Tag Archives: book club spotlight

This Thursday, State and Federal offices across the country will be closed in observance of our newest official federal holiday, Juneteenth! 160 years ago on June 19th, 1865- 250,000 enslaved people were finally emancipated two years and a war after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Despite this, Jim Crow laws continued until the mid-1960s, another hundred years after the liberation. Today’s Book Club Spotlight, The Nickel Boys, (also a 2024 movie) takes place during the tumultuous 1960s at the end of the Civil Rights Movement inside of a Florida reform school. The 2019 book by author Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Whitehead one of four authors to have won the award twice. 

There are three versions of Elwood Curtis. The young, intelligent Elwood dreams of attending college and making something of himself beyond his segregated Tallahassee home. The Elwood of the authoritarian Nickel Academy Reform School, is a righteous young man striving to follow the words and ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But the Academy is stronger and crueler than love can conquer; torturing him and his peers to either submission or death. Finally, there is the Elwood who escapes and lives on. A haunted man, trying to find his way in the world with nothing but his name. How was this goodhearted boy with a bright future ahead of him sentenced to such a life? The truth lies with the bodies of young men hidden on the grounds of Nickel.

The Nickel Boys is, unfortunately, based on a real reform school in Florida that was shut down in 2011. The Dozier School for Boys, much like Residential Schools, was a state-sanctioned way to force children into submission and assimilation under the guise of civility and patriotism. After the school was closed there was an outpouring of stories from former students who told of the horror faced there, including beatings, sexual assault, and murder. Dubbed “America’s Storyteller”, Whitehead doesn’t shy away from our tragic history, and his influence in writing The Nickel Boys came from a need to make sense of the world and fight back against the “larger culture of impunity”. Book Club groups can discuss the influences of thought and worldviews found in the novel, especially in how they play out between our main characters Elwood and Turner as they must adapt to the school’s barbaric rule of law and its lasting consequences. How do we cope in a world without justice?

Further Resources on The Dozier School for Boys:

• The Official White House Boys website
  • Run by survivors of the school

• “For Their Own Good”
  • An article detailing stories from survivors 

• The Reformatory by Tananarive Due 
  • A 2023 fictionalized novel about the school

Lincoln Juneteenth Events (2025)

• 6/19: Legal Fight for Freedom: Student Research Panel and Keynote Address – UNL
• 6/21: Malone Center Juneteenth Event

To read more about Juneteenth and related topics, The National Museum of African American History & Culture has curated a “Juneteenth Reading List”, which features titles from our Book Club Collection!

If you’re interested in requesting The Nickel Boys for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 7 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Whitehead. Colson. The Nickel Boys. Doubleday. (2019)

A muse is a powerful creature. Love and praise may fall on deaf ears to an unrealized man. But whisper tales of mortality, fleeting beauty, and adoration, the desperation of the damned will overtake them. As it overtakes the young man, he, in a pit of panic, pledges his soul so the burden of time will be placed upon his mirrored self in portraiture. Young Dorian Gray. A beautiful muse and love of painter Basil Hallward, and the manipulated mentee of the hedonistic fast-talking Lord Henry, tears through the polite society of London, leaving all who approach ruined in his wake. While his portrait decays in his attic, exposing the monstrous degradation of his soul.

To the people of the Victorian era, perception was everything. The women had to be beautiful, charming, but unobtrusive. The men, stoic masculine providers with no time for frivolities or deviant behaviors. And Dorian Gray is the perfect young Victorian man. He is beautiful, charming, and has all the merits his class dictates. His impressionable mind is warped by voyeuristic Aesthete Lord Henry, into an existential crisis that leads to selfishness and cruelty all in the pursuit of pleasure. This is what made The Picture of Dorian Gray so subversive in its time. It held a mirror to society, forcing it to look at its faults and secrets, and even at Wilde’s beloved Aestheticism Movement. Book Club Groups can explore the themes of love, art, beauty, and influence through each unique character carefully crafted by Wilde, and the conflicting realities held within them. To help guide discussion, our copies include an introduction by Penguin Classics Editor, Robert Mighall, and a backmatter of notations to provide the modern reader with further context and knowledge for the novel.

