photo credit: Robb North
Way to go, Louisiana! Last week I posted about how New Orleans is embracing Their Eyes Were Watching God… This week I’m happy to share what North Louisiana is reading…
Here’s an excerpt from a recent email I received:
We have a huge undertaking in North Louisiana beginning October 1st to engage 100,000+ persons in reading John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath in our commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the Great Depression and New Deal Era with the BIG READ.
If you haven’t yet read Grapes, do so immediately! I’ll admit I only recently read this classic — and only at the prodding of one of my colleagues who taught it in American Literature. I had read East of Eden and Of Mice and Men, but Grapes of Wrath is something else entirely… In fact, I loved it so much I created a discussion guide for book clubs — and then happily my own book club chose it and loved it. At the end of our meeting, we realized it was the best discussion we had ever had, in fact. Feel free to check out why I love Grapes of Wrath so much…
Any other book clubs give this a try?
Our library district chose “Grapes of Wrath” as one of last year’s Community Reads and I really liked the experience of re-reading it (I had read it before, many years ago in HS). As part of the read-along, they also included the non-fiction “The Worst Hard Time” by Timothy Egan, about Dust Bowl surviviors. I strongly recommend reading that book also!
Thank you for the recommendation, Valerie! I love pairing books…