November Not Fiction Book Discussions

Several of the memoirs we have read this year address the search for vocation and avocation, feelings of longing and belonging. Sally Mann found her place in the world through photography, William Finnegan through surfing, Gloria Steinem through community organizing, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg through law. In Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir, Carrie Brownstein explores how she found hers through music.

Brownstein is a guitarist in the group Sleater-Kinney, originally formed with guitarist Corin Tucker and eventually drummer Janet Weiss in the 1990s in Olympia, WA. Inspired by the feminist punk movement known as Riot Grrrl, Brownstein and Sleater-Kinney explore both personal and political topics, especially traditional gender roles and expectations. Like most musicians, Brownstein began her career as a fan with a longing to be part of a cohesive group and to be seen. She describes with insight and self-deprecating humor how her childhood in a family that was essentially uneasy with itself--her mother struggled with disordered eating and her father with his sexual orientation--led her to look outside herself at first for a sense of identity and belonging, performing to get attention. Eventually, over years of writing, performing, touring, managing the interpersonal dynamics of a band, and even, after over ten years and seven albums together, breaking up this band that had come to feel like her refuge and true home, Brownstein's performance becomes an expression of her complete and true self. She says, "I've always felt unclaimed. This is the story of the ways I created a territory, something more than just an archipelago of identities, something that could steady me, somewhere that I belonged." Sleater-Kinney reunited in 2014, after a six-year hiatus.

What do you think? Maybe you've never been (or wanted to be) in a punk band, one that music critic Greil Marcus called "the best rock band in the world" . . . but can you identify with Brownstein's quest for a sense of a cohesive identity, one that merges the inner experience of the dynamic, multifaceted self with the outer performance of the self we share in our family and professional lives? What is your passion in life? When did you discover it, and how did it help you to find and understand your place in the world? Was it a smooth process, or, like Brownstein, did your sense of self and belonging in the world evolve with uncertainty and sometimes even feelings of being lost or in despair?

Often who we become is strongly influenced by our time and place in the world. How did the Pacific Northwest of the 1990s help to shape Brownstein's search for self and the sound and lyrics of Sleater-Kinney? Are you surprised that Brownstein is still being asked what it feels like to be a woman in a band? That Spin magazine was more interested in her romantic relationship with Corin Tucker than in the music itself?

Brownstein is also a writer and performer in the television show Portlandia, a gently satirical portrayal of Portland, OR, and hipster culture. Do you see any connections in content or style between Sleater-Kinney, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, and Portlandia?

Watch Brownstein, Tucker, and Weiss perform Modern Girl, the song from which Brownstein drew the title of her memoir. How do you interpret the song?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, November 1, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, November 17, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

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

If you enjoyed The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee, then you might also like these books suggested by our discussion group members:

• Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War by Susan Southard
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
• Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
• The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed by Jessica Lahey 

October West Ashley Branch Not Fiction Book Discussion Cancelled

Charleston County Public Library's West Ashley Branch in South Windermere remains closed due to flood damage sustained during Hurricane Matthew. The Not Fiction Book Discussion scheduled for Thursday, October 20, has been cancelled.  The branch will reopen Tuesday, November 1.

October Not Fiction Book Discussions

This month we read The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee, a biography of "one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in the history of science: the 'gene,' the fundamental unit of heredity, and the basic unit of all biological information."

Mukherjee traces the history of the idea of the gene all the way back to its origins with Aristotle, Gregor Mendel, and Charles Darwin; through its dark manipulation in its early days by eugenicists; through the discovery of its essential action and form by James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin; to the technological ability to "read," "write," and "map" it with the Human Genome Project and the rapidly developing ability to "edit" it. He ends ultimately with the open-ended ethical questions raised by these abilities.

Which of the many philosophers, naturalists, and scientists who have contributed to our understanding of the gene did you find interesting? Why do you think some individuals' work was unnoticed or unrecognized at the time, such as Mendel's discovery of heredity and Franklin's work on the structure of DNA?

