Race, Class and Gender Book Club
March 27th, 2009, 3:30 PM
Orchard Room, Tallent Hall*
Discussion Leader: Frances Kavenik (English)
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Austen’s classic tells the story of a woman who might have missed out on her only chance at love. The heroine is woman in her late twenties, who was persuaded not to marry her first love due to his lack of wealth and position. Now, when she is still unmarried, with her bloom fading and her family’s social position declining, her rejected suitor re-enters her life. Called Jane Austen’s best novel by many critics.
April 17th, 2009, 3:30 PM
Orchard Room, Tallent Hall*
Discussion Leader: Mary Lenard (English)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
From the Booker-prize winning author of Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go is an unsettling story about innocence, knowledge, and loss. The narrator, Kathy, and her friends Ruth and Tommy grew up at a boarding school secluded in the English countryside where they were constantly told how special they were. Now, as a young woman, Kathy looks back on the past and tries to understand what makes them special—and human.
May 15th, 2009, 3:30 PM
Orchard Room, Tallent Hall*
Discussion Leader: Mary Xiong (OMSA)
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang**
In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. But lacking a written language of their own, the Hmong experience has been primarily recorded by others. Driven to tell her family’s story after her grandmother’s death, The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang’s tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together. It is also an eloquent, firsthand account of a people who have worked hard to make their voices heard. This author will be speaking at UW-Parkside on April 15, 2009 at noon.
The Race, Class, and Gender Book Discussion group is sponsored by the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
*Tallent Hall has a parking lot, and permits are not required between 3:30-5:00pm
on days of book club meetings. Any questions call 595-2162 or email mary.chachula@uwp.edu
** “The Latehomecomer” is being substituted for Ha Jin’s A Free Life.