Oscar Wilde in a letter to Ralph Payne (1894):

I am so glad you like that strange coloured book of mine: it contains much of me in it. Basil Hallward is what I think I am Lord Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian what I would like to be – in other ages, perhaps.

If you’re interested in requesting The Picture of Dorian Gray for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 16 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Wilde. Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Penguin Classics. (1891)

Five-year-old Jack lives with Ma in Room. There, they play, learn, brush their teeth, exercise, and look out Skylight. Every night, he goes to sleep in Wardrobe while a mysterious man comes to visit. Ma doesn’t seem to like Old Nick, but Jack likes it when he brings them new things like clothes, food, and sometimes candy! To Jack, Room is all there is, and he wants everything to stay the same forever. But now that Jack is 5 years old, his curiosity is harder to contain, he gets in fights with Ma, and Old Nick gets so upset that their power is off for days! Maybe he should have just stayed 4. Ma is changing too. She decides it’s time to tell Jack a story, a real story this time, about a place called Outside. And about a plan where Jack must be brave, get to Outside, and save Ma.

Engaging for Mature Teen and Adult readers, Room is a sociological exploration of what makes our reality, and the persistence of the human race to thrive against all odds. From discussing faith, the sensationalism of tragedy, and the spirit of motherhood, love is at the forefront of this novel. Narrated by Jack’s unusual and childish voice, Room’s language will take a second to get used to and is not for everyone. We follow his malleable young mind as it opens up and tries to process this place that was previously far beyond his understanding. But once the reader is enveloped in his unique world, it’s hard to leave and return to Outside.  

Room was adapted by Emma Donoghue into an academy award winning movie of the same name starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay.

If you’re interested in requesting Room for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 11 copies and an Audio CD. (A librarian must request items)

Donoghue, Emma. Room. Little, Brown and Company. (2010)

“We arrive in the blizzard of 1993, coming from rice paddies, mango trees, and the sun to February in the Empire State.” At three years old, Ký Lý and her family of 6 are sent to the United States, as part of a humanitarian effort to relocate South Vietnamese prisoners of war. Though she doesn’t quite understand it, Ly’s father was one of those men, confined in the Viet Cong re-education camps of torture and indoctrination. However, America was not the fresh start they were sold. The family struggles in poverty, resorting to endless nights of sewing garments in their cramped and dirty apartment to barely make ends meet. As she grows, Ly recognizes the dour circumstances around her, and her parent’s ceaseless effort to create a life for their children- free from the horrors of the past. In an attempt to protect her family from more hardship, Ly learns to hide the cruelty of others from her parents and to hide herself as well.

For Adult Book Club Groups who are fans of moving family memoirs like Educated and The Glass Castle, House of Sticks is a story of filial piety, and how the trauma of our parents move within us and propel our lives. How pressures of helping support a family, and neglect can weigh on a child into their adult years. Though Tran spends much of her memoir away from her family, they are a part of her and influence every step she takes. She was especially her traumatized father, but her ability for compassion and understanding helped bridge the long-worn gaps between them. Reading stories like House of Sticks can open us up to new perspectives and peoples. When we celebrate the melting pot of the United States, like with AAPI month, it’s important to take the time and learn about our history together. Even before we were a country, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians have been a part of our legacy.

If you’re interested in requesting House of Sticks for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 8 copies and an Audio CD. (A librarian must request items)

Tran, Ly. House of Sticks. Scribner. 2022.

It’s National Library Week once again, and as always, the best way to support your library is to use your library! At the Commission, we provide Book Club Kits, which are available for any public library or school in Nebraska to use. We have a wide selection of titles available and reading the Book Club Spotlight is a great way to get to know our incredible collection! Today’s Book Club Spotlight, Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga, has been listed as a notable book for the Association for Library Service to Children, a Forbes Best Kids Book of 2019, and a Newbery Honor Book! Half-Jordanian, Warga was inspired by her community to write a story about how love and generosity can transcend country borders through the eyes of a young girl, arriving in America.

