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Book review committee bans three poetry collections from Brevard school libraries

VIERA, Fla. — A committee voted for the removal of three books of poetry from all public schools in Brevard County on Friday.

What You Need To Know

Friday was the first meeting of the committee since the school board changed the instructional materials policy three books were considered and ultimately voted for removal from all brevard public schools libraries the books were among 30 listed for formal review on the district’s website.

The meeting was the first for the reformed version of the Brevard Public Schools’ Book Reconsideration Committee. The school board spent the past few months updating the instructional materials policy as part of its reevaluation of several district policies.

The new board used to include media specialists who were voting members, but a majority of the board voted to remove them.

The only voting members are those who are appointed by the school board:

• Ashley Hall — appointed by board vice chair Megan Wright
• Michelle Beavers — appointed by board member Gene Trent
• Paul Roub — appointed by board member Jennifer Jenkins
• Sheri-Lynn Diskin — appointed by board chair Matt Susin
• Michael Howell — appointed by Katye Campbell

The three books up for discussion were books of poems by New York Times Bestselling author Rupi Kaur : Milk and Honey (2014), The Sun and Her Flowers (2017), and Home Body (2020). Following an appearance on MSNBC earlier in the week, Kaur responded on Twitter to the backlash that her books have received in the last year or so.

It’s alarming that 3 of my books are banned in some school districts in America simply because they explore a young girl’s experience of sexual assault and that my first book ‘milk and honey’ is in the top 11 most banned books in America during this last school term. https://t.co/119uHai1yM — rupi kaur (@rupikaur_) May 28, 2023

The first book up for discussion on Friday was Milk and Honey , a book tied for nineth place on a list of the “Most banned books in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year,” according to an analysis by non-profit PEN America.

Karen Colby, the woman who brought for the book challenge along with the other two, said she was inspired to bring the challenge by another school district.

“I saw these books mentioned at another school board meeting and because I didn’t believe that a book could be bad enough to take off the shelf, I picked these three because I thought they were kind of sneaking under the radar,” Colby said.

She had 10 minutes per title to list her reasoning for each request for removal. She read aloud a number of passages containing material she found objectionable and deemed inappropriate for students of all ages at Brevard Public Schools.

“I really empathize with this author, but I do not believe that the pornographic material belongs in our schools,” Colby said. “It says clearly under the new law that Governor DeSantis put in, he said, very clearly, that we need to have the appropriate material, age appropriate.”

Two of the five committee members, Hall and Beavers, latched onto the idea that the illustrations and some of the text were more than enough to warrant removal. The idea of keeping them for students who are 18-years-old was suggested, but ultimately rejected.

“I don’t think this is appropriate for children. This is not a healing moment. This is not a ‘going to save me from grooming’ moment. This is designed to sexually excite you and this is against our rules. It’s as simple as that,” Beavers said after reading an excerpt from Milk and Honey .  

Part of “the rules” Beavers was referring to were parts of Florida’s media specialist training that was sent out by the Florida Department of Education in January. It describes the law against certain material that is “harmful to minors.”

That phrase is defined in Section 847.012, F.S. as needing such a description or representation to meet three requirements:

• Predominantly appeal to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest;
• Be patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors; and
• Taken as a whole, the material is without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

Of the roughly 20 parents and students who attended Friday’s meeting, half spoke during public comment, including high school student Josephine Griffith, who said having access to Milk and Honey was helpful for her own experience with sexual abuse.

“This book helped me come out about the crimes that were committed. I don’t understand why this is inappropriate for teenage girls and boys. This is another example of schools trying to suppress our emotions,” Griffith said.

Roub, who voted in favor of keeping all three books, appealed to the longevity of removing a book and argued that there are solutions for addressing the age appropriateness of a title without keeping it from everyone.

“Whatever decision we make here today lasts for eight years with no appeal, but let’s not say ‘banning’ because that will ruffle some feathers,” Roub said. “There are approaches we can take that don’t involve deciding what other people’s kids don’t read.”

Ultimately, all three books were voted to be removed by a majority of the committee. They were three out of 32 titles listed on the Brevard Public Schools website as in the pipeline for official review.

According to Dr. Stephanie Soliven, the assistant superintendent for secondary leading and learning, all books that are moved forward for formal review are pulled from school shelves pending the outcome.

The next title set for review is A Court of Misty and Fury by Sarah Maas, the second in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, which will be discussed on June 30. Four of the five books in that series are set for formal review.

The upcoming books that have review dates are:

• Sold by Patricia McCormick (2006)
• Tilt by Ellen Hopkins (2012)
• Tricks by Ellen Hopkins (2009)

September 22

• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2003)
• The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed (2017)
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas (2015)
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (1999)

See the full list pending review here and watch the full meeting below:

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FCPS book review extended; four titles still up in the air

Jun. 20—A Frederick County Public Schools committee charged with reviewing 35 challenged library books has reached a consensus on all but four of them, officials said.

But the 59 parents, teachers, students and experts on the review committee determined that four of the books require further discussion.

That means the committee's work — and the public release of its decisions — will take longer than expected.

An announcement on the fate of all the books is "expected early in the 2023-24 school year," according to a news release FCPS sent to the community last week. The school year begins Aug. 23.

The review committee was announced in December of last year, after the district received complaints that the books contained inappropriate material. Members convened in March and met five times.

Kevin Cuppett, FCPS' executive director of curriculum, instruction and innovation, wrote in an email Tuesday that the committee has reached a consensus on what should happen to 31 of the books.

The other four books are being assigned to new subcommittees, each of which will have at least 11 members, the FCPS news release said.

Those subcommittees — whose members will be chosen from the existing pool of main committee members — will meet, deliberate and make final recommendations in July.

Three of the four books still in question are novels: "Triangles" by Ellen Hopkins, plus "A Court of Silver Flames" and "Kingdom of Ash" by Sarah J. Maas, FCPS spokesperson Brandon Oland wrote in an email.

The fourth is a nonfiction book called "Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human" by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan.

Once committee members have made a final decision on all 35 books, their recommendations will be compiled and delivered to FCPS Deputy Superintendent Mike Markoe.

Markoe, in turn, will make a recommendation to FCPS Superintendent Cheryl Dyson, who has the final say.

Cindy Rose, a former school board candidate who submitted a complaint about the 35 titles, said she compiled the list using ratedbooks.org , which launched a campaign to ban what it deemed to be "pornographic" books from Utah schools, according to its site.

Some of the books on the list have faced similar challenges in school districts across the U.S.

