It’s my turn to take a crack at convincing you to read our fall Read With Us book selection, The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor. While I’m tempted to just say, you should read this because Kym and Bonny and I recommended it . . . I realize that may not work for all of you. So, here’s my pitch.

Read it because it’s an award winner. Yep. Naylor won the National Book Award for first fiction for this book back in 1983.

Read it because it’s short. At only 192 pages it’s a fast read. If you choose to listen it’s just over 3 hours long.

Read it because it may help you walk in another woman’s shoes. You may be meeting characters who are different from you, who have had experiences that are unlike your own. At it’s core this book is about women who face incredible challenges because of their race and economic circumstances, women who experience pain that is so real it will make you cry, women who are blamed and judged and ridiculed . . . by each other and by society. Some of this will make you angry. A lot of it will probably break your heart and there are parts that may make you uncomfortable. But when we read about situations that are different from our own, when we encounter characters we struggle to understand and settings unlike where we live, that’s when we find empathy. That’s when we grow, not just as readers but as human beings. That, my friends, is when reading becomes magical.

I hope I’ve convinced you to read The Women of Brewster Place with us.

Hold on to your hats, friends, because I’m about to share some exciting news. Today Bonny and Kym and I are announcing our fall book selection for the Read With Us Book Club and it is . . .

The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I have only just started this book. BUT it comes so highly recommended and I already love what I’ve read so far and that leads me to conclude that I’m 100% confident that it’s a great choice for us. It won the National Book Award for First Novel in 1983. It’s on the Zora Canon list, which is a list of the 100 best books by Black women authors. And it was adapted as a miniseries for television back in 1989 and was also a television show in 1990 produced by Oprah. Good street credentials there, am I right?

It’s a collection of intertwining stories of seven women living in Brewster Place, an inner city housing development. The stories are described as touching, vulnerable, heartbreaking, resilient, loving and painful. That sure makes it sound like there will be lots for us to discuss!

It’s a fairly short book so even if you have a busy fall I think you can make the time to read it. We’ll be promoting the book on our blogs on Tuesdays in October and our discussion is set for November 10th. I hope you’ll join in and Read With Us for our fall selection.

I’ve been given the responsibility for wrapping up the time we spend reading and discussing Wild Game. It’s my first time handling this portion of our online book club and I’m technically on vacation so . . . be kind. Ha!

We each offered up questions on our blog last Tuesday and the discussions were interesting. Bonny talked about whether we are all destined to become our parents. Kym’s discussion question centered around the use of Mary Oliver’s poem The Uses of Sorrow. And here on Carole Knits we talked about how the book impacted you as a reader. I followed all the discussions and I think it’s safe to say that those 3 topics covered most everything y’all wanted to talk about regarding this book.

I was a little surprised that the book wasn’t more universally liked . . . quite a few of you didn’t enjoy it or couldn’t relate to it because the author’s relationship with her mother was so dysfunctional. For me, that’s the great thing about reading a memoir. You either relate (as I did and some of you also did) or you don’t. But I would argue that not relating to someone’s experiences doesn’t make it less valuable. I would say that reading about a life that’s vastly different than yours can help you find compassion and empathy for those that are different. And isn’t that one of the main reasons for reading? To understand the world around us? It is for me and I’m guessing it is for many of you, too.

And now for the part you’ve all been waiting for . . . our prize winner! It’s Vicki! Congratulations Vicki and thanks for joining in on the discussion on all 3 of our blogs. We just need your address and then we will get that prize right in the mail to you.

Thanks again to everyone who Read With Us. We will be announcing our fall book very soon!

Today’s the day that Bonny and Kym and I are offering discussion on our summer Read With Us book selection, Wild Game. We are each sharing a question (or two) on our blogs and are hoping you will visit them all and share your thoughts.

My question is this:

What was Wild Game’s impact on you as a reader? Does the author’s story make you think about your own life or experiences differently?

For me, the biggest impact the book had on me was to remind me of my own relationship with my mother. And to illustrated that our relationship shaped so much of who I am as an adult, in both good and bad ways.

As I mentioned when I teased about this book, there was a lot of the author’s story I could relate to. Not in specific terms, my mother never had an affair to my knowledge (although there was a family friend that she was very close to and I always sort of wondered if there was something going on there) but, like Malabar, she was very charismatic and loved to entertain. She could also be very manipulative and often treated me more as a confidant than as a daughter. This wasn’t the case when I was a little girl but by the time I hit junior high things were different. She was drinking a lot. She was in an unhappy marriage and there was a lot of fighting and conflict in my home. I was expected to deal with a lot of adult things at a pretty young age. Some of that, like in the case of Adrienne Brodeur, was overwhelming and scary and put a lot of stress on me. And some of that, also like for Brodeur, made me grow up quickly and become self-reliant and independent.

It’s hard to be the daughter of someone who is self-absorbed and manipulative and the life of every party. It’s hard to fight for your own needs and stand up for yourself as a person; it’s even harder to expose your mother’s behavior to those who simply see her as fun-loving and a great cook. I applaud Ms. Brodeur for her bravery and honesty and I admire how she has finally come to terms with this relationship.

Now it’s your turn to answer my questions. I look forward to reading what you have to say. And! Bonus! We have a prize package again this time, every comment you leave on our blogs today gives you a chance to win.