Readalikes: If you enjoyed January's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino, then you might also enjoy these books and movies recommended by our discussion group members:

• The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
• Fight Club: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk and the film of it directed by David Fincher  
• Bombshell directed by Jay Roach
• Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan
• A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Consider the Lobster, and other essay collections by David Foster Wallace

And you could check out all of the titles recommended by Tolentino in the Background Reading section of Trick Mirror.

January Not Fiction Book Discussions

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino exemplifies the essayist's task: to attempt to understand oneself in relation to a subject by writing about it. As E. M. Forster famously said, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say?"

In the nine essays in Trick Mirror, Tolentino explores aspects of contemporary culture, such as the internet, social media, reality TV, the ethos of scamming, the pressure to optimize every aspect of our lives, and the self-contradictions of feminism, "spheres of public imagination that have shaped my understanding of myself, of this country, and of this era." What she concludes is that our collective sense of self and relationship with others has increasingly become performative, transactional, and monetized. Tolentino acknowledges her complicity in the systems she criticizes--after all, she is a millennial who earns her living writing about political and cultural ephemera for high profile internet and social media platforms. In her introduction, she says, "These are the prisms through which I have come to know myself. In this book, I tried to undo their acts of refraction. I wanted to see the way I would see in a mirror." Yet throughout the essays she acknowledges the difficulty of seeing herself clearly, and by the end of the collection, she concludes that "In the end, the safest conclusions may not actually be conclusions. We are asked to understand our lives under such impossibly convoluted conditions. I have always accommodated everything I wish I were opposed to."

What do you think? What is your relationship to some of the topics Tolentino discusses, such as the influence of traditional literary heroines or the wedding industry? Did her reflections help you to understand that relationship more clearly? Which pieces did you feel worked as essays, pieces of writing that ask and attempt to answer the question "So what?" Did they work together as a larger narrative? Do you agree with her general observation that our culture has become increasingly self-absorbed and self-deluded through the influence of the internet and social media, or is human nature in this respect fairly consistent throughout history? Trick Mirror is one of the most widely discussed books of the last year, with book club-style conversations hosted, ironically, by self-optimizing venues such as spas, health food popups, and women's wellness collectives. Why do you think it has been so popular? Will these essays be relevant as cultural documents a decade or more from now? Critics note Tolentino's pessimism about the possibility of knowing oneself and living with complete integrity although she suggests some possible small personal actions, most importantly, self-reflection. What can or should we do given the human tendency to self-delusion?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, January 7, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, January 16, at 11:00 a.m.; and here on the blog.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed December's selection . . .

If you enjoyed The Library Book by Susan Orlean, then you might also enjoy these other books suggested by our discussion group members:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Bandini Quartet by John Fante
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer
The Giver of Stars: A Novel by Jojo Moyes
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel by Kim Michele Richardson

Not Fiction Book Discussion Titles for 2020

I began to realize that all my life I've been leaving myself breadcrumbs. It didn't matter that I didn't always know what I was walking toward. It was worthwhile, I told myself, just trying to see clearly, even if it took me years to understand what I was trying to see.  -- Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion

Looking for something engrossing and inspiring to read over the holidays? Check out the list of titles for discussion in 2020, posted on the right. All share a powerful theme of bearing witness, whether it be to our current cultural and political moment or to an event that occurred decades ago, to our own thoughts and experiences or to those of others. Bearing witness is essentially why we write and why we read.

We hope you will join the discussions: The first Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library (although in November we will meet on the second Tuesday of the month so that you can go bear witness by voting on Election Day); the third Thursday of the month at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

December Not Fiction Book Discussions

The Library Book by Susan Orlean is classic Orlean. As with The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin, she starts with a complicated individual, Harry Peak, the young man accused of starting the devastating 1986 fire that destroyed or damaged more than a million books at Los Angeles' Central Library, and ends with a sprawling exploration of a larger topic, libraries and their place in our culture and society. Orlean told Writer's Digest, "When I heard about the fire, I was so fascinated. The two categories of story that I cannot resist are, one, the examination of something that seems very familiar but that I realize I don't really know anything about. And that was definitely present in this story. And secondly, the discovery of a big story or subculture that I never knew existed, and that was true of the fire. So this combined the two genres of story that I find almost irresistible. The so familiar that you don't notice it, and so hidden that it's a discovery."