The vast majority of the titles are only available in high school libraries, according to FCPS' online catalogue. Three are available in traditional middle schools, and seven are available at Heather Ridge School, a nontraditional facility for students with behavioral challenges that serves both middle and high schoolers.

The books span a range of genres and subjects. Many are romance novels written for young adults.

The review committee's meetings were closed to the public.

Follow Jillian Atelsek on Twitter: @jillian_atelsek

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Lawmakers enter book review picture as New Hanover proposal creates debate

Efforts to ban or restrict certain books, movies and other media deemed inappropriate by some are gaining momentum nationwide, including in New Hanover County. But new plans at the state level might stop the county's school system in its tracks before local leaders can enact any new policy.

Instances of book bans rose 28% nationally in the first half of the 2022-23 school year, though incidents of bans both in North Carolina and New Hanover County have been rare, according to Pen America and New Hanover County Schools.

Still, a proposal to create a book review committee in New Hanover County was introduced last month by Board of Education member Melissa Mason.

Mason’s proposal sparked a contentious debate in Wilmington about parental rights and how to adjudicate what’s appropriate for certain groups. However, an attempt by state officials to implement a unilateral solution currently working its way through the state legislature might force an end to the local debate.

What's being proposed locally?

• Mason introduced her book review committee proposal at April’s regular meeting of the New Hanover County Board of Education.
• Mason’s initial plan called for the creation of a mostly-parent/community member committee, which would have the power to deem what’s appropriate for New Hanover County Schools' 25,000-some families. The committee would comprise a non-voting school board member, one teacher, one media specialist (who couldn’t vote) and seven parents and/or county residents.
• The plan was just a proposal, and no vote was taken. However, the issue of banning books and Mason’s plan were major topics of conversation at both the April school board meeting and the district’s spring town hall.

More: School board member 'disturbed' by books in school libraries, calls for review committee

Here's what state lawmakers are proposing

• Efforts to enact a book review committee have been put on hold while local officials wait to see what state lawmakers do. Specifically, school board members are focused on a new policy included in the 2023 North Carolina House budget that would direct every local board of education to form “community media advisory committees.”
• The proposed policy calls for local school boards to form committees whose job would be to “… investigate and evaluate challenges from parents, teachers and members of the public to instructional materials and supplemental materials on the grounds that they are unfit material.”
• At minimum, the committees would be made up of principals, teachers, librarians and parents from high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. Individuals could file challenges with the committee, who would then judge a piece of content on whether its potentially obscene, inappropriate for the age, maturity or grade level of students and/or whether it's “… aligned with the standard course of study.”
• After the committee comes to a decision, it would make a recommendation to the local school board, which at its next meeting would decide whether the challenge has enough merit for the school system to remove that material. If the school board votes against the challenge, an appeal would be filed with the “State Community Media Advisory Committee,” which would also be created by the 2023 house budget.

More: Wilmington-made Disney movie at center of Florida controversy after parent complains

What’s next

• The 2023 Appropriations Act passed through the North Carolina House of Representative in early April and passed its first reading in the state senate on April 10. The bill passed by wide margins in the state house, and has support of local representatives Charles Miller and Ted Davis Jr.

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Applications open for Fresno County’s ‘community standards’ library book review committee

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What's at stake?

LGBTQ+ advocates say the effort could have an outsized affect on books about reproductive health and gender identity.

Fresno County residents have one more month to apply for a new, controversial committee charged with reviewing library books to ensure they “meet community standards.”

Books that don’t meet those standards– which the new committee will adopt –won’t be removed from Fresno County Public Libraries, county officials have said. Instead, the books will be available for children to check out with explicit permission from a parent or guardian.

The Community Parent and Guardian Review Committee  will “maintain a list of books and materials that have been deemed not to meet community standards and are thereby subject to parental or guardian consent provisions,” according to the committee’s bylaws, which the  Board of Supervisors formally adopted  March 19.

The bylaws state that the list of not-quite-banned books will be posted at each of the library’s 34 branches across Fresno County.

The ACLU of Northern California opposed the committee in a  Nov. 6 letter to the Board of Supervisors  outlining numerous potential issues, including that the review committee would disproportionately affect books on reproductive health, gender identity and sexual orientation.

“Courts across the country have found that restricting access to books is a form of censorship and legally is not a different question than book banning or book censoring,” Chessie Thacher, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU,  told Fresnoland in an interview in November.

Fresno County Supervisor Steve Brandau has pushed back hard against such criticism of the library book review committee. In an interview with Fresnoland last year, Brandau insisted the resolution creating the committee does not target the LGBTQ+ community.

“I went to great lengths to make sure that I personally wasn’t targeting them,”  Brandau told Fresnoland .

Despite those concerns and others voiced in a  large letter-writing campaign  opposing the committee, the  county supervisors narrowly approved the committee  on a 3-2 vote. Supervisor Steve Brandau, who led the effort to establish the review board, was supported by Buddy Mendes and Nathan Magsig, while Supervisors Brian Pacheco and Sal Quintero opposed the committee’s formation.

In noting their opposition, Pacheco called the committee a slippery slope while Quintero noted the county library already had a complaint policy for community members who find potentially offensive material.

Each supervisor will appoint two people to the committee and the county’s chief administrative officer will appoint the 11th committee member.  Applications for the Community Parent and Guardian Review Committee are available online .

The application period closes April 26, Robert Jeffers, Brandau’s chief of staff, confirmed Tuesday.

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Petitioners seek to repeal children’s book review board in Huntington Beach

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Huntington Beach has received significant pushback following a City Council majority’s decision to form a review committee for children’s books at the public library.

A new chapter has arrived, as some residents plan to circulate a petition to gain support for a ballot initiative that would repeal the ordinance that established the committee.

Organizers filed a notice of intention to circulate the petition on Wednesday at City Hall.

“We’re very concerned about what’s been happening with our local library,” said Cathey Ryder, co-founder of Protect Huntington Beach. “For that reason, today, I filed a notice of intention to circulate a petition, where we will repeal Ordinance 4318. … We believe that parents should be able to parent their own children.”

The ordinance creates a committee of up to 21 parents or guardians, who would make determinations regarding the children’s books purchased and placed on the shelves at the library.

Criticism of the ordinance included questions surrounding the qualifications of members who would serve on the review committee, the duration of their appointments and the inability to appeal decisions made by the committee, which would be considered final.

Each council member would have the ability to appoint up to three members of the review board.

Ryder said there are about 300 volunteers ready to circulate the petition once it has been prepared, and she feels confident the group will be able to achieve a target of approximately 30,000 signatures.