Jude is an average girl who enjoys her peaceful and fun life on the coast in Syria. She loves running around with her friend Fatima, and visiting her dad at his store as tourists bustle in and out. Whip-smart and confident, Jude often gets in trouble for talking too much, constantly being told to “skety!” (hush!) Her older brother, Issa, fights with her dad a lot about the future of their country, and Issa even moves out so he can better focus on helping others. Suddenly, their home isn’t so safe anymore. Jude and her pregnant mother move across the Atlantic Ocean to stay with family in far-flung Cincinnati, Ohio. There, Jude has to deal with all the normal middle school problems, but in a whole different country! She makes friends, learns English in her ESL class, and even auditions for the school play! It’s hard being the new kid, and here in the United States, she’s suddenly not so normal anymore. 

Being from Syria, Jude’s first language is Arabic, and to express the expressive and lyrical Arabic language in English, Other Words for Home is written in free verse – meaning that it is written with poetic intent and metaphor that flows rhythmically but doesn’t have to rhyme. This can be a great introduction to readers learning about the different ways to write and tell stories. All ages of Book Club Groups can discuss how even though Jude faces difficulty in her new country, she stays true to herself. Warga hopes young readers will be inspired by Jude’s big dreams, confidence, and love for her culture. Like other middle schoolers, Jude is trying to navigate growing up like anyone else, learning to fit in and find where to call “home”. 

If you’re interested in requesting Other Words for Home for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 10 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Warga, Jasmine. Other Words for Home. Harper Collins. 2019.

“Mad Honey”- a sweet comfort turned poison by the pollinators we thought we could trust. In a small New Hampshire town, beekeeper Olivia McAfee has worked hard to keep her teenage son away from the world’s poison, including her abusive ex-husband. But now Asher’s girlfriend, Lily, is dead, and all fingers point towards him. All the while, Lily’s own story falls back through time, from the day she died to her first meeting with Asher. It was true love. Sure, he could get angry, but it was love- wasn’t it? In the present, Olivia must work through the pain of seeing her child accused of murder, not knowing if she can trust the boy she raised, while mourning for the tender girl they lost.  

Told in dual timelines, Mad Honey shines in one cohesive text, drawn together by the dangerous reality of womanhood. The reader, like Olivia, goes back and forth throughout the novel, unsure of Asher’s innocence, scared that he’s not. But will the truth change the reality of Lily’s fate? A suspenseful novel for mature young adults and adult Book Club Groups, Mad Honey asks how much our identities and the past shape us. And how far would we go to defend a loved one. For fans of Picoult, her recurring character Jacob McAfee from The Pact, Nineteen Minutes, and Salem Falls makes an appearance as the family’s whip-smart lawyer. 

If you’re interested in requesting Mad Honey for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 5 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Picoult, Jodi and Jennifer Finney Boylan. Mad Honey. Ballantine Books, 2022.

Today’s Book Club Spotlight is a beautiful and heart-wrenching story of two nations whose fates are intertwined for better and worse. Of Chinese and Japanese descent, Gail Tsukiyama’s 1994 novel The Samurai’s Garden meditates on the treacherous history between her two cultures and finds humanity in the smallest of places. Traditional Japanese gardens, like those featured in the story, are said to be founded on ancient Chinese gardening techniques. And their unique artistry and storytelling through landscape make them renowned locations of peace and tranquility. This is not unlike the change and peace our Chinese protagonist finds during his time living in rural Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Nanjing (Nanking) Massacre. The recipient of numerous literary awards, Tsukiyama is the current Executive Director of the non-profit WaterBridge Outreach, which provides developing countries with literary material and access to clean water and sanitation.

All the young and able men are off fighting in China for the Japanese Empire, with each loss and success clouding those they have left at home. But despite the war, life goes on in the peaceful seaside village of Tarumi. And nestled on the outskirts of town is Chinese student Stephen, who has come to his family’s summer home to recuperate from tuberculosis. There, he finds a quiet spirituality in Japan that he never had in his busy Hong Kong home, watching as the diligent and quiet groundskeeper Matsu tends tirelessly to the expansive landscape garden. Over the course of a year, amongst the peaceful moss and trees, the story of Matsu and the people of the village come into focus as the pain of the past is superimposed on the pain of the present. Love is forged and lost, while Stephen’s heart is torn by the brutalities his people are facing at the hands of the very country in which he is finding peace.

