The Good Lord Bird Discussion

The book club met yesterday morning to talk about The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. The discussion was spirited and far-reaching, including discussions of current events as well as the historical realities of John Brown’s time.

One of the most interesting parts of the discussion revolved around comparisons to Huckleberry Finn, which many reviews have noted. Some of the book clubbers thought this was a valid comparison, given the dialect, the humor, and the satire, but some didn’t quite see it.

One book club member brought a biography of John Brown in order to talk about the accuracy of the book’s portrayal of Brown. Most of the broad strokes of Brown’s life were true to all accounts, but some of the specific actions of secondary characters were embellished or completely created by McBride.

Because this book was based on real events and real people, we also discussed some of the additional secondary characters, such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Douglass does not get a particularly positive treatment in the book, but we discovered no basis in reality for these descriptions. 

Book Club Meeting Tomorrow!

Tomorrow morning, July 15, at 10 am, we will be meeting to discuss John Brown and Henry (Onion) Shackleford in the novel The Good Lord Bird. What did you know about John Brown, aka the “Old Man,” before reading this book? Did it change your views at all?

And if you get a chance, watch this interview with the author James McBride before then. He has a lot of interesting things to say about the book.

Book Club Discussion on Kindred

Today we met at the Morris County Library to discuss the sci-fi classic Kindred by Octavia Butler. We had several new Book Clubbers, and it was a really fascinating hour and a half. We started by talking about why Butler chose to take a modern (well, modern in the 1970s) woman and transport her back to the Antebellum south, instead of just writing a more straightforward slave narrative. Some people didn’t feel like that worked for them; they didn’t like the time travel because it wasn’t realistic. Once we discovered how she came up with the idea of this novel, however, most of the book club members appreciated her reasoning, even if they still didn’t necessarily think it worked. As she stated in an interview:

I wanted to take a character, when I did Kindred, back in time to some of the things our ancestors had to go through, and see if that character survived so very well with the knowledge of the present in her head.

Book Club Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Wednesday morning, we will be meeting at the Morris County Library to talk about the sci-fi classic Kindred, by Octavia Butler. This book was written in 1979, but there is still a lot to discuss today. Make sure to join us in the conference room at 10 am for what will surely be a rousing discussion about this book. Coffee and tea will be served.

Octavia Butler, the author of Kindred

After you’ve finished reading the classic sci-fi novel Kindred, take a look at this interview with Octavia Butler. She was a fascinating woman and author, and is a pleasure to listen to.

You can also find more information about her on her official website.

She died too young, at age 58. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer obituary tells even more of the story of her life.

MCL Book Club Selection for May: Kindred by Octavia Butler

Join us on Wednesday, May 20 at 10AM for a discussion of Kindred by Octavia Butler.

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.   — from Goodreads

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