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COM Connecting Through Literature Book Club

Join us for great discussions! The group meets monthly covering a variety of genres and topics!

About

The goal of this discussion group is to strengthen our community ties and expand understanding through reading.  

The group is a collaboration between Humanities and Harrell Health Sciences Library. Come having read all, some or none of the selected books or readings for new perspectives and to step outside of your own life for a few minutes. Meetings are held over Zoom and registration is required to receive the link to attend! Meeting info will be sent by email the day before the event. 

Books and Schedule

The Yellow Wallpaper

February 12th via Zoom: Register Here

12 noon - 1 pm

Discussion will be facilitated by Jennifer B. Mccormick, PhD.

You can find the full text of this story free online here. 

"The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story written in the late 19th century." A landmark part of the history of women's literature, "the narrative explores the themes of mental illness, gender roles, and the constraints faced by women in a patriarchal society. It follows the mental deterioration of a woman who is confined to a room by her husband, who is also her physician, under the pretense of helping her recover from what he diagnoses as temporary nervous depression."

-Summary by Project Gutenberg

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

April 9th via Zoom: Register Here

12 noon - 1 pm

Discussion will be facilitated by Bernice L Hausman, PhD.

"In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows...

As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us."

Previous Reads