ByGD
So you could say I’m a little bit late on this one. I’ve always had trouble with book clubs. But the Because We’ve Read project is an interesting one that leads me to important works I wouldn’t have read on my own. So I keep trying. Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine was their choice for September, 2018, and I can finally report that I’ve read it.
ByGD
It’s a record! I have stuck with a book club for three books. I’m at least a month late, but I finished the third #BecauseWe’veRead book club choice, Covering Islam. Political-fashion blogger Hoda Katebi started the #BecauseWe’veRead after giving a TV interview. The host replied to a factual statement by Katebi with the claim she “didn’t sound like an American.” Katebi laughed it off with, “That’s because I’ve read!” Then she went home and started a virtual book club about the rest of the world. If “sounding American” means ignorance of facts about the rest of the world, I don’t want to sound American.
Because We’ve Read started with a focus on colonialism: Assata; Black Skin, White Masks; and Covering Islam. I’d been meaning to read Assata for literally decades. Black Skin, White Masks was a challenge. The premise was sound, and there is certainly value in exposure to different perspectives on colonialism and race than the American one. But dense social science language – in translation – and a pre-civil rights movement world view made it feel more like a historical curiosity than significant civil rights work.
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I’ve mentioned my history with book clubs more than once. But I’m trying one more time, with #BecauseWe’veRead, because their inaugural choice, Assata An Autobiography was on my TBR list for literally two decades and this was the push I needed to finally pick it up. Their second choice was a book I’d never heard of, Black Skin, White Masks. But I’m working to fill in the gaps in my reading created by Eurocentric Jesuit education, so I continued with the Because We’ve Read curriculum.
ByGD
I’ve mentioned my history with book clubs more than once. But I’m trying one more time, with #BecauseWe’veRead, and their inaugural choice, Assata An Autobiography. Read More