The Gulf Coast Chapter Book Club
The GCC Book Club focuses on reading books about women in developing countries and also serves as an educational, as well as literary and enjoyable monthly forum. The book club meets every second Monday at the Sarasota North County Library from 2:30-4:00. All members are invited to attend. For further information, please contact Leita Kaldi Davis at lkaldi@hotmail.com.
Upcoming Selections and Meetings:
September 2010
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroud.
October 2010
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran.
November 2010
The Space Between Us by Indian novelist, Thrity Umrigar.
December 2010
Nomad by Ayaan Hirsi (Somalia)
January 2011
Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children by Grace Akallo
February 2011
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
March 2011
Joss and Gold by Shirley Geok-lin Lim (Malaysia)
October 2010
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran.
November 2010
The Space Between Us by Indian novelist, Thrity Umrigar.
December 2010
Nomad by Ayaan Hirsi (Somalia)
January 2011
Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children by Grace Akallo
February 2011
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
March 2011
Joss and Gold by Shirley Geok-lin Lim (Malaysia)
Past Meetings/Readings:
August 2010
The UNIFEM/USNC Gulf Coast Book Club met on Monday, August 9, 2010 to discuss The Girl from Foreign by Sadia Shepard. Shepard grows up half-Muslim, half-Christian and then learns that her beloved grandmother is actually Jewish from an obscure Bene Israel community in India. Shepard traces her grandmother's story from the Konkan Coast of India, where her nana secretly married a Muslim man, to Pakistan where they fled during Partition. On a Fulbright Scholarship, she studies at the Film Institute in Bombay and there meets Rekhev, a talented activist, who challenges her emotionally and intellectually, and they eventually forge a long-lasting friendship. Shepard's journey takes her to cities, synagogues and villas that materialize from her nana's memories. She also meets many intriguing people who bring her nana's distant past to life. This memoir is fascinating for its global implications of a person raised with multiple religions and homelands and, at the same time, as a classic American search for one's roots.
July 2010
The UNIFEM/USNC Gulf Coast Book Club met on Monday, July 12, 2010 to discuss The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. Because Kingsolver is such a popular author, her name attracted several new participants to the discussion. Everyone agreed, however, that in spite of brilliant writing, character development and descriptions, The Lacuna did not work as an historical novel. The hero is an American young man whose mother, a flamboyant Mexican woman, sails from one lover to another, leaving her son to struggle in her wake. He emancipates himself in the household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, working as a secretary/cook, and ends up also serving Lev Trotsky and entourage, refugees from Stalinist Russia. After Trotsky's murder, our hero moves to Washington DC and becomes involved in returning soldiers' riots, along with his emergence from the homosexual closet. The, he moves to Asheville, N.C., where he becomes an acclaimed writer, gaining a devoted local stenographer friend. Although there is grist here for two novels already, Kingsolver moves on to a third story; the persecution of our hero by the Joseph McCarthy Commission. We compared this book to many of Kingsolver's best sellers and, while everyone expressed deep admiration of her earlier books, most readers were disappointed by this last publication.
June 2010
The UNIFEM-USNC Gulf Coast Book Club met on Monday, June 14, 2010 to discuss Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy by Marie Vieux-Chauvet, and Tales from the Heart of Haiti by Patti Marxsen. Vieux-Chauvet's book, which Edwidge Danticat calls the “cornerstone of Haitian literature,” reads like a stream of dark consciousness that devolves from love to anger to madness. Vieux-Chauvet writes with shocking, exquisite style about the mystery, fear, poverty, violence, racism and political paralysis of Haiti. Haiti itself is the overriding character in all three novellas, personnified by brutal dictators and their agents of evil -- French or mulatto soldiers, tontons macoutes or black-shirted devils. Vieux-Chauvet's female heroines are, like herself, seething victims of cruel misogynists or merely foolish men, women who are “in perpetual revolt,” as Patti Marxsen points out in her thorough review of the author in Women's Review of Books.
