Category: Books

Join the PACG Book Club Facebook Group

4/22/2018

Join the PACG Book Club Facebook Group

Join our PACG Book Club private Facebook Group for Book Club news and discussion.

While you are at it, Like our PACG Facebook page.

We had a thoughtful and engaging discussion of Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine on April 17, thanks to our St. Ambrose professors and our other discussion participants.

Our next book club discussion will be on Tuesday May 15 (third Tuesday) at 6 pm at Fresh Deli. The book is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin. Le Guin is an important woman science fiction author who passed away in January 2018. The book deals with gender issues. Although it was written in 1969, it has aged well – I just reread it and enjoyed it again.

More information about the PACG Book Club is available elsewhere at our website.

Alta Price

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March 2018 Board Update

4/8/2018

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March 2018 Board Update

The Board wants to bring the following events to your attention, brought to you by our hard-working volunteers in the PACG Book Club, Environmental Forum, and Health Care Reform Forum:

Tuesday, April 17 at 6 pm at Fresh Deli in Davenport - Discussion of Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (discussion led by a professor of English literature from St. Ambrose)

Thursday, April 19 at 6 pm at the Quad City Botanical Center - Celebrate the Earth! - a presentation on climate change in the Midwest.

Saturday, April 21 at 10 am at Davenport Central High School - Minority Health Conference - an event especially for immigrants, refugees, and members of minority communities (registration required). Please come yourself and invite your friends and contacts in those communities.

Hope to see you at one (or all) of these activities/events!

Alta Price, Board President

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PACG Book Club - April, May and June 2018

3/25/2018

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Get your books for the next three PACG Book Club discussions now!

All discussions are the third Tuesday of the month at 6:00 pm at Fresh Deli (421 W River Drive) in Davenport. Email Alta Price with questions.

April 17 - Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine.

Book discussion to be led by Emily Kingery, a professor at St. Ambrose who teaches this book.
You may want to consider getting a non-electronic version of this book, as it has images.
The genre is creative nonfiction. The author is African American and writes about her experiences with racism, both directed at her and directed at others in ways that affect her. Read more about it at the link above.

May 15 - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin

Ursula K Le Guin was a groundbreaking female science fiction author who passed away in January of 2018.
In honor of Le Guin, we chose her 1969 novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, which established her as a science fiction author. The novel won both the Nebula and Hugo awards and is included in lists of the most important science fiction novels of all time.
In keeping with Women's History month, this novel also deals with gender issues, as it is set on a planet where people choose their gender or may be genderless.
The discussion will be led by Alta Price (who loves Science Fiction and first read this book 40 years ago!)

June 19 - Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen

This book is longer, so we are giving folks more time to read it.
We don't have a discussion leader. Volunteer by emailing Alta Price or at one of our upcoming discussions.
This bestseller may explain how Donald Trump became President. According to Lawrence O'Donnell this book is: “The single most important explanation, and the fullest explanation, of how Donald Trump became president of the United States . . . nothing less than the most important book that I have read this year."

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PACG Book Club - March 20, 2018

3/1/2018

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Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is our March 2018 book.

The PACG Book Club met for the first time on Tuesday, Feb 27th at 6 pm at Fresh Deli to discuss The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr. We had an interesting group that included a few experts in restorative justice as well as many who had never heard of the concept. It was a productive conversation.

We agreed to meet on the third Tuesday of the month in the future, since the Sierra Club book club meets on the fourth Tuesday. So our next discussion will be Tuesday, March 20, 6 - 7:30 pm. We will meet at Fresh Deli in the Davenport Freight House (421 W River Dr, Davenport IA).

We had three professors from St. Ambrose at our discussion, including a professor of English literature, Emily Kingery. Emily suggested a book she teaches in class that will be perfect for Women's History month. It is Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. You can read more about the book at the link to the title. I am going to include a few quotes from reviews.

(Note: Since the book includes visual art, you may want to get the paperback rather than get it on your e-reader.)

"Marrying prose, poetry, and the visual image, Citizen investigates the ways in which racism pervades daily American social and cultural life, rendering certain of its citizens politically invisible. Rankine's formally inventive book challenges our notion that citizenship is only a legal designation that the state determines by expanding that definition to include a larger understanding of civic belonging and identity, built out of cross-racial empathy, communal responsibility, and a deeply shared commitment to equality."—National Book Award Judges' Citation

"So groundbreaking is Rankine's work that it's almost impossible to describe; suffice it to say that this is a poem that reads like an essay (or the other way around)—a piece of writing that invents a new form for itself, incorporating pictures, slogans, social commentary and the most piercing and affecting revelations to evoke the intersection of inner and outer life."—Los Angeles Times

For book discussion questions click here.

Alta Price

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PACG Progressive Book Club - February 27, 2018

2/2/2018

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PACG is starting a Progressive Book Club!

Join other progressives in discussing interesting books, both non-fiction and fiction. This is our first month, so the date/time and location may change in the future. For now we will meet on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6:00 pm at Fresh Deli at the Freight House in Davenport.

Date/time: Tuesday, February 27th at 6:00 - 7:45 pm

Where: Fresh Deli, Freight House, Davenport, IA

Book selection: The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr

Overview of book:
Vengeance and bitter violence have had their turns -- without redemptive results. How should we as a society respond to wrongdoing? When a crime occurs or an injustice is done, what needs to happen? What does justice require?

Howard Zehr, known worldwide for his pioneering work in transforming our understandings of justice, here proposes workable Principles and Practices for making restorative justice both possible and useful. First he explores how restorative justice is different from criminal justice. Then, before letting those appealing observations drift out of reach, into theoretical space, Zehr presents Restorative Justice Practices.

March book: March is Women's History month. What books could you suggest for that theme? We will decide at our February meeting.

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Join the PACG Book Club Facebook Group

Join the PACG Book Club Facebook Group

March 2018 Board Update

March 2018 Board Update

PACG Book Club - April, May and June 2018

Get your books for the next three PACG Book Club discussions now!

PACG Book Club - March 20, 2018

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is our March 2018 book.

PACG Progressive Book Club - February 27, 2018

PACG is starting a Progressive Book Club!

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