In The Samurai’s Garden, our main character is sent away from his home to recover from Tuberculosis, far from all he knows. And he is not the only one there who is struggling with the isolation of illness. In a nearby leprosy village, Stephen sees first-hand the repercussions of the historical ostracization of these outcast people, if they even made it that far to begin with. Book Club Groups from teens and above will appreciate the thoughtful discussion on personal survival, honor, and humanity while learning about the different meanings of Japanese gardens which bring the story to life. Tsukiyama explores that while living in turbulent and painful times, we can find peace and beauty in nature and each other, how we can choose kindness and acceptance, even if the world is telling us to turn to hate.

More on Japanese Gardens:

• The Japanese Garden Society: Learn
• Types of Japanese Gardens
  • Matsu’s garden is a Tsukiyama (like the author’s name!)

More about Tuberculosis:

• World Tuberculosis Day (March 24th, 2025)

If you’re interested in requesting The Samurai’s Garden for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 8 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Tsukiyama, Gail. The Samurai’s Garden. St. Martin’s Press. 1994.

Deep in the sugar cane plantations of Barbados, naturalist Christopher Wilde and his newly appointed eleven-year-old manservant Washington Black burst out of the treetops on a flying balloon named ‘The Cloud Cutter’. They are fleeing from Faith plantation, where Washington, a slave, has just witnessed the death of a white man, meaning he could very well be next. The pair journey across the world together, chasing after ghosts, until Washington must take up the mantle and chase after Christopher’s. A whip-smart marine illustrator and aspiring scientist, Washington Black may be physically free from the constraints of slavery, but its history refuses to let him go.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize (which Edugyan would go on to chair in 2023), Washington Black takes a look at what comes after slavery. Young Washington is taken from his world and his family by this White Savior, who ultimately leaves him. Washington, reeling from his abandonment with nothing else in the world, must create his future while facing systemic and racial challenges wherever he goes. Washington has a brilliant mind for marine biology but cannot exist in the same scientific circles as his white counterparts of the 1830s. It simply isn’t done. Even as a free man, slavery has left a mark on his life, physically, emotionally, and in his pursuit of meaning. This adventure novel takes its readers on a trip around the globe. Adult Book Club Groups will explore new locales, meet strange characters, and discuss how our destiny is unwittingly shaped by those around us.

If you’re interested in requesting Washington Black for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 10 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Edugyan, Esi. Washington Black. Vintage. 2019

The prolific author, Caroline B. Cooney is best known for her suspenseful YA books, most notably her 1990 novel, The Face on the Milk Carton. A lifelong learner, when Cooney turned fifty, she moved to Manhattan for school, inspiring the setting for today’s spotlight Code Orange. Cooney’s novel takes place in 2004, a time when the city is still marred by the tragedy of the September 11th attacks, but recovering. Exploring through the eyes of a native New Yorker who feels an immense sense of pride and civic duty, we see how a child’s psyche can be unmistakably shaken by threats on his home, especially when he believes he is the key to the terrorist’s next attack.  

A biology assignment. An old book. An envelope. Scabs turning to dust. Before Mitty Blake can realize what’s happening, he’s possibly infected with one of the world’s oldest and most deadly diseases. Smallpox! Just days ago, Mitty was a laid-back teenager, who didn’t care about schoolwork or history. And now he’s fighting for his life, afraid that he is about to subject New York City and the world to an outbreak that could leave millions dead in its wake, especially if the wrong people were to find out his secret.

Cooney writes in a young teen voice that’s not only realistic but fun! Despite the weight of the world on his shoulders, Mitty is funny, charming, and a little self-deprecating. What makes Code Orange stand out from other YA thrillers, is that commitment to well-researched science. Not only does Cooney include a bibliography at the end, but her work was commended by the National Science Teachers Association as an “Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students K-12”. The reader learns all about smallpox and effective ways to research alongside Mitty as he goes on his adventure. Written in 2005, Code Orange is surprisingly still relevant. Mitty’s fear of quarantine and what viruses can do to the body gives an interesting reflection to the COVID-19 pandemic that would come almost 15 years later. And like in the novel, the CDC is still on guard for threats of smallpox bioterrorism. Students and Adult Book Club Groups can compare how Cooney described the spread of the disease through New York City against how it happened in real-time, and discuss what has and hasn’t changed in the past 20 years regarding how we handle illness, internet safety, and the duty to our home.

