Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/25/2019
5:30 pm - 7:15 pm
Location
Branches Books & Gifts
Categories
Please join us on Monday, March 25th at 5:30 PM for the Freedom Readers Book Club meeting. The March selection is Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother–his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.
This book club is open to the public and will concentrate on fiction and non-fiction titles based around political or current cultural themes. We invite healthy debate and discussion! Topics & opinions discussed do not necessarily reflect Branches Books & Gifts employees viewpoints. Please call (559) 641-2019 or email anne@branchesbooks.com for more information.
UPCOMING BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS:
Monday, April 22nd: The Radium Girls: The Dark History of America’s Shining Women – Kate Moore
May 20th – There, There – Tommy Orange
June 24th – The House of Broken Angels – Luis Alberto Urrea
July 22nd – Crazy Brave – Joy Harjo
August 26th – The Sun Does Shine – Anthony Ray Hinton
September 23rd – Unbowed – Wangari Maatha
October 28th – Unsheltered – Barbara Kingsolver
November 25th – Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