There have been additional steps taken to raise public awareness of the issue, Ryder said. Those efforts include Friday night rallies at the Main Street Branch Library, where the organizers have also handed out informational fliers, and a “read in” event at the Huntington Beach Central Library.

Barbara Richardson said the city has had conservative councils before the most recent four that comprise the majority were elected in 2022, but this is the first time she felt the library was not being supported. Formerly a children’s librarian at the Huntington Beach Central Library, Richardson said the City Council is “vilifying the librarians and the library staff.”

“What this committee does is taking away the librarians’ ability to order books,” Richardson said. “This committee has been told to judge the books by community standards, but what are these standards? Who gets to decide what these standards are? These committee members will be appointed by our City Council.

“We have four ultra-conservative, far-right council members, and three more liberal council members. It’s a majority-rule committee, so naturally, the conservative committee members are going to choose what books the children can read in the community — not the librarians, not individual parents.”

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Rockingham County School Board approves book review policy

R OCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) - Rockingham County School Board held a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, April 22nd. On the agenda: a formal policy on how the county will review content children have access to in schools, particularly books.

An initial draft of the book review policy was proposed in March, but today’s meeting made it official in a 4-1 vote, with Dist. 1 representative Jackie Lohr as the dissenting vote.

The policy follows two procedures, one for sexually explicit content complaints and one for challenged materials.

A content review committee will review all complaints citing sexually explicit material. This committee will include a librarian, the Assistant Superintendent, Supervisor of English and four other parents or community members. For non-sexually explicit material, parents can meet with principals and file a formal complaint. Then, the principal will chair a committee consisting of two parents and three staff members. If a conclusion isn’t reached, it is up to the Superintendent to decide whether or not the content violates the rules.

Passionate community members awaited their turn at the podium during the public comment portion of the meeting. While some speakers were in support of the board, many were not.

“I want to applaud and thank the school board for taking up the issues that mattered to voters in 2023,” said Joan Hughes, a former teacher and parent.

Teachers and parents have signed documents stating their displeasure with the board. One document has over 500 signatures from parents, guardians and grandparents of students in Rockingham County.

“We implore the school board to heed our concerns and work towards fostering a more collaborative and inclusive educational environment,” read Ashley Gordon-Becker. “Our collective future depends on it.”

After the board removed 57 books library books from shelves on January 8th, students have held walkouts, parents for and against the bans have spoken out and eyes have turned toward the school board. The new policy is supposed to provide clarity on how the board decides whether or not to remove a book.

4 members approved to sit on controversial book review committee approved by League City Council

LEAGUE CITY, Texas -- Despite protests from residents, League City City Council members have approved at least four of the seven members that will make up a controversial book review committee .

The video above is from a previous report.

The overview

On June 27, council narrowly voted in favor of the following members to the new Community Standards Review Committee:

• Former League City City Council Member Todd Kinsey as chairperson
• Resident Laura Teatsworth as a member
• Resident Luann Shupp as a member
• Resident Leslie McKennan as a member.

RELATED: League City council members approve review committee for challenged library books

The committee's makeup will include three library board members, three residents and one chairperson who will vote only in the event of a tie. Many of the same people who protested the committee's creation also spoke against approving only four members of the board instead of all seven members at once.

What they're saying

A couple of residents who spoke out against approving the members said the four proposed committee members are all white, over 50 and Republican. Such members lack the diversity of the city, protesting residents said.

However, Mayor Nick Long said only five qualified candidates even applied for the committee. Four of those ended up as recommendations after Long checked their references.

These four will eventually join three others in reviewing Helen Hall Library books residents flag as potentially offensive or inappropriate to determine if they need to be reshelved or removed.

The backstory

Council in late February passed an ordinance approving the creation of the committee . Before council approved the ordinance, several residents protested, calling the committee government overreach and an attempt to ban books.

Katherine Swanson, a vocal opponent of the committee's creation, said she applied for the role along with a peer. Both called their references, none of which said they were contacted by city officials regarding their committee applications.

RELATED: League City Council passes resolution to restrict public library content to minors

Swanson and others called into question how the four committee members were selected.

"Obviously, the board is stacked," said Marika Fuller, a League City resident who also opposed the committee's creation.

Long said the four proposed members are extremely qualified, not his friends and weren't selected for political reasons. Long said they were not selected on the basis of race or age, either.

"I think if you spent time and talked to those people, I think you would quickly, quickly realize that," he said.

Additionally, the reason only four members were considered June 27 is because none of the library board members had applied despite Long asking them to twice, he said.

"I'd asked for applications from the library board. Nobody submitted," Long said.

RELATED: Experts say Texas' excessive ban on books is 'harmful to students'

What's next

Council will approve three library board members to the committee likely at next meeting, after at least three apply, Long said.

After all members have been approved, all seven will be sworn in, he said.

This article comes from out ABC13 partners at Community Impact Newspaper.

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Fresno County adopts new committee to review children’s books at public libraries

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a resolution to create a review committee for children’s books in county libraries.

The new committee will be tasked with removing books — containing information about sexual orientation and gender identity — from the children’s sections to be placed elsewhere in the library.

The resolution passed with a 3-2 vote, largely because of last-minute amendments by its author, Supervisor Steve Brandau, after criticism on the dais from fellow Supervisor Buddy Mendes. As a formality, the resolution, which was also supported by Supervisor Nathan Magsig, will be confirmed with another vote on a consent agenda item at a future meeting.

Supervisor Brian Pacheco voted against the resolution, calling a review committee on books a slippery slope. Supervisor Sal Quintero also voted against the resolution after confirming with Interim County Librarian Sally Gomez at the Tuesday meeting that the Fresno County Public Library already has a book reconsideration request procedure for patrons who object to anything in its catalog.

The review committee on children’s books would not have the power to remove or ban books from Fresno County’s libraries. However, exactly where the books would go after being removed from library children’s sections is yet to be decided. County staff will now begin drafting the bylaws and guidelines of the review committee following Tuesday’s vote .

Brandau stressed that his proposal does not target any single community — including the LGBTQ community — despite using “controversial and complex gender questions” as part of the basis to shift books away from children’s sections in Fresno County libraries, along with anything else the review committee could deem objectionable.

“I went to great lengths to make sure that I personally wasn't targeting them,” Brandau told Fresnoland in a Monday afternoon phone call. When asked if he spoke with any LGBTQ advocacy organizations in Fresno County, he acknowledged he hadn’t.