And as with a The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson, which we read earlier this year, Orlean does not definitively solve the mystery she set out to investigate. In the end, to Orlean, whether Peak started the fire or not is less important than his desire to be remembered, which to her is the essence of why we write, read, and create libraries. In fact, what led Orlean to this story were her memories of visiting the library with her mother when she was a child and her present-day visits to the library with her own son. She told Writer's Digest that her biggest challenge in writing The Library Book was structure: "In this case, I realized I was essentially working on four storylines. And the challenge was, how do I make these live together naturally and happily within a book? I had the history of the library. I had the story of the fire, which was a totally different time period. I had the day-to-day life of the library, which I very much wanted to write about. And I had this more meditative storyline of what do libraries mean, what is their importance, what has been their importance? So how do you put those together?"

What do you think? Is Orlean successful in integrating these four storylines and bringing the seemingly familiar, the public library, to life in a new way? What has your relationship with libraries been throughout your life? What are some of your favorite library memories? As Orlean vividly portrays, libraries are so much more that just warehouses of books. How have libraries changed in your lifetime and in your community? How do you feel about these changes? Andrew Carnegie is the most famous benefactor of libraries, and other benefactors have similarly supported museums or parks or other community spaces. Do you think it is more important to have wealthy benefactors or overall community support? Are libraries indicative of the vitality and mindset of a community or culture? Do they have a role and responsibility in creating this vitality and mindset? In Chapter 30, Orlean discusses a variety of initiatives undertaken by libraries and librarians around the world. Are there any that you would like to see replicated at your public library?

We hope you will join the conversation: Tuesday, December 3, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, December 19, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed November's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Painter, then you might also enjoy these books and films suggested by our discussion group members:

Books

• Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (In That Order) by Bridget Quinn
• If You Can Doodle, You Can Paint: Transforming Simple Drawings Into Works of Art by Diane Culhane

Films

• Art documentaries on Netflix

Book recommended by Nell Painter in an interview with her publisher, Counterpoint

• Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland

November Not Fiction Book Discussions

We continue our theme of education with Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Painter. Following her retirement from her career as a historian at Princeton University, Dr. Nell Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school in her sixties to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. An interviewer with her publisher, Counterpoint, asked Painter, “How did you come to write this book? What’s the story of this story?” She replied, “The notion of writing about my experience(s) in art school came very early on, even before I enrolled at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, for my friends voiced curiosity as soon as they discovered my musings. At first it was the novelty of a chaired professor at Princeton climbing down from what seemed like the pinnacle of scholarly achievement—the strangeness of that turning away intrigued people. Then it was asking about what was new. In either case, people I knew wanted me to send back reports from my new life. Old in Art School is that report. Old in Art School speaks a tiny bit about the leaving, but mainly it’s about what the title says: being old in a world obsessed with youth, with what one of my teachers called right-nowness. That’s a challenge when you’re starting out at sixty-four with twentieth-century eyes.” Painter's story asks us to consider how artists, and women artists in particular, are seen and judged by their age, looks, and race. 

What do you think? Have you "started over" or dreamed of "starting over" in your career or general life path? Have you experienced any discouragement, either stated or implied? How did that affect you? What influence did Painter's mother's example have on her own decision to leave her academic career at its pinnacle and start over in art school? Painter titles Chapter 11 "A Bad Decision." Why did Painter decide to leave Mason Gross School of the Arts before completing a full four years there? Why does she think going to graduate school at Rhode Island School of Design before completing her time at Mason and maybe even taking a few years off was a bad decision? Do you think it was a bad decision, or did it perversely have a positive effect on Painter's trajectory as an artist? Of the various "-isms" Painter experienced, which do you think were the most damaging to her confidence in her own vision and execution of her art? How did her own cohort's opinion of her art contrast with that of her art teachers and peers? How did Painter's summer alone with her work in the Adirondacks influence her work and sense of herself as an artist? What is art? Who is an artist? Who gets to decide? 

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, November 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library or Thursday, November 21, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library.