This month the We the People Book Club is reading what book club curator Julia Davis describes as "remarkably candid reflections on growing up black in America:" James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me.
We invite you to join us in reading these works and to download the now available reading guide, which explores the themes of the condition of whiteness, the condition of blackness, and creation and destruction.
In the reading guide you will also find background on the authors, observations on their literary styles, and an overview of each work. For your personal exploration and/or discussion with others, the guide includes commentary on three themes noted earlier. Questions within each will facilitate approaches to the work that invite:
1. your interpretation of the text
2. your personal reflections inspired by your reading, and
3. practices for you to try that animate the democratic values of the works.
Reading guides are typically available on or near the seventh of each month and are designed for you to use on your own and in book clubs or other group settings.
Learn more about the We the People online practice circle that our partners at Spirituality & Practice run and which you can sign up for at any time ($24).
And consider joining us for these remaining titles:
May: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
June: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
July: The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
August: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston