Hello September! 🚌
We met one last time at Paul Miller Park for our September discussion of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El Akkad. With fall fast approaching, we are planning to head back to the library's meeting room for our October 14th meeting where we're slated to discuss The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore. I'll try to send out a reminder email when the date gets closer!
We should have lots of copies of The God of the Woods coming in, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help!
Onward!
This book chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse. It's a heartsick breakup letter with the west. It is a breakup we are watching all over the U.S., on college campuses, on city streets, and the consequences of this rupture will be felt by all of us. His book is for all the people who want something better than what the west has served up. This is the book for our time.
The response to this book was a mixed bag. I would say it was generally well received, with 2-ish people loving it, and the rest of the fans just liking it. Those in favor appreciated his passion for the subject material and his bravery in naming names and calling a spade a spade.
Those not feeling quite as warmly about the book thought the writing itself was terrible~ lot's of l-o-n-g sentences with no background information on the people and places noted. No footnotes to reference. This group also thought he got a bit preachy and took offense to some of his sentiments. It was clear the author was a journalist and that this was his 208 page personal rant about a subject he feels strongly about.
In the end, the vast majority of the group thought this book might have been more impactful if El Akkad had condensed the contents of this book down to a solid 2 or 3 page magazine article and left it at that. Or maybe he could have condensed down each chapter into a 1 page column and had them published one at a time, once a month, for however long it takes to get through the book... otherwise, it mostly came across as way-too-long personal rhetoric, even though we think what he's saying is important.
The votes are in!
Would we recommend this to a friend to read? Yes
Would we
recommend this to another book club for discussion? Yes
Rate the
book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 4 stars