He said he did speak with a handful of LGBTQ individuals in Fresno County, but acknowledged they didn’t leave those conversations content with his proposal.

Brandau also said he hadn’t met or requested to meet with any librarians at the Fresno County Public Library, but said he met with former county librarian Raman Bath twice in the last four months. He told Fresnoland that he wanted to respect a chain of command, which consisted of sending inquiries to County Administrative Officer Paul Nerland, who would then find answers for him from library management.

Brandau pushed back against questions about the rigor of his research and engagement with the county library, adding that his proposal will beef up current library procedures.

Could Brandau’s resolution violate the First Amendment?

Besides Brandau’s proposal leaving LGBTQ community members feeling targeted and unheard, concerns over whether this new proposal violates the First Amendment have also entered the fray.

On Monday, the ACLU of Northern California, the First Amendment Coalition, the Freedom to Read Foundation and PEN America sent a letter to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors calling for the resolution to be rejected.

The letter spelled out a range of objections to Brandau’s proposal, noting that the First Amendment protects the public’s right to receive information in public libraries without government interference; speech does not lose its Constitutional protections simply because of alleged sexual or controversial content; the proposal would have a disparate impact on books about gender identity, sexual orientation and reproductive health.

“He is creating a resolution that will censor and restrict access to books,” said Chessie Thacher, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU. “Courts across the country have found that restricting access to books is a form of censorship and legally is not a different question than book banning or book censoring.”

She added that the resolution does not empower parents in Fresno County, rather it empowers a select group of unelected, hand-picked members of a committee to have an outsized influence to make major decisions that impact Fresno County’s 34 library branches.

Rules and procedures already in place

The Board of Supervisors chambers on Tuesday was filled with community members, such that more members of the public were kept from entering the Fresno County Hall of Records building in downtown Fresno, many of whom gathered to speak out on Brandau’s proposal.

Quintero, the board’s chair, limited public comment on the matter to 20 minutes, after holding up a thick wad of printed correspondence the board received on Brandau’s resolution. Some of the people who spoke during public comment were in support of Brandau’s proposal, but most were against it.

“When challenged at his press conference the other day, that gender identity is not sexual or controversial, Supervisor Brandau responded: 'That's your opinion' — and that is exactly the point,” said Michelle Gordon, who worked at Fresno County’s libraries for nine years until she resigned in September. “What you deem as inappropriate — it is not up to you to decide for me; it is not up to a committee.”

After the Tuesday vote, Gordon told Fresnoland that she resigned from her county library role as Collection Development Manager because of what she said was county officials' refusal to understand existing rules and procedures at the library.

“Raman even offered me to Supervisor Brandau for a sit-down meeting so that I can actually explain the processes that the library has and he declined,” Gordon said. “The board also declined presentations from the library about our processes and the safeguards that are already in place for these kinds of things. They didn’t want any information from us.”

Some of those rules include how kids under 13 need parental approval to get a library card , and kids under 8 years of age are not allowed to be unaccompanied inside Fresno County’s libraries . Up until 2019, that extended to all kids 12 or younger .

Additionally, the library also already has a process for book reconsideration requests — Gordon knows because she was solely in charge of it since 2020.

Interim Fresno County Librarian Sally Gomez attended the Nov. 7 Fresno County Board of Supervisors meeting, where she confirmed to Supervisor Sal Quintero that the Fresno County Public Library already has a book reconsideration request procedure for patrons who object to anything in its catalog. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland Brandau denied any knowledge of a proposed meeting with Gordon, and said either a request was never made, or his staff did not make him aware of any request.

“He's trying to put processes in place with no understanding of what actually happens when it comes to selecting books and displaying books and putting books on the shelves,” Gordon said. “I'm not sure how you can justify his plan when he doesn't have the information about how the library works.”

She added that Brandau’s resolution would give power to a group of people who do not have the same training and professional qualifications that librarians have — which includes having a master's degree in library and information science.

She added that her resignation came after reading the writing on the wall, and realizing that she would not be able to continue in her role at the library under Fresno County officials waging what she sees as a political fight over books.

This article first appeared on Fresnoland and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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“Dear Committee Members,” by Julie Schumacher

By Katy Waldman

I would like to put in a good word for “ Dear Committee Members ,” by Julie Schumacher. The novel is a comic aria of crankiness, disillusionment, and futility, which unfolds in the form of letters of recommendation from Jason Fitger, a beleaguered English professor at the aptly named Payne University. Fitger is a virtuoso of the form. While his own scholarship and novel writing languishes, he churns out dozens upon dozens of L.O.R.s per year: for students (“the poor kid . . . can read and write; he’s not unsightly; and he doesn’t appear to be addicted to illegal substances prior to 3:00 p.m.”), colleagues (“I’ll get around to my evaluation of Professor Ali. But I have a few other things on my mind”), and perfect strangers (“I have known Ms. DeRueda for eleven minutes, ten of which were spent in a fruitless attempt to explain to her that I write letters of recommendation only for students who have signed up for and completed one of my classes.”) The book, which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor, feels a bit like what “Breaking Bad” might have been had Vince Gilligan popped an Ativan, hired Sam Lipsyte and Richard Russo for the script, and focussed on Walter White’s gradual feralization as an unappreciated chemistry teacher.

But the novel is also strangely affecting: Fitger has a big heart, despite his dyspepsia. Letters of recommendation intend to make something happen, not necessarily to tell the truth. (The same can apply to personal correspondence, although the truth often retaliates by intruding where it is unwanted.) Fitger’s missives pull something from more intimate epistolary genres: love letters, poison-pen notes. They are at once inescapably authored and achingly unmediated. Consumable in quick bites, “Dear Committee Members” is ideal for paging through, outside, in the sunshine, while observing the people on your street.

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Mat-Su creates new challenged-book committee nominated by borough mayor

Mat-Su Borough manager Mike Brown, left, and mayor Edna DeVries listen during testimony at an assembly meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023 in Palmer. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

PALMER — A new citizen committee will take over the review of challenged books in Matanuska-Susitna Borough library collections after the suspension of a prior committee amid chaotic public hearings.

The Borough Assembly voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to create a seven-member committee made up of borough residents nominated by Borough Mayor Edna DeVries and approved by the Assembly. No members of the new committee are required to be librarians or have expertise in literature or books.

The new body replaces the longstanding challenged material review committee that included librarians and members of the borough’s library advisory panel selected by the borough’s recreation manager.

The change affects borough libraries in Big Lake, Talkeetna, Trapper Creek, Willow and Sutton. City-operated libraries in Palmer and Wasilla have their own challenged-book review systems.