The genetic code is universal, but its variations are myriad. Our understanding of the gene alters our understanding of essential current political and cultural issues concerning race, sexuality, gender identity, sexual preference, intelligence, temperament, and free will. Mukherjee cautions throughout his book that the danger of the idea of the gene lies in our ability to rightly understand and use it: "The genome is only a mirror for the breadth or narrowness of human imagination. It is Narcissus reflected." What do you think? How has our understanding of the gene changed the political, cultural, and legal landscape of the world? Would it be better to limit or audit scientific research to prevent information being used to support morally questionable ideas? Or should unlimited scientific research be allowed and encouraged? What do you think our future will look like if we are unlimited in our ability to alter the human genome? According to a recent article on NPR's Morning Edition, developmental biologist Fredrik Lanner of Sweden has become the first researcher known to attempt to modify the genes of healthy human embryos in order to learn more about how genes regulate early embryonic development, with possible interventions in cases of infertility and miscarriage. What are the most pressing moral and ethical questions posed by current genetic research?

Mukerjee weaves in his own family's story throughout the book, showing the effects of severe mental illness on his uncles and nephew and the emotional repercussions for the whole family. How has his personal story helped you to understand the relevance of genetics to everyday life? Has reading The Gene made you reflect on yourself--your physical characteristics, your temperament, your health--and your own family's story?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, October 4, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, October 20, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

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

If you enjoyed Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker, then you might also like these books and films suggested by discussion group members, some for their use of the epistolary format or focus on letters as historical documents and some for their use of verse form or extremely short form:

• Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel
• Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
• 84, Charing Cross Road book by Helene Hanff and movie with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins
• Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
• The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
• Art and the Intellect by Harold Taylor
• The Lake House movie with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves
• Brown Girl, Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Ninety-Nine Stories of God by Joy Williams

September Not Fiction Book Discussions

Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker is another memoir--of sorts--written in the form of letters. Parker writes letters to men as a way of looking back at her life and the people she has encountered along the way who have made a difference in it. These men include those with whom she has had close relationships, such as her grandfather, her father, her son, her mentors, her friends and boyfriends, but also men with whom she had only a brief but significant encounter, such as a cab driver and a hospital orderly, and men she hasn't met, such as the future husband of her daughter. In a profile of Parker for LA Times, interviewer Joy Press reports that "Mary-Louise Parker never intended to write a memoir. In fact, she’s a little freaked that Dear Mr. You is being labeled as one. ‘I feel bad when people say memoir, because who writes a memoir that is only about how they were affected by one gender? The pieces are about me but also . . . not.’” Press notes, “Still, if you look closely at these letters, you’ll find a sidelong portrait of Parker, a mosaic of autobiographical shards.” We get a sense of Parker as a daughter, a mother, a friend, a romantic partner, a student, a professional actor, a writer, and a person making her way in the world.

According to an article in the Toronto Star, Parker and her agent submitted Dear Mr. You to publishers without her name attached.Unlike the publishers who read the manuscript of Dear Mr. You, we read Parker’s book knowing her as a celebrity. What do you expect from a celebrity memoir? Did Parker meet or break these expectations? Which letters stood out for you? Which surprised you? Delighted you? Disappointed you? Left you wanting more information? How does the letter format affect your perception of the stories Parker relates and of Parker herself? How would your perception of Parker and the events of her life differ if she had presented them in a more detailed, chronological, anecdotal narrative? In the profile of Parker for LA Times, Parker told interviewer Joy Press, “To me, this book is a collection of thank-you notes.” Take a moment to think: If you were tasked with writing a book like Dear Mr. You, to whom from your life would you write a thank you letter? Think especially of those people to whom you would not have said “thank you” at the time . . . Care to share?

We enjoyed the Tuesday, September 6, discussion! We hope you will join us Thursday, September 15, at 11:00 a.m. at the West Ashley Branch Library or here on the blog.

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

If you enjoyed Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, then you might also like these books recommended by our discussion group members:

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
• Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward
• The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
• One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets by Bliss Broyard
• The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
• Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family by Condoleeza Rice
• Passing: A  Novel by Nella Larson