• Check out the story that inspired Code Orange

If you’re interested in requesting Code Orange for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 23 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Cooney, Caroline B. Code Orange. Random House. 2005

On October 12th, 1972, a chartered plane of 45 college-aged rugby players and friends crashed deep into the Andes mountains. And 10 weeks later, sixteen would make it home. Among those in the crash were Nando Parrado, his mother, and his sister. But only Parrado would survive. Now a successful businessman, Parrado and his co-author Vince Rause, tell his personal story of the crash in today’s spotlight Miracle in the Andes. Expanding from the famous account, Alive by Piers Paul Read, the pair focus on the emotional toil, and teamwork that got the boys through the most impossible of circumstances instead of the more sensational aspects. Like many of his fellow survivors, Nando now travels as a motivational speaker, relaying his experience of survival and suffering to connect with others and heal emotional wounds. 

“I come from a plane that fell into the mountains.” When Nando Parrado woke up, there was darkness. From an affluent area on the warm coast of Uruguay, he was a member of a rugby team flying to a friendly match in Chile, but now there was only darkness, pain, and incredible cold. Stranded amongst the remains of their plane, the survivors had to brave the freezing Andes wholly unprepared. The looming mountains were no place for them, and they were doomed to be snuffed out if someone didn’t act fast. With his mother and sister now buried beneath the snow, and no rescue in sight, Nando’s sole focus in life was to make it home to his grieving father, even if that meant hiking the vast Andes in rugby cleats. On the mountain, the team had to do the unthinkable to survive in this moving story of perseverance, sacrifice, and love.      

The ill-fated Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 has spawned books, documentaries, and the award-winning movies “Alive” (1993) and “Society of the Snow” (2023). Parrado’s Miracle in the Andes uniquely chronicles the indomitable human spirit in the bleakest conditions. He showcases how the community and camaraderie of the rugby team ultimately kept them alive. And it was because of their humor, strength, friendship, and trust forged on the rugby pitch that they made it home. Parrado’s insights into the human condition and mind during the ordeal are the highlights of this book. While trying to survive the harsh climate, the young men have deep theological and political discussions about life and their Catholic upbringing. Our Book Club copies also feature a 2022 introduction by Parrado and photograph inserts that chronicle their daily lives, their rescue, and beyond. Adventurous Book Clubs will find the moral quandaries presented in this book challenging but captivating. Why do some survive and others do not? Are we obligated to do everything we can to stay alive, even if that means breaking taboo?

Further Listening:

• “You’re Wrong About” Podcast: Survival in the Andes with Blair Braverman

If you’re interested in requesting Miracle in the Andes for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 5 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Parrado, Nando. Miracle in the Andes. Penguin Random House. 2006

Chanel Miller. You might not know her name, but you know her story. Identified only as “Emily Doe”- her Victim Impact Statement has been viewed over 18 million times, translated worldwide, read, and referenced on news stations and the halls of government. In her beautiful and heartbreaking memoir, Know My Name, Miller comes forward for the first time as the sexual assault victim of Brock Turner to tell her story under her own name. This 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award Winner shines with a cover of striking teal laced with cracks of gold, reminiscent of the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi– an act of giving new and beautiful life to what was once broken.

In 2015, Chanel Miller woke up in a hospital bed. Standing over her was a Stanford Dean and a Police Officer- they told her she was found passed out with a man looming over her at a party the night before. Still confused and groggy, Chanel was probed, examined, photographed, and asked if she wanted to press charges without telling her what for. Trying to be helpful… Chanel agreed. What followed was over a year of protracted trial dates and a bloodthirsty media waiting to tear her apart. Her assailant found guilty on all three felony counts of sexual assault, only served three months in county jail. Any longer, and the judge worried that it could affect the “bright future” in store for the ambitious swimmer Brock Turner. Basing the sentencing on a theoretical future and disregarding the real harm he caused to another person with a future of her own.

The case of The People V. Brock Allen Turner sent shockwaves across the United States and college campuses. Pushback from the sentencing led to California enacting laws to expand protections for victims, the people prevailing where the system had not. Through Know My Name, we see the fallout Chanel experiences from agreeing to pursue the case. Feelings of total isolation, threats of violence, and the loss of dignity were thrust upon her by a system crafted against survivors. But her story is also about the love and hope she found in her family, this new community of survivors, and the people working for change.