There are currently no protested books in borough libraries awaiting review, officials said this week.

Signs posted on the young adult shelves at the Big Lake public library clarify the section is designed for children ages 16 and 17. (Amy Bushatz / ADN)

The new borough committee and member selection process was proposed by three Assembly members: Dee McKee, whose district includes portions of Wasilla and Palmer; Dmitri Fonov, whose district includes Wasilla; and Robert Bernier, whose district includes Trapper Creek. Other votes in favor also came from Bill Gamble, whose district includes Big Lake, and Robert Yundt, whose district includes Wasilla.

Unlike the previous committee, which conducted book reviews as hearings without public comment and relied on input from librarians, the new committee will be made up of borough residents chosen by the mayor “for their expertise and knowledge of the community,” according to a memo accompanying the proposal.

The committee is designed to give the community control over whether children have access to books some members of the public consider too sexual rather than leave that decision entirely up to librarians who may have had a hand in selecting those books to start with, several Assembly members said Tuesday.

“What I hope it brings is commonsense policies and procedures (and) gets rid of self-policing,” Yundt said.

Voting no were members Stephanie Nowers, whose district includes Palmer, and Tim Hale, whose district includes Butte.

Nowers and Hale both said they do not support the new committee because the member selection process politicizes whether books that some view as problematic should remain on shelves.

“Any committee that is appointed by people at this table is inherently political,” Hale said during the meeting.

Signs originally posted in late November along the young adult area of the Wasilla library notify users of a temporary change to the section’s target audience. The decision to post the signs is part of an ongoing controversy over library books in the Mat-Su. Photographed Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. (Amy Bushatz / ADN)

The Assembly’s formation of a new committee marks the latest in a series of book policy debates across Mat-Su including Wasilla’s temporary relabeling of the “young adult” section as “adult” and a school district review of dozens of challenged books that’s prompted a lawsuit.

[ As efforts to ban books ramp up in Alaska, so do campaigns against censorship ]

The new borough book review committee will meet at least quarterly to review challenged materials, allow public comment, and make recommendations through a “scoring card” that Borough Manager Mike Brown said is still under development. The committee’s recommendations will be sent to the community development director for a final decision.

The new borough process comes after Brown indefinitely suspended the previous challenged materials policy when a January book review meeting ended in chaos . Unlike other recent borough meetings on contested books, Tuesday’s meeting remained calm, with little audience clapping and no unruly outbursts over almost two hours of public comment.

Mary Revetta, who regularly testifies about books she considers obscene, on Tuesday said she sees the new citizens’ committee as a win because it gives the community a stronger voice in the reconsideration process.

“I feel like it was a touchdown,” she said. “I am elated that it passed.”

Others worried the new committee will cause violations of personal freedoms because the committee’s reliance on hand-picked community members who are not required to have any library expertise allows a review process that can more easily discriminate against individual titles, they said.

“A library provides free and equal access to informations for everyone,” said Mary Robinson, a Wasilla resident who regularly testifies in support of keeping all current library books on shelves. “It’s your business what book you take out of the library, and why you’re reading it is no one else’s business. It’s as simple as that.”

The borough’s citizen advisory committee is modeled on a similar 11-member Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District committee the school board assembled last year.

That group is tasked with examining 56 challenged books to determine whether volumes qualify as “indecent material” under state law, and whether they should remain on all shelves, be removed entirely, or restricted to secondary schools only.

The school’s committee has made recommendations on 23 books. Based on those recommendations, the school board voted in late February to remove the romance novel “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover from all school libraries. In late March they voted to remove the novels “Verity,” also by Colleen Hoover, and “Call Me By Your Name” by André Aciman.

An ongoing lawsuit filed last year in U.S. District Court in Anchorage by the ACLU of Alaska and the Northern Justice Project on behalf of eight Mat-Su students contends the district violated students’ constitutional rights with the removal of those challenged books from library shelves ahead of the committee’s review.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason on Monday heard arguments on a motion requiring district officials to return books to library shelves pending a final decision on the suit. Gleason has not yet issued a ruling.

Amy Bushatz

Amy Bushatz is a veteran journalist based in the Mat-Su covering Valley news for the ADN.

Brevard Public Schools approves book review policy; not known when committee will resume

Refresh for live updates on tuesday night's meeting..

Brevard's school board elected Megan Wright as its chairperson at a Tuesday night meeting.

Despite two policies on the agenda related to instructional materials, which allow the book review committee to resume, Gene Trent, newly elected board vice chair, made a move to adopt a state-curated list of 298 books to ban.

The board discussed accepting the move, with the caveat that they would only ban books already challenged in Brevard. However, it ultimately failed. They later approved two book-related policies.

Early in the meeting, the board voted to elect Wright as chairperson to replace Matt Susin, and Gene Trent as vice chairperson to replace Wright. Susin was chosen as board chair about a year ago, at the first meeting held with newly elected board members Wright and Trent. Katye Campbell had also just been re-elected for a second term. It was at that meeting that the newly elected board forced the resignation of Mark Mullins, BPS' former superintendent.

This board meeting was the second-to-last school board meeting of the year, with the final meeting scheduled for Dec. 12 at 5:30 p.m.

Book review policies approved; unknown when committee will resume

The board unanimously approved two policies related to books and other instructional materials. The approval of these policies allows the book review committee to resume meetings, though it was not immediately known when they would begin meeting.

The review committee will read challenged books, then present recommendations regarding whether or not to remove a book from school libraries to the school board.

Mom Kelly Kervin spoke to the board prior to the approval of these policies, asking the board to read the books as well.

"If you’re going to ban books that our students need and should have access to, then you should have to read them yourselves," she said.

Arming teachers hot topic after Susin said 'nobody has talked about it'

Though Susin told the audience ahead of time that arming teachers would not be a topic during the meeting, public comment was split between discussions of book banning and guns, with 14 out of 27 people speaking against the use of guns during public comment. No one spoke in favor of it.

Samantha Kervin, a high school student, brought up concerns about a student potentially overpowering a teacher and taking their gun if they were to be armed.

“Who’s to say someone isn’t going to take a gun and go berserk because they can?” she said.

Some saw the banning of books and the use of guns as related issues, questioning how the board could worry about the content of a book but consider allowing teachers to carry guns.

“Why are you so scared of books and not guns?" said Amy Roub, wife of book review committee member Paul Roub. "Because you just don’t pay attention to the data.”

Roub, who played a recording from the prior board meeting of Wright discussing arming staff — including teachers — was cut off after using an expletive.

