The OCJRC Book Club selections have been curated with an emphasis on stories of refugees from around the world. These stories explore how refugees retain their identities, create new bonds, and build a life in a new country across generations. We will focus on stories of resilience across generations and continents– stories that speak to refugee communities and to the communities that accept, bear, and reject them.
We will read one book a month, which will be accompanied by a primer with questions, contexts, and frameworks to help shape our discussions. Participants will also be presented with poems and other media to help supplement some of the Book Club gatherings. All participants are highly encouraged to bring their life experiences, stories, concerns, and questions to the discussion as we move in, out, through, between, and beyond the texts each month. All ages, identities, and perspectives are welcome!
Register at https://tinyurl.com/
(Books must be purchased separately).
We meet on Fridays, monthly, at 1 pm PT from September – June.
The schedule and the books for the series are:
September 9th | Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American by Wajahat Ali
October 7th | The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives by Viet Thanh Nguyen
November 11th | The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You by Dina Nayeri
January 13th | The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar
February 10th | The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears: A Novel by Dinaw Mengestu
March 17th | America is not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
April 14th | Where We Come From by Oscar Caesares
May 19th | While the Earth Sleeps We Travel by Ahmed M. Badr
June 9th | If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi: Stories by Neel Patel