Marxsen's Tales from the Heart of Haiti also illustrates the nation's sinister undercurrent, along with the naïve or deliberate exploitation of Haitians by foreign do-gooders who compound their miseries. But Marxsen soars above the political mire with descriptions of the country's natural beauty and honest, if sometimes heartbreaking stories of human passions and spirituality. (One reader said that, for the first time, she wished to visit Haiti after reading Marxsen's stories.)
These books elicited feelings of outrage at the universal phenomenon of abused people abusing their own and anyone beneath them. While both books offered only glimmers of hope for Haiti, participants who had visited the country or knew Haitians expressed their admiration of the resilience, dignity and strength of the Haitian people, who seem cursed not by a vengeful god, but by merciless humans and relentless forces of nature.
May 2010
The UNIFEM-USNC Gulf Coast Book Club met on Monday, May 10, 2010 to discuss The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan, an historical epoch of the 17th century Mughal Empire, a fairy tale heroine, Mehrunissa, and her star-crossed love for the Emperor Jahangir. Readers found similarities to Empress Orchid by Anchee Min of the Ch'ang Dynasty. Though historical periods and geographical settings differed, both stories centered on opulant lifestyles and palace intrigues. We also discussed religious issues of the book, e.g., the coexistence of Islam, Hinduism, Catholicism and Sufism. Some readers were encouraged to read Sundaresan's sequel, Feast of Roses, while others felt surfeited for the time being with historical sagas.
April 2010
A Woman among Warlords by Malalai Joya. Joya was elected to Afghanistan's Parliament in 2003, but was rejected because of her outspoken criticism of members who were warlords responsible for the destruction of her country, including Hamid Karzai. She lives in constant danger, eluding fundamentalists who would kill her. She is also celebrated for her courage by many individuals and organizations around the world. The book was co-authored by Derrick O'Keefe and, while readers found the style often redundant and self-laudatory, Joya's views should be read in the context of Afghanistan's role in the world today.
March 2010
The Land of Green Plums or The Appointment, by Herta Muller, Nobel Prize for Literature 2009.
February 2010
The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival and Hope, by Zainab Salbi (Iraq)
January 2010
December 2009
This Child is Great by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, and Unbowed by Wangari Maathai, Kenyan activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Readers compared both prestigious leaders' childhoods – from remote villages to town life, marked by loving mothers and cultural awareness – through disastrous marriages, motherhood, and tremendous opportunities to advance themselves that were partly pursued and partly presented to both women. The same kind of innate passion for improving their world in both writers was perceived. The same sense of self-sacrifice at the altar of their goals, such as the pain and guilt of separating themselves from their children, their tremendous bravery in the face of arrest and threat of death that each dared to defend their integrity and visions for their respective countries.
November 2009
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min. Readers enjoyed the book's lyrical descriptions of court life in the Ch'ing dynasty. Royal opulence seemed almost unbelievable. Readers were also surprised that symbolism and myth ruled people's lives, and that eunuchs had such powerful roles in the court. Many things were learned about China during the Opium Wars, e.g., how little Chinese royalty, in their regal isolation at the time knew about foreigners, and how volatile European contention was over opium and trade.
October 2009
The UNIFEM/USNC/GCC Book Club met on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 to discuss Lola's Luck: My Life among the California Gypsies, by Carol Miller. The book was disappointing, in that we expected an anthropological portrait of the Machwaya Rom of California, but the story focused instead on the author's dysfunctional, long romance with a Gypsy man. However, we looked at several other more substantial books on American Rom to glean an idea of their culture in our society. The best feature of the meeting was miniature artist Dee Fuller's “Gypsy Wagon.”
September 2009
On Monday, September 14, 2009, the UNIFEM/USNC GCC Book Club discussed Benazir Bhutto's Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. Bhutto's opus includes a history of Pakistan, an analysis of problems among Islamic groups and their need for reformation and reconciliation, as well as the need for a resurgence of Islamic values of tolerance and justice that form the religion's true core. She emphasizes the importance of democratic governance to evolving nations, western influences and responsibilities to them, and questions the inevitability of a “clash of civilizations.” Members were struck with the book's density and learned many things, e.g., misguided interpretations of the Koran used by jihadists, insights into several post-colonial and Islamic nations, the existence of myriad global women's organizations cited by Bhutto, the extent of Bhutto's achievements and progress toward democracy as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996 and, especially, the awful loss to the world as a result of her assassination in 2007.
