Spread some Holiday Cheer

The OLC will be on break for the holiday season, and we will reconvene on January 10th, 2010 to discuss The Book of Night Women by Marlon James.

In the meantime, please consider participating in the Winter Wishes program organized by New York Cares, New York’s largest volunteer organization.

The program works like this: I will send you a handwritten letter from an underprivileged New York child who might not otherwise receive a present this season. You take the letter and buy the toy or gift requested, wrap it and I collect it from you and arrange to have it delivered to the child in time for Christmas. The gifts requested generally cost less than $40.

If you are interested, please contact me. Have a wonderful holiday season!

PUSH into December

October wrap-up: An interesting issue came out of our discussion of Chris Cleave's LITTLE BEE concerning the reality of oil conflict and related violence in Nigeria. I came upon this article concerning Nigeria's oil war that really enlightened me and I suggest checking it out.

November: Its time to get to the movie/book everyone's been talking about. We will be discussing PUSH on Friday, November 20th at 7PM (Sharp - the Brooklynites have no excuses) at the first South African restaurant in the United States, Madiba in Brooklyn. You are strongly encouraged to watch the movie (which is in theatres now) before the meeting so we can discuss the juxtaposition between the book and Lee Daniels' interpretation of it.



Thinking ahead to December - pick up a copy of our next selection The Book of Night Women by Marlon James. It is a slave narrative set in Jamaica and written in Patois that is sure to open your eyes to aspects of black history you were unaware of and comes highly recommended by Nicole. Here is a link to the author's blog so you can get a glimpse into this up and coming young black author's life and thoughts.

Start brainstorming cheerful books for the new year since we have had a string of depressing stories lately... Feel free to post any comments or book suggestions. See you all on the 20th!

Also, in other clearly related and important breaking news, here's the entire interview with Rihanna and Chris Brown's publicist-crafted response.

MEETING UPDATE

Due to schedule conflicts, the meeting date and location to discuss LITTLE BEE has been changed. Instead, we will be meeting at Society on Sunday, November 8th at 12pm sharp for a delicious brunch and discussion. Don't forget to pick up your copy of PUSH by Sapphire which is our next selection. Also, in case you don't have enough to read, check out this review of PRECIOUS in New York Magazine.

October's Book Club Selection...

We will be meeting on Friday, October 30th at 7 pm for dinner to discuss Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Because part of the book is about Africa, the proposed meeting locale is Awash, an Ethiopian restaurant on 106th and Amsterdam. Feel free to comment with other suggestions.

Our selection for the month of November is Push: A Novel by Sapphire. The film, which is entitled Precious opens on November 6th, and we will schedule a date to see the film together at the next meeting.

Oprah's Book Club Selection

The Real “Queen of All Media,” Oprah Winfrey (or rather, her team of minions at Harpo) has decided on her Next Official Book Club selection.

“Say Your’e One of Them” by Uwem Akpan.

The book is a series of short stories told through the eyes of African children in five different countries (Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Benin and Ethiopia) and delves into the the horrors and tragedies they encounter in their war-torn and impoverished homes. Oprah’s Book club has become much less of a priority since its inception in 1996 (when books were chosen on an almost monthly basis), and “Say Your’e One of Them” has been the only selection thus far in 2009. Oprah will no doubt use this as an opportunity to relaunch not only the club but her interest in the welfare of children in Africa, and there will probably be a whole series of fundraising and awareness initiatives surrounding the book. This is also the first time that Oprah’s Book Club has selected either a short story collection or a book by an African author, and it won’t take long for the Oprah effect to turn Akpan, a Nigerian Jesuit priest, into a multi-millionaire. Hopefully the book not only changes the author's life, but the minds of his readers and the lives of his subjects as well.

The New Yorker Festival

The 10th annual New Yorker Festival will be taking place from October 16th-18th this year in New York City showcasing a variety of authors, actors, directors, politicians, and musicians through Q&A’s, readings and concerts. Some particularly interesting events include:

A reading by Edwidge Danticat (who’s short story collection Krik?Krak! was a previous OLC selection) and Junot Díaz

A Q&A with Madea himself (and director of last weekend’s #1 film I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF), Tyler Perry.

And an advance screening of "Precious", our November selection, followed by a panel featuring the Director, Lee Daniels and the author, Sapphire.

What is the Onyx Literary Club?

The Onyx Literary Club was born out of a book club among friends in the summer of 2009. This blog is a resource for information on book club selections, meeting times and locations, and other information associated with literature and cultural events. Welcome.