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.