August 2009
On Monday, August 10, 2009, the UNIFEM/USNC GCC Book Club discussed Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway. Our readers were touched by this story of Kris, a young Peace Corps Volunteer who spends two years assisting 24-year old Monique, a remarkable village midwife in Mali who struggles to help local women by providing pre-natal care, though births happen on a concrete slab in a decrepit building with little or no medical resources for emergency anomalies. Where maternal and infant mortality rates are among the highest in the world, where there is no running water or trained doctors, where food and water are scarce, though flies, malaria, intestinal parasites and AIDS are plentiful, Monique and Kris strive to save lives. They learn much from each other's cultures and develop a deep friendship. After Monique's death, ironically in childbirth, Kris Holloway devoted herself to carrying on Monique's mission by writing her book and fund-raising for a clinic named for Monique. By buying this book, readers contributed to that cause, and one was inspired to write to Holloway who thanked her for her kind words about the book and added, “Pass on the book to a friend and help me spread the word about how truly inspiring the women in West Africa are.”
July
On July 14, the UNIFEM/USNC/GCC Book Club discussed What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achar Deng, a “Lost Boy” from the Sudan, by Dave Eggers. The details of Deng’s well-known story of walking through deserts of southern Sudan to Ethiopia, and then to a refugee camp in Kenya are horrifying, but testify to the tenacious courage of multitudes of desperate people.
June
On June 9, the UNIFEM/USNC/GCC Book Club discussed Now They Call Me Infidel by Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian journalist who leads the group Arabs for Israel. Darwish’s views on Muslim culture, e.g., how some Muslim children are raised to hate the West, and what she sees as the media’s erroneous blame for Islamic terrorism on poverty and fundamentalism, have exposed her to controversy and danger.
May
On May 12, 2008 the UNIFEM/USNC/GCC Book Club discussed The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeanette Walls of her painfully dysfunctional, but uniquely interesting family. Steeped in alcoholism, poverty and fantasy, Walls’ childhood and that of her siblings is a story of constant loss -- loss of homes, possessions, pets and innocence. Their parents’ co-dependent relationship and their respective obsessions with physics, geology and art overwhelm any inclination for domesticity or child-rearing. While readers were appalled by many facets of this intensely peculiar story, they were equally engaged by the author’s subtle humor and compelling writing style.
April
On April 14, 2008 the UNIFEM/USNC/GCC Book Club discussed The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Pakistani writer, Mohsin Hamid. Readers found the first-person format engaging and at times disturbing, especially when the central character takes a sharp emotional detour from enjoying the American “good life” to responding with joy to the 9/11 attacks. Disenchantment with the high life of the West and a tragic love affair supposedly led to the transformation of his heart and mind. While some readers felt angered by his reaction, others interpreted it as indicative of widespread resentment from a large segment of the world. Everyone agreed that the writing was very fine and the subject gave us all food for thought.
March
On March 10, we discussed People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, a saga of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a Hebrew manuscript created in 15th century
February
The UNIFEM/USNC/GCC Book Club was very well attended on Monday, February 11, 2008, to discuss Brother,I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat. From a political point of view, readers were outraged at the blatant discrimination against Haitians arriving in Miami, as described by Danticat in the murder-by-neglect of her beloved 81-year old uncle at Krome detention center. From a literary of view, we were struck by the lucid, objective writing style that is quite different from Danticat’s previous lyrical publications. Everyone appreciated the personal pain that must have gone into writing Brother, I’m Dying, a testimonial to the heartbreaking deaths of her uncle and her father while she was pregnant with her first child. And everyone appreciated the strength it must have taken to write the story almost objectively, presenting facts in their inherent drama.
For further information, and a bibliography of past readings, please see the below attachment.
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| GCC BookclubBibliography.pdf | 67.35 KB |