Luckily, Miller’s story does not begin or end with Brock Turner’s actions that night. She is a daughter, an older sister, and a friend. She is an artist and a writer. She is a young woman in the 21st century. Miller’s story of going through the trial process is fascinating and heartbreaking. She was constantly afraid of saying the wrong thing, being too emotional, or not emotional enough. Her empathy and fear for Turner’s mental state are regarded as actions of passivity. As a survivor, Miller was especially vulnerable; as a young half-Chinese woman with no legal experience, she was taken advantage of by the systems of power. But the people fought back. Book Club Groups who were fans of memoirs like Educated and The Glass Castle can discuss the changing tide of how we react to and define violence towards women and how this novel gives a voice to millions of voiceless people. In Know My Name, Miller is smart, funny, and most of all, human. Holding a BA in Literature, Miller has been surrounded her whole life by incredibly intelligent women writers, and it shines in her own writing. Today, she continues to write and create art with her critically acclaimed 2024 Middle-Grade Fiction Book, Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All.  

More from Chanel Miller:

• Short film: “I Am With You”
• 60 Minutes: “Chanel Miller’s Story“
• Chanel’s Victim Impact Statement (also printed in the book)

If you’re interested in requesting Know My Name or your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 8 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Miller, Chanel. Know My Name. Penguin Random House. 2019

Welcome to November! The holiday season is barreling towards us faster than ever, and somehow we’re already running behind as the New Year creeps in. The holidays and winter in general are notoriously hard on our mental health, leaving many feeling lost and alone. One author I always think of when looking for a story of heart and community, even in the coldest and loneliest days, is Fredrik Backman. Backman is a prolific Swedish author known for his heart-string tugging and bestselling titles such as A Man Called Ove (adapted into a 2022 movie starring Tom Hanks), and Beartown. And today’s Book Club Spotlight features his 2019 book, Anxious People. 

In a small town outside Stockholm, Sweden, eight people viewing an apartment are taken hostage by a bank robbery gone wrong. So wrong, in fact, that the awkward bank robber tried to rob a cashless bank…and then took hostages by accident! Desperately keeping up the charade for the police, the “hostages” and the would-be thief are stuck in the apartment. Each prospective tenant comes to the table with insecurities, stressors, and fears, but here, they are not alone. During their forced proximity, the group learns, and grows from their new relationships, as their pasts and futures intersect in the strangest of circumstances all the while being surrounded by an increasingly confused police force trying to rescue them. 

A common thread in Backman’s work is the importance of community, whether that is of friends, neighbors, or pure strangers. No matter how fleeting an interaction may be, we are all in this together. The titular anxious people in Anxious People face many issues. The pressure of parenthood, financial struggles, marriage breakdown, and an assortment of other loss of connection to those they love. Book Club Groups will undoubtedly find characters to empathize and sympathize with, maybe even learning something about themselves and their fellow members along the way. There is a sentiment going around that I have been particularly fond of: “It’s everyone’s first time living too”. So this season, be kind, be gentle, and like the characters in Anxious People, allow for mistakes (maybe even holding you hostage by accident if you’re feeling especially generous).

This book covers the topic of mental illness and suicide. If you, or someone you know is struggling- chat, text, or call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at https://988lifeline.org/ or dial 988.

To see more of our titles by Fredrik Backman, visit the link here

If you’re interested in requesting Anxious People for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 7 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Backman, Fredrik. Anxious People. Atira Publishing. 2019

Amy Tan’s debut novel, The Joy Luck Club, drifts between the stories of mothers and daughters like the four winds of mahjong. Originally written as disconnected pieces, Tan evolved her work into a sweeping novel of generations, loss, and perseverance. Today’s Book Club Spotlight is extra special because the author is in Lincoln tonight! “A Conversation with Amy Tan” will be hosted at the Lied Center for Performing Arts for free with an accompanying live-stream at 7:30 pm. Her talk is a part of “The 29th Annual Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities”, hosted by Humanities Nebraska and the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues. Tickets and the live stream can be accessed, here: https://tickets.liedcenter.org/3342. 

