Would you like to learn more about cultural and global issues, but find that time is lacking?  This is the third session in our new book review series.  Two novels and one book of essays will be reviewed in this session, so take a few minutes from your day to enjoy listening to members of our College community describe the books they have been reading.  You should be able to take something from the presentations, and if a book appeals to you, you can follow-up by reading it yourself.  The Library will purchase copies of the books for checkout as well as provide a display of related works.

• The Painted Drum, a new novel by Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe)

Reviewed by Clay Randolph, Professor of English

Louise Erdrich, noted author and member of the Ojibwe tribe, explores the power of the drum in American Indian culture in this her eleventh novel.  Erdrich’s protagonist is Faye Travers, a contemporary Native American living in New Hampshire.  Travers, an estate evaluator, discovers an old tribal drum in the attic of a home.  What she does with the drum and the ensuing events form the plot of this very readable novel.

• War Talk by Arundhati Roy

 

Arundhati Roy’s essays, written from an Indian and a liberal perspective, explore the political world of post 9/11 and provokes “nationalists” to consider the question of “difference” on a global scale.  “To call someone ______ is not just racist, it’s a failure of imagination.  An inability to see the world in terms other than those that the establishment has set out for you….”  The essays will also help us to reflect upon the question of “empire” as the world goes on after 9/11.
Reviewed by Stephen Morrow, Professor of Learning Skills

• What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage

Reviewed by Carlotta Hill, Professor of Learning Skills

What’s Love Got to Do with It?  With AIDS, drugs, poverty, dissolution of the family, and loss of identity as key cultural issues in the African American community, how does love fit in?  What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage answers that question with hope and the possibility of love.