Skip to main content

September Reading---If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

By

 


Monday, Sept. 27   3:45 ZOOM mtg.
Moderator: Susan Woodhams



"A major work of Black American fiction." –The New Republic

Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions–affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.

Comments

  1. John DeGrandisSeptember 30, 2021 at 4:37 AM

    Overall, I think that this novel would be a high interest option for upper classmen. The themes of the hypocrisy of religion, familial love and acceptance and the inequalities of the criminal justice system make this novel relevant to our population. In addition, the love story between Tish and Fonny will keep students' attention as they enjoy the recollections Tish has about their relationship. As a literary technique, Tish's non-chronological back and forth will help students understand how the author has structured the plot to maximize their attention. If I were teaching upper classmen I would definitely employ this novel!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

April Read - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

By
  From the  New York Times  best-selling author of  The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires , this unholy hybrid of  Beaches  and  The Exorcist  blends teen angst and unspeakable horrors into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller. The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil? https://www.amazon.com/My-Best-Friends-Exorcism-Novel/dp/1594749760
1 comment
Read more

September 2024 Felix Ever After by Kacen Callendar

By
  According to Goodreads . . . Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle.... But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself. Felix Ever After  is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you d...
3 comments
Read more

The Great American Whatever Tim Federle

By
The Great American Whatever By  Tim Federle For Ages: 14 and up From the award-winning author of  Five, Six, Seven, Nate!  and  Better Nate Than Ever  comes “a Holden Caulfield for a new generation” ( Kirkus Reviews , starred review). Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry  used  to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister Annabeth. Of course, that was all before—before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa…and before the car accident that changed everything. Enter: Geoff, Quinn’s best friend who insists it’s time that Quinn came out—at least from hibernation. One haircut later, Geoff drags Quinn to his first college party, where instead of nursing his pain, he meets a guy—okay, a  hot  guy—and falls, hard. What follows is an upside-down week in which Quinn begins imagining his future as a screenplay that mig...
Post a Comment
Read more