The Joy Luck Club, a group of Chinese immigrant women who gather for mahjong and community, grow their lives and families together in 1980s San Francisco. When matriarch Suyuan Woo passes away, her daughter Jing-mei is invited to take her mother’s spot at the table. And there she learns a hidden truth about her mother- she never stopped searching for the children she had to abandon in China decades ago, and only now have they been found. Jing-mei struggles with the loss of her mother, someone she feels as if she hardly knew, and the sudden reunification with her resurrected sisters. And in turn, like Suyuan, each daughter and mother of The Joy Luck Club, have kept themselves secret to their loved ones. Hiding difficult and life-defining events as an act of piety or restraint, that could ultimately grow and foster their fraught relationships. 

The Joy Luck Club, while not an all-encompassing narrative of the Chinese Immigrant experience, shows four distinct paths taken. Suyuan Woo who fled from the war and left behind two children and her past. Lindo Jong, who escaped from a tyrannous marriage, believes in personal strength to her daughter’s detriment. An-mei Hsu, a passive player for most of her life, fears that she has bestowed those characteristics on her daughter. And Ying-ying St. Clair, a woman of means and wealth, is forced into poverty and silence, teaches her daughter to expect the same. All women with stories in equal measure, display their unresolved trauma to their daughters through words and actions, creating an endless cycle that must be broken. Tan’s work is essential to American literature (and media!), earning her the National Humanities Medal for “expanding the American literary canon. By bravely exploring experiences of immigrant families, heritage, memories, and poignant struggles”.  Book Club Groups from High School to Adulthood can discuss her dissection of the immigrant experience, womanhood and perseverance, generational trauma, and what do we share with our loved ones? 

If you’re interested in requesting The Joy Luck Club for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 14 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Ballantine Books. 1989

A man of many passions, from music, art, to class consciousness, and social theory, Ralph Waldo Ellison (named after the leader of the Transcendentalist movement), is best known for his contributions to the American literary canon. His sharp satirical works and his contemporary exploration of the varied lives of African Americans pre-Civil Rights earned his place as the first African-American to win the National Book Award for Fiction for his 1952 novel, Invisible Man.

When we meet our narrator, the eponymous Invisible Man, he is living in an abandoned basement of a whites-only apartment in New York City.  He reassures us that this is no hovel, as it glows with a thousand lights of “promise” (and siphoned electricity). And before he was in this shelter, he did live a life full of promise. As a young man, his academic prowess awarded him a chance to speak in front of the town’s white elites. But instead of a simple speech, he is forced into a blinded battle royale with other Black youth; and only once he is debased and beaten bloodless is he allowed to speak. As his life’s journey takes him from his home in the south to New York City, he is struck by how this promised land holds the same prejudices and obstacles to self-actualization. As a disillusioned young man stuck in the perpetual cycle of fighting for liberation, he must put on a respectable front to exist in a world that systemically works against him. 

Not to be confused with the science fiction book of the same name- the invisibility in Ellison’s Invisible Man, is theoretical and social, rather than a physical condition. His unnamed narrator, a bright young Black man in the Jim Crow South, has a promising future that depends on him making himself inoffensive, and inconsequential to the white men who hold power over him. It’s also important to remember that these Black men who had to be “invisible” to the white society, were absolutely not invisible to the women and children in their lives. As we discussed in The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove’s situation is informed by those around her and their treatment by society. Invisible Man was a large influence on Morrison’s work- acting as a conversation point to where she would take those deemed “invisible” and show them in the light that their contemporaries would have seen them. Here, her perspective is just as valuable as Ellison’s.

Invisible Man, while an important piece of American literature, is not an easy read. Taught in AP Literature courses and College-Level Classes, this book demands dissection and close reading. When working with your class, or dedicated Book Club Group, I highly recommend taking advantage of the Cliffs Notes. (Did you know that the founder, Clifton Hillegass, was a lifelong Nebraskan?) Study tools, like Cliffs Notes, are a great accessible tool for modern readers who might lack context for classic literature, and contain thoughtful analysis that assists the reading experience. 

If you’re interested in requesting Invisible Man for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 10 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Random House. 1952