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

If you enjoyed Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh, then you might also like these book recommended by The Booklist Reader:

• Born Bright: A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America by C. Nicole Mason
• Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
• Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land
• Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in Boom-Time America by Barbara Ehrenreich
• There Will Be No Miracles Here: A Memoir by Casey Gerald
• White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

March Not Fiction Book Discussions

This month we continue to read about strong women living in the middle of America, formerly a frontier, today considered "flyover" country, with Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh.

Born the daughter of generations of Kansas wheat farmers on her father's side and generations of teen mothers on her mother's side, Smarsh's life was shaped by social and economic trends away from small family farms that left her hard-working family trapped in a cycle of poverty and the chaos it creates in people's lives. Combining memoir with social and cultural analysis, Smarsh examines America's unspoken socioeconomic class divide through her family's experience. Smarsh realized at a young age that avoiding teen pregnancy and doing well in school would be her pathway to a more stable and fulfilling life. She is today a successful academic and journalist. Acknowledging that white privilege and a good public education were advantages, she says,

The American narrative of a poor kid working hard, doing the right thing, and finding success for it is so deep in me, my life story so tempting as potential evidence for that narrative's validity, that I probably sometimes err on the side of conveying a story in which I'm an individual beating the odds with her own determination. There's some truth in that story. But my life is a litany of blessings somehow sewn into my existence rather than accomplishments to my own credit.

What do you think? At the beginning of her memoir, Smarsh writes that, as a child, "I heard a voice unlike the ones in my house or on the the news that told me my place in the world." How did this voice differ from the voices of her family and culture? Who or what did this voice, that of a child, represent to Smarsh? She addresses this voice throughout the memoir. Did you find this to be a successful narrative technique? Why or why not? How was Smarsh's family affected by the shift from rural to suburban life? By Reaganomics, welfare reform, the housing bubble and mortgage crisis, the criminalization and monetization of poverty, and other political and economic trends in the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s? In addition to these challenges, many of the women in Smarsh's family were the victims of domestic abuse at the hands of fathers, boyfriends, and husbands. Smarsh writes, "When I was well into adulthood, the United States developed the notion that a dividing line of class and geography separated two essentially different kinds of people." What are some of the stereotypes our culture holds about poor people, especially poor, white people? How do Smarsh and her family both confirm and challenge these stereotypes? Has Heartland changed the way you think about poverty in America? Why or why not? Good public education made a real difference in Smarsh's life, She argues that "this country has failed its children." Do you agree? If so, what could we do differently to ensure a more equitable outcome for all American and immigrant children? Critics have compared Heartland to Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. If you have read both books, what similarities and differences do you see between the two books and the authors' attitude toward poverty and their own personal success?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, March 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, March 21, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

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

If you enjoyed Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser, then you might also like these books suggested by our discussion group members:

• The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
• Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
• Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller
• The Birchbark House series by Louise Erdrich

February Not Fiction Book Discussions

For our February discussions, we move from the story of America's biggest house to one of some iconic little houses--Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder are among the best-loved and most influential in American children's literature. But as Fraser notes, they are "a profound act of American myth-making and self-transformation," very different in significant ways from the life Wilder actually lived.

Fraser told her publisher,

One of the reasons why I wanted to write this book is that I came to feel that 'Laura' had almost been loved to death, sort of like a beloved doll or toy. Between the fictional 'Laura' of the books and the even more heavily fictionalized girl of the TV show, we've tended to lose sight of the fact that Laura Ingalls Wilder was a real person who was complicated and intense. She's also someone whose life opens a window on everything from frontier history and the Plains Indian wars to the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Her real life is even more remarkable than the story in her books, in some ways, which ended at age 18 with her marriage.

What do you think? Did you read the Little House books or watch the TV show as a child? What were your feelings about them then, and have they changed with time? Fraser includes a sweeping narrative of the climate, economics, politics, and culture of the late 19th and early 20th century in her biography of Wilder. How does Fraser's factual account of Wilder's real childhood and later life differ from the stories Wilder wrote, both in content and in theme? How does Fraser's more factual account affect your perception of Wilder's work? Fraser writes, "Wilder made history." How did Wilder and other women of her era make history? How did her life and the way she presented it differ from that of famous male frontier icons such as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett? Do you find it ironic that the Little House books portray a close-knit, loving family, yet her own relationships were often fraught with tension? In particular, how would you characterize the relationships Wilder had with the women in her life, including her own mother Caroline, sister Mary, and daughter Rose?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, February 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, February 21, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

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

If you enjoyed The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan, then you might also like these books mentioned by Kiernan as well as a few books and movies suggested by our discussion group members:

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Portrait of a Lady and The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
(Of course all four of these novels have been made into films . . . )
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
Television series The Men Who Built America
Television series Downton Abbey
Documentary The Queen of Versailles

January Not Fiction Book Discussions

We begin the year's discussions with The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan, a history of the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, that is also a sweeping narrative of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. George Washington Vanderbilt, grandson of "the first tycoon," Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, used his inherited fortune to travel, collect art, and ultimately build a lavish home in rural North Carolina, employing the most celebrated architects and landscape designers of his time, to showcase his collection. As a result of world events, personal financial decisions, and changes in tax law, in just three generations, George's portion of the Commodore's fortune had been reduced enough to make Biltmore more of a liability than an asset to his heirs. His wife, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser Vanderbilt, emerges as the real heroine of the story of Biltmore, for it is her social responsibility and careful management that made Biltmore a lasting contribution to the Asheville community, to forestry and conservation, and to her family.

What do you think? Kiernan writes that “[w]alking the halls of Biltmore House for a day is a journey back in time” (p. 297). Have you ever visited Biltmore? If not, visit Biltmore’s official website at Biltmore.com and take a virtual tour of the estate through the site’s photo gallery. She also writes that Biltmore “may not have been in New York or Newport, but if this house didn’t make an impression on the Four Hundred, nothing would, acorns or no.” (p. 66). Is there anything about the house and the grounds that you find particularly striking? If so, what? Have your thoughts and feelings about the house changed as a result of reading The Last Castle? If so, how? Discuss the intentions and feelings George, Edith, and Cornelia each had for Biltmore, as well as the estate's effect on the region socially and economically. During the Gilded Age, being “a son of the Vanderbilt dynasty was to have your every move, dalliance, chance encounter, and passing venture watched and analyzed” (p. 7-8). Why do you think the public is so interested in the lives of the Vanderbilt family? Discuss the impact the constant public scrutiny has on the behavior of members of the Vanderbilt family. Can you think of any modern equivalents that are scrutinized in the same way the Vanderbilt family was in their time? Kiernan mentions many popular and enduring works of fiction from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Have you read any of these novels? Kiernan also integrates world history, including two World Wars and the financial crisis of 1929, into the story of Biltmore. How do these references help you understand the story of the Vanderbilts and Biltmore House? In 1873, Mark Twain and coauthor Charles Dudley Warner wrote a book about the age of excess in which they lived titled The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Do you think “Gilded Age” is an appropriate title for the time? If so, why? Do you see any comparisons to today’s economy and culture?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, January 8, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, January 17, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog. And if you haven't already, take a look at the list of titles and dates for this year''s discussions. What connections will you discover?

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

If you enjoyed An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn, then you might also like these Odyssey-inspired books and films:

Ulysses by James Joyce
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Circe by Madeline Miller
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Film by Cohen Brothers
Big Fish Film by Tim Burton