a
series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War
battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home
to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as
American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined
history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World
and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present,
and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
Unless there is significant conflict with the
date, I will reserve a room on Wednesday, June 29th at 7pm for the next
meeting.
All the best,
Linsay