Gather Bookclub - Session 2

It's back! We are so pleased to get moving on our next book club. At our last session, the discussion was insightful, thoughtful and inspirational, and we cant wait to see you all at the next one.

For this session of the book club we will be reading novels by women of colour that explore black female experiences in modern society.

The three novels we will be discussing are: 

• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo,
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and 
• Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson.

Our discussion for this session will centre around the issues faced by the women in these stories, such as identity, privilege, race, friendship, love, power, and societal expectations. We will explore what these women mean to us, what stories resonated with us, and how our own experiences shaped the lens through which we read the novels.

In addition to the books we encourage you to check out the audio and visual resources related to the novels and will enrich and inform the discussion. 

• Girl, Women, Other is available to listen to on BBC Radio 4,
• Chimamanda Nngozi Adichie TED talk 'The Danger of a Single Story', and 
• Renee Watson has a series of Conversations and educational resources on her website.

Condensing this rich and broad theme to three novels has been a challenge. In searching for which novels to put forward, we have collected a list of other novels that have been added to the Gather literature thread.  If you know of a book that fits in with the theme, please bring it along to enrich the discussion and/or add it to the above thread. We are always looking for the next great read!

Feel free to join our discussion whether you've read one novel, all three, or other novels within these themes. We encourage a discussion larger than the specifics of each novel and your insights will be a welcome contribution.

Please support your public library and your local independent or second hand book shops. Your community and our planet need you. I hope you can join us on Wednesday 21st October.