Readalikes: If you enjoyed March's selection

If you enjoyed She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, then you might also like this work on the same topic, one reporter's investigation of the sexual harassment accusations against Harvey Weinstein, suggested by our discussion group members:

 Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

You might also enjoy the work about investigative journalism to which She Said has been frequently compared by critics:

All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

March 19 Not Fiction Book Discussion Cancelled due to Coronavirus COVID 19 Precautions

Charleston County Public Library is implementing coronavirus COVID 19 precautions. Effective on Friday, March 13, all public bookmobile and outreach services will be suspended to possibly resume on Saturday, March 28. CCPL will also be suspending all public programs as well as events and gatherings held in booked rooms, effective Monday, March 16 to possibly resume on Saturday, March 28.

Even though we will not be meeting in person for the March Not Fiction Book Discussion, you can share your thoughts about She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey here on the blog. 

I will post about the Not Fiction Book Discussions for March and April as we have more information. Please check our website, www.ccpl.org, for updated information about other program cancellations. 

Be well!

March Not Fiction Book Discussions

Just last week, on February 24, 2020, film producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted of two of five felony charges, rape and criminal sexual assault, following a trial in which six women testified that he sexually assaulted them. Although more than 80 women have claimed that Weinstein sexually assaulted them, his accusers feared an acquittal. However, the #MeToo movement helped to shift cultural perceptions of sexual misconduct, especially in the workplace. So did an important story exposing Weinstein's behavior publically for the first time, written by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey and published in the New York Times on October 5, 2017.  She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey is the story of how they got that story.

Reviewers have compared She Said to All the President's Men, a book about the investigative journalism by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward that revealed the Watergate scandal. Similarly, She Said is about Kantor and Twohey's reporting as much as or even more than it is about Weinstein's abuses. It is about the persistence of these two reporters, the steadfast guidance of their editors, and the courage of the women who agreed to tell their stories on the record so that other women might feel able to come forward. Their reporting revealed that Weinstein had repeatedly abused his power over these women's employment to obtain sexual favors or outright assaulted them and then abused his power to silence them with nondisclosure agreements. His company knowingly and willingly colluded in these behaviors. Weinstein and his legal team investigated and intimidated Kantor and Twohey and their sources throughout their investigation.

What do you think? Have you ever spoken up about an experience when you feared it might have been safer and easier to remain silent? Why did you speak up? What was your experience like? In their preface, Kantor and Twohey ask two questions: "Why this story?"and "In a world in which so much feels stuck, how does this sort of seismic social change occur?" Do you feel the book answers these questions? What was it about the Weinstein story that captured public attention? What did you find interesting about the process of investigative journalism as described in She Said? What does the book reveal about its techniques, ethics, and importance? According to articles in the New York Times and Vox, at Kantor and Twohey's request, Bob Woodward interviewed them at an event at Sixth and I in Washington, DC. During the interview, Woodward repeatedly interrupted Kantor and Twohey and posed questions that seemed to indicate he didn't understand the true nature of sexual assault and harassment. He insisted that Weinstein's behavior was about sex, not power, even calling it "a weird foreplay." What does this interview say about our culture? Have perceptions of sexual misconduct, especially in the workplace, really shifted? Some say the pendulum of public opinion has swung too far, others not far enough. The Ford/Kavenaugh story brought up important questions regarding how to handle incidents from the past. Will we be able to create mutually fair rules and protections for both parties in a claim of sexual misconduct? What is the key to real change? According to articles in the Washington Post and in Vulture, Weinstein's lawyer Donna Rotunno, who calls herself the "ultimate feminist," said in her closing statements at his trial that the case "strips adult women of common sense, autonomy and responsibility, and she reminded the jury that they were participating in a criminal trial, not a court of public opinion and "we are not here to criminalize morality." What do you think of her statements after Weinstein's conviction? What do you think of women like Rotunno and Lisa Bloom who profit from defending men accused of sexual misconduct?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, March 3, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, March 19, 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 Fierce Attachments: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick, then you should check out her recent book The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir, which her publisher says "beautifully bookends" Fierce Attachments.


You might also like these books and films recommended by our discussion group members:

• You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie
• Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
• Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
• Ordinary People by Judith Guest
• The Liar's Club by Mary Karr
• Carrie by Stephen King
• The Best Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
• Grey Gardens 1975 documentary by the Maysles Brothers and companion book edited by Sara Maysles
• Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
• Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo
• Naked, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and others by David Sedaris
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• Hotel Honolulu by Paul Theroux
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
• Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Special Discussion for Women's History Month--Get a Free Copy of the Book!

Join a special guest from the League of Women Voters of the Charleston Area in celebrating the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which secured for women the right to vote, with a discussion of The Women's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss.

Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, twelve have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis"--women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation. They all converge in a boiling hot summer for a vicious face-off replete with dirty tricks, betrayals and bribes, bigotry, Jack Daniel's, and the Bible.
Following a handful of remarkable women who led their respective forces into battle, along with appearances by Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Frederick Douglass, and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Woman's Hour is an inspiring story of activists winning their own freedom in one of the last campaigns forged in the shadow of the Civil War, and the beginning of the great twentieth-century battles for civil rights. (From the publisher)

We have a limited number of free copies available at the Fiction and Reference Desks at Main Library, so stop by to get yours soon! You can also reserve a library copy of the book with your library card at the link above.

We hope you will join the discussion: Monday, March 16, at 6:00 p.m. in Meeting Room B at Main Library.

She Persisted: Women of Letters and the American South at The Gibbes Museum

The Gibbes Museum is hosting a wonderful literary program our discussion group members might enjoy, especially those looking forward to our May discussions of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep!

She Persisted: Women of Letters and the American South is a conversation inspired by the exhibition Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection. Professor and Director of Southern Studies at the College of Charleston, Julia Eichelberger; recipient of the National Book Award for Poetry, Nikky Finney; and author of the Charleston-based novel The Cigar Factory, Michele Moore will discuss the literary traditions and social landscape that gave rise to voices like Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, and Harper Lee, and that continue to inspire women writers across the South. Wednesday, February 19, at 6:00 p.m. at The Gibbes.

Visit this link to learn more.

February Not Fiction Book Discussions

Fierce Attachments: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick was selected by the New York Times last year as one of the 50 best memoirs of the past 50 years. Its unsentimental portrayal of Gornick's relationship with her mother as well as her lifelong struggle to define herself as a woman through love and through work helped to establish the confessional memoir genre.

Gornick's narrative alternates between present-day walks with her elderly mother through the streets of New York and stories from Gornick's past, defining moments in her coming-of-age as a woman and a writer. As a child, Gornick is offered two different models of femininity--that of her mother's romantic devotion to her deceased husband, and that of her neighbor Nettie's calculating seduction of a series of men. Gornick, however, discovers an initially more satisfying way to define herself, independent of her relationships with Mama, Nettie, or men--going to college and then working as a writer. As we walk with Gornick through her life, we come to understand along with her that a full life will somehow need to include both love and work.

What do you think? Gornick has titled her memoir "fierce attachments." How would you describe her relationship with her mother? With Nettie? What do Mama and Nettie represent to Gornick as a young girl? And why are Mama and Nettie in competition for the young Vivian's affection? What does she represent to them? Does Gornick's relationship with her mother evolve over the years? How would you describe Gornick's romantic relationships with Stefan, Davy, and Joe? What does she learn about herself from each of these relationships? And how would you describe Gornick's relationship with her work? Is it also "fierce"? Do you feel that it is any easier today than when Gornick was growing up for a woman to integrate both love and work in her life?

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