Prior to public comment, Susin said that the idea of arming teachers was "perpetuated by a news organization and an off-the-wall organization."

He added that he attempted to quell rumors about arming teachers and that BPS was not considering arming teachers.

"Nobody has talked about it," he said.

Wright discussed arming staff, including teachers, at the previous board meeting .

State-curated list of banned books considered in place of review committee

6:49 p.m. Editor's note: This entry was corrected to reflect updated information.

Trent proposed adopting a state-curated list of books to be removed rather than adopting a new book review committee process, saying the process of removing books needed to be sped up. The item was not on the agenda.

"We hear you, and we need to streamline some things," Trent said.

The list, which contains 298 books, would bar these titles from school libraries and classrooms except in the case of AP curriculum requiring them. They would also be added to a "do not buy" list.

“There’s never a wrong time to do the right thing,” Trent said. “These books have already been looked at … we need to move forward. We owe it to the public.”

Though Campbell opposed the adoption of the list, saying it was not fair to bring it up when it was not on the agenda, Board Attorney Paul Gibbs advised that the public has had sufficient time to comment on book removals.

Susin moved to amend Trent's motion to remove only books that had been challenged in Brevard.

Even with the amendment, Campbell stood against the adoption of the list, saying she wasn’t comfortable accepting a list she had not reviewed.

"I do appreciate the (amendment) ... because I don't want to do what Clay is doing, and I don't want to do what Martin is doing, I want to do what Brevard is doing," she said, adding that they would be voting on a policy related to the book review process Tuesday night regardless.

Jenkins also opposed the adoption of the list, reading several of the books off the list, which included "Anne Frank's Diary" and “The Little Rock Nine.”

"If you really cared about keeping our children safe, you would worry about many other things than books," Jenkins said.

Members of the audience interrupted the meeting multiple times with a mix of laughs and jeers at the board's remarks. At one point, members erupted into applause and shouts about wanting children to have access to books.

"I really wish you guys would stop, because you guys are just hindering government," Wright said to the audience after they applauded.

She then disputed the idea that the district was banning books and said they're going to have to take the new book review policy back to policy making, and may have to do so every 60 days.

Ultimately, the amended motion did not pass, and the list was not adopted.

The book review process, adopted in April, was paused in June after the board brought up concerns about book committee members being harassed.

Megan Wright selected as board chairperson, Trent vice chair

Upon the start of the election portion of the meeting, Susin nominated Wright for chairperson immediately. No other members were nominated. All members were in favor of her nomination with the exception of Jennifer Jenkins.

A short recess was held prior to the selection of a vice chairperson, after which Jenkins nominated Campbell, but the nomination failed with Wright, Trent and Susin in opposition. Trent was then nominated and selected, with Jenkins in opposition.

Meeting begins with Titusville High ROTC demonstration

The school board meeting began with the pledge of allegiance led by a member of Titusville High School's Reserve Officers' Training Corps. This was followed with demonstrations led by the cadets.

The board is set to elect a new board chair following demonstrations.

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at   321-290-4744  or   [email protected] . X:  @_ finchwalker .

White Book Review Committee

The Executive Committee appoints a White Book Review Committee to thoroughly examine all aspects of the Honor System in the 2023-2024 academic year, and every third year thereafter. The members of the WBRC are:

Margaret Thompson '24U, Chair Sam Haines '25U Chip Sweeney '25L Carter Gleason '27U Palmer Van Tuyl '25U Lesley Alvarado-Millan '26L Aliya Gibbons '26U Frankie Maloof '25U Max Blumenthal '24L

The White Book Review Committee shall ascertain the opinions of those in the Washington and Lee community regarding all aspects of the Honor System. The White Book Review Committee shall report periodically to the Executive Committee.

The White Book Review Committee shall submit to the Executive Committee a comprehensive report on the state of the Honor System as well as proposals for any changes to the White Book and all other recommendations that the White Book Review Committee deems appropriate by March 1, or at a date agreed upon by the White Book Review Committee and the Executive Committee.

Further information regarding the WBRC can be found in the white book .

Please reach out to EC President Martha Ernest ( [email protected] ) or WBRC Chair Margaret Thompson ( [email protected] ) with any questions.

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The 24 Best Book Club Books for Your Next Group Read

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There are competing theories about how to pick the best book club book. When I nobly started a book club in my early 20s, I had grand ambitions of filling in the holes in my undergrad education. I think we started with Confessions of Zeno . Years later, I joined what had been dubbed the “high-low club,” a group that used the gathering as an excuse to read some of the mass-market fiction that was dominating the bestseller lists. I think the first book that group read was Fifty Shades of Grey. A decade later, that’s the group I still meet with every month, and it’s solidified allegiances with some people I now consider my closest friends.

There is really no answer to what makes the best book club book, so I asked a few trusted reader friends, including Kate Slotover, who is so obsessed with the matter that she started The Book Club Review Podcast , as well as my favorite local independent book-sellers, Briana Parker and Davi Marra of Brooklyn’s Lofty Pigeon Books . As Kate puts it, it all comes down to the reaction the book provokes: “What you want is a great read, but also, ideally, a book that generates lots of different opinions—then the fun is in the debate, and seeing if you can all meet in the middle.” Below, find some of our choices.

Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman

The protagonist of Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman is feeling impulsive and maybe a little stuck when she decides to post nudes online, leading to a relationship with another couple. But it's her obsessive questioning and chronicling of the dynamics of gender, sex, sexuality, and personality among the three of them (and her girlfriend) that will have you overthinking along with her, and looking for someone to talk it all over with, perhaps mining and divulging your own personal experiences and revelations along the way. Plus, it's pretty sexy. —Briana Parker, co-owner, Lofty Pigeon Books

The Bees by Laline Paull

The Bees: A Novel

Bookshop.org

The Bees , Laline Paull’s compulsively readable novel set in a beehive, is a bit of a wildcard. I know it will divide people. It tells the story of Flora, a lowly sanitation worker bee, who uncovers a dark secret at the heart of her hive. The social hierarchy is unbending, but Flora knows she is destined for something greater, even though this puts her at odds with her superiors. There is no speech, everyone communicates by pheromones, and Tarantino-esque levels of danger and violence are never far away. Wildly inventive, written with great dramatic flair and ultimately a strong ecological message that will stay with you, your book club will either love it or loathe it, and you’ll have fun finding out which. —Kate Slotover, host of The Book Club Review podcast

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James is so uniquely devastating, it's ideal to have a support system in the form of a book club to read with. Exploring the particularly cruel form of slavery that existed on Jamaican sugar plantations, James brings up thorny issues of consent, desire, love, class, and power without resorting to clichés, presenting a story of such depth and humanity that you'll want to spend hours picking apart the nuances even as you recover emotionally from this wrenching read. —B.P.

