Reading Around the World: 2018

[Cait]

Welcome to 2018! We’ll continue reading books based on a theme – first with countries that#45 added to the third iteration of his immigration ban, and then (tentatively) we’ll move on to communist countries that are considered enemies of the United States.

The finish dates / discussion dates / books will be set four books at a time, so that people can plan their reading ahead of time.

At the beginning of the our first group of books, four members who are interested will pick a country, and they’ll each select around four books for that country that fit our criteria, and everyone else votes.

**Choosing countries**
When you choose a country, remember:
- Don’t repeat countries. (See link to country list in this conversation thread.)
- Country should match whatever theme is currently chosen.
- Post a poll to Goodreads with your book choices, clearly labeled with the country’s name, by the date indicated in the schedule. (FYI I may edit the poll, but only for formatting issues, not for book choices.)
- Let other people take a turn if they haven’t had a chance to post a poll yet.

**Choosing books**
When you choose the books to vote on for a country, remember:
- Books *must* be by a person from that country or a first generation immigrant.
- Please choose at least as many female / transgender / gender non-conforming authors as male authors whenever possible (and it usually is).
- Please try to choose diverse authors in other areas – for example, LGBTQ authors, indigenous authors, authors of different ethnicities, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, etc.
- Please try to keep price ranges in mind - books that are in paperback may be preferable to new releases, books available in major libraries are a plus.
- We all know that it can be difficult to find books that meet all these criteria, so the only one that’s mandatory is #1, but the more diversely we read, the better! Reach out for help if you get stuck choosing books, and let others know if you find great resources.

**Schedule**
Obviously can be adjusted if necessary, but here is our proposed schedule:



You can find the schedule on google docs here.

[Becki]

Hey! Are we doing discussion for Other Russias? And are we continuing for 2019? I'm down but I know we all got busy this year, so just wanted to check!

[Elizabeth]

I'll be pretty busy next semester (teaching my first class), but I'm happy to continue as well. Maybe every other month would be more manageable? One request is to focus on books that are easier to find, since it may be difficult to locate obscure English books in Amsterdam. I just got my copy of Other Russias shipped to me in the US while I was back over break. Looking forward to reading it soon.

[Becki]

I do agree that some of these got hard to find. I'm wondering if Cait took an internet break, haven't seen her online in a while - let us know Cait! :)

[Sylvia]

I’m down with whatever the group decides! Still waiting on my copy of Other Russia’s, but I’ll jump into the conversation as soon as I do. Happy New Year, all!

[Cait]

Sorry I’ve been AWOL ☹️☹️☹️ I do want to keep going with the book club this year, but I think that 1 book every 2 months would be easier for me to handle? Is that doable? And maybe first one could be Other Russias once I read it 🙇🏻‍♀️ otherwise what are you all thinking for a theme? If we want books that are going to be easier for Claire to find we’ll probably have to shift our focus a little, some last year’s were pretty tough (although wonderful!)

[Elizabeth]

Sounds good. Maybe we could go by continent but skip ones that seem more obscure (like South America focusing on Argentina but skipping Venezuela) for now. It will be best for me if we either pick books that have Kindle versions available or have several months advance notice so I can order next time I'm in the US. Also happy to start with Other Russias, I just finished reading it. :)

[Becki]

Agree, let's start with Other Russias - I really want to discuss that one! :) And I am down with continent by continent. Do we want to just pick a country randomly from each one? Stream of consciousness thought: we haven't done much in the Australia / Oceania region of the world yet; anyone ever heard of a book by any of the indigenous / Aboriginal / Polynesian peoples in that area? I recently learned some things about the history of Tanzania that really blew my mind and I'd love the chance to do a deeper dive / group discussion on that issue.

Long story short - agree with 1 book every 2 months, focusing to one book per continent this year that are easier to find, and I'm happy to help research books for one of the countries if we want to split out the work!

[Elizabeth]

Regarding books by indigenous authors from Australasia: I've tagged The Swan Book by Alexis Wright, The Bone People by Keri Hulme, and Mullumbimby by Melissa Lucashenko. Only the last one appears to be available in ebook format.

[Becki]

Oh wow way to go - I'm down to try that if everyone else is! Thoughts on the rest of the books?