Evicted by Matthew Desmond

After hearing the low-grade but long-running buzz about how amazing this book was, I “made” my book club read it. It falls into the category of something I would never pick up on my own, and needed a bit of peer pressure to complete. But I was so glad I did. For those of us who have never confronted the trauma of eviction, it can seem like one of those problems on the periphery. But by deeply embedding himself with his subjects, Desmond shows how thoroughly housing insecurity is entwined with all other corollary effects of poverty. If you don’t have a reliable place to call home (to send mail, to register for school, etc., etc.), it is almost impossible to obtain the modicum of stability that is necessary to begin to escape poverty. This is an incredibly sobering text that reads like a novel. It shook our book club, and years later I still think about it. — Chloe Schama

Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Fleishman Is in Trouble

My book club read this book for one of (maybe the) last gatherings before the pandemic, and when I polled my books club members about their favorites, this one was nominated. (Full disclosure: We are a group of New York City women who undoubtedly share some zip codes with Brodesser-Akner’s characters.) This is one of those books that puts its finger very precisely and somewhat uncomfortably on the material concerns of a certain milieu. Did it cut close to home? It certainly made for a good discussion. —C.S.

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History

Another can’t-fail book club choice is Free , Lea Ypi’s memoir of her childhood in Albania, a country ruled by the hardline Communist party and largely closed to the countries beyond its borders. Everything changed once Albania opened up to the West in the late 1980s, and Ypi was finally able to understand the truth behind lies she had been brought up with all her life. Today Ypi is a Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics, and reading her story you understand why, for her, politics and economics could never be abstract—she shows the dramatic way in which they affected a whole nation of people, and some of the good that was lost along with the bad. It’s a fantastic book, vivid, relatable and surprisingly enjoyable, despite the fact that there is some heartbreaking material contained within. It will lead to rich discussions afterwards, I guarantee it. (Also-ran: Border by Kapka Kassabova.) —K.S.

Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman

Help Wanted

Many a 20-something Brooklyn dweller saw themselves reflected in Adelle Waldman’s debut novel, The Love Affairs of Nathanial P . That is likely not true of her second novel, which is set in a big box store, but has none of the voyeuristic distance that the premise might imply. This is a caper told with such sensitivity and nuance that it might just alter the way you think of the workplace novel. Set against the ruins (or triumphs?) of late-stage capitalism, Help Wanted gave my book club a huge amount to chew over in terms of—and this isn’t much of an overstatement!—what America is. All that, and it’s a great read that every member of my group finished. (While we have the best of intents, but I can’t recall the last time that happened.) —C.S.

How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto

How I Won a Nobel Prize

Sometimes you read something new and immediately think how brilliant it would be for book club. How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto has all the hallmarks of a book that will set sparks flying, an of-the-moment campus novel that deftly explores moral relativism. The protagonist is Helen, a brilliant physicist working on superconductors, who is forced to move to a new academic institution brought into existence by a reclusive billionaire (his face smoothed away by wealth) that exists to provide a haven for academics and cultural figures who have been “canceled” elsewhere. Unwillingly along for the ride is Helen’s partner, Hew, who disapproves of the whole enterprise. Enjoy the fascinating and surprisingly accessible dive into theoretical physics, appreciate the accumulating tension of the psychological drama, and laugh out loud at the one-liners. (Also-ran: When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, trans. Adrian Nathan West.) —K.S.

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read

The more serious you and your book club become about reading, the more hopeless you may end up feeling about all the books you will never, even with the best of intentions, have time for. How to Talk About Books you Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard will make you feel much better about this and, indeed, let you beautifully off the hook if you haven’t managed to finish your book club read in time. That’s ok, you can skim, flip through, read the end, or even just hold the book, unopened in your hands, all are fine with Bayard and he makes a compelling case for why you might be better able to discuss the book if you haven’t actually read it. Although Bayard’s credentials as a reader and academic are serious, his book is delightfully mischievous and funny. Give it a try and see if you agree with him or not. You might want to adopt his notation system for future reference: UB: book unknown to me; SB: book I have skimmed; HB: book I have heard about; and FB: book I have forgotten. —K.S.

Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott

Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott should be required reading for every New Yorker, as it details, with extraordinary compassion and acuity, a side of the city not often written about or shown. In a monumental feat of immersive journalism, Andrea Elliott spends years  with a Black unhoused family, and the reader comes to know them like their own family. It's a book with the power to change the way you see the world, and what better way to experience that than with others in conversation. —Davi Marra, co-owner, Lofty Pigeon Books

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab vibrates with beautiful melancholy. In eighteenth-century France, Addie makes a Faustian bargain to live forever, but she is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. The book goes back and forth in time between the first desperate days of her curse and present-day New York where she's figured out how to push up against its limits and carve out a life—until one day, everything changes. Like the show Russian Doll, the book similarly sparks an intense interest to pick apart the nuances of the plot and the decisions of the main character and to consider what you'd do in her unique circumstances. —B.P.

Little Library cookbooks by Kate Young

A tangential thought: If you like to gather friends and serve food at your book club Kate Young’s fabulous series of Little Library cookbooks may be the literary inspiration you need. From a Sebastian-Flyte inspired picnic to a loving recreation of Babette’s Feast (minus the turtle), Young offers a go-to list of crowd pleasers drawing on her expertise as a cook and as a lifelong reader. Pick a recipe: try the Väserbottenostpaj (Swedish cheese tart) inspired by The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, read the text, share the meal, and discuss; the perfect recipe for book club. —K.S.

Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt

Loved and Missed

It’s no secret that I adore this book , but I promise I wasn’t just seeking new opportunities to plug it when I put it on this list. This nomination comes via my very own book club. When I asked the group chat what book from our readings stayed with them, this was the first response that came back. This delightful little novel (that is immense in its emotional scope) is the kind of quiet-seeming book that might pass you by. But our conversation ranged widely when we discussed it, and while everyone had quite a strong response, the reactions varied and brought up all kinds of questions about parenting, emotional inheritance, and familial responsibility. I have said it before, but this is a really stunning read. —C.S.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is one of those books where its history is just as interesting to discuss as its contents. A too-often-overlooked classic of Russian literature, it presented such a devastating send-up of the Soviet regime that it couldn’t be published until after the author’s death. It's also uproariously funny, original, and weird, so you feel both like you're reading capital L Literature but also having a grand old time. The devil and his entourage visit Moscow, and Soviet Russia and generations of readers were never the same again. —B.P.

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Middlemarch

In the depths of COVID winter my best friend, her sister, her dad and I started a book club and kicked it off with Middlemarch . It changed my life! I read the book and listened to the audio book and fell in love with Dorothea and felt I’d moved to the Midlands for a couple of months. I bought the book in January 2021 and the manager at Shakespeare and Co. told me, masked, “I wish it was the middle of March, then we’d have a vaccine available.” Thanks to George Eliot, the next two months flew by and soon enough it was mid-March. —Chloe Malle

A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr

Book club can be just the nudge you need to read a classic from the past. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr is a slim little novel that was recommended to me by a friend who cited it as his all-time favorite read. It tells the story of Tom Birkin, a traumatized World War I veteran who takes a job in a tiny village in the North of England restoring a medieval mural in the parish church. Over the course of the summer, he comes to know the locals and one other interloper, a young archaeologist excavating a field. Not much happens as slowly, slowly the mural is revealed, and yet Carr’s prose is weaving its spell. At the end you will find yourself reflecting on the nature of time and lived experience and with any luck come away with something that you will carry in your heart for the rest of your days. But at the very least there’s plenty to be charmed by and discuss. Richard Osman says he’s never met a person who didn’t love it! If you buy the Penguin modern classic edition you get the double whammy of the perfect introduction by Penelope Fitzgerald. (Also-ran: The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald.) —K.S.

Random Family by Adrien Nicole LeBlanc

Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx

This was another book where the lore preceded my book club’s reading—and probably would have influenced it were the book anything less than a truly astounding tour de force. I first read it about 10 years after it came out, but two decades later, I am sure it still holds up as one of the most amazing feats of embedded journalism. (Davi’s excellent pick, above, Andrea Elliot’s amazing Invisible Child , is a definite heir to the approach.) Another work of non-fiction that is every bit as compelling as a novel, it was a harsh but rewarding read that left us with tons to talk about. —C.S.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe is one of the many deeply human stories to be told about the Irish Troubles. It reads like a thriller and culminates in the probable resolution of a decades-long mystery about the identity of the people who kidnapped and murdered a mother of 10 accused of passing sensitive information on to the British. It’s an extraordinary piece of journalism that raises as many questions as it answers, and therefore it’s the perfect pick for a nonfiction book club. —Davi Marra, co-owner, Lofty Pigeon Books

Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama

Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama is an extraordinary thriller steeped in a genuine sense of mystery and suspense. Readers are rewarded with a fascinating deep dive into Japanese journalism and policing, all while an urgent procedural unfolds to locate a killer who may be related to a cold case that haunts the novel’s protagonists. Whether you picked up on or missed the clues which point to the unforgettable climax, you absolutely must talk to somebody else who read the book as soon as you finish. —D.M.

Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us by Rachel Aviv

Sometimes a book club is all about the text, and sometimes it’s all about what people are bringing to it. This book, which has plenty to discuss between its covers, fell into the latter category when my group discussed it. The book is, loosely, an examination of the mental health industry, and in the opening essay, Aviv, a New Yorker journalist, discloses her own experience being deemed the youngest anorexia patient in America at the age of six—a diagnosis that was partly about a certain kind of medicine, but also about labels and stories, as is so much of the class of care that falls under mental health. Read this one to question the way we interact, categorize, and deal with people whose neurology isn’t quite “normal,” and also to (maybe) learn things about your fellow book club members that you never knew. —C.S.

Super Infinite by Katherine Rundell

Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

Non-fiction can be great for book club, with the caveat that ideally you want a page-turner. (Our book club is still reeling from the time we attempted Adam Feinstein’s exhaustive biography of Pablo Neruda .) With this in mind I recommend Super Infinite , Katherine Rundell’s prize-winning biography of the poet John Donne. The lines of poetry themselves might not immediately light you up, but Rundell’s analysis will, and to read this book is to walk with her through time. (If you’ve ever read Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road —a book club classic, by the way—and wondered why she was so obsessed with Donne’s sermons, this will put that mystery to rest.) Super Infinite is a fantastic read and made for brilliant book club discussion. If you try it I’d encourage you to go a step further and get everyone to bring a poem they love to share. Trust me, good things will come of this. (Also-rans: The Poetry Pharmacy by William Sieghart, Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, and Pearl by Sian Hughes.) —K.S.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

I ran my post-college book club like a little tyrant, and if it had lasted longer than two books I certainly would’ve made everyone read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Coming in at 400-plus pages, it appears intimidating, but Zevin’s vivid writing and gripping storytelling had me totally spellbound. Tomorrow seems like it was engineered to be a book club read—squabbling over the polarizing main characters, Sam and Sadie, is the perfect low-stakes book-club fodder. —Hannah Jackson

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

The Vegetarian

One of the first books we ever read for the show was a fantastic book club read: The Vegetarian by Han Kang (trans. Deborah Smith). Winner of the 2016 International Booker Prize, this is a psychologically intense short novel structured in three parts. The protagonist, Yeong-Hye, is a young woman who decides she will stop eating meat, without reckoning on the lengths her family will go to in order to get her to conform to South Korean social norms. Beautifully written, surprisingly erotic and ultimately quite strange (but in a good way), this is a novel guaranteed to provoke questions. (A side-benefit of reading any Booker shortlisted novel is that you can avail yourself of the excellent reading guides and extra material on the Booker website, a boon to those who like to have plenty of background.) (Also-rans: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa and Love by Hanne Orstavik.) —K.S.

A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter

A Woman In the Polar Night

One of our favorite discoveries on the pod was A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter (trans. Jane Degras). In 1934 Ritter joined her fur-trapper husband to spend the winter living in an isolated hut on Spitzbergen, a remote island north of Norway. She had hoped it would be an opportunity to “read thick books in the remote quiet and, not least, sleep to my heart’s content” —and who doesn’t want to do that, but of course life rarely works out as we expect it to. Funny, dry and relatable, it’s impossible not to be charmed by Ritter, or to share her dismay in discovering that there will be another, previously unknown to her, man sharing their cramped living quarters. Read it for the sense of adventure, the beauty of the Arctic, and the profound appreciation of regeneration and rebirth once the sun returns. Discuss Ritter’s extraordinary talent, and collectively lament the fact that she never wrote another book. —K.S.

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Abington School Committee; April 23, 2024

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