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Southland is a controversial book!


Discussion of Southland was heated! There were lovers and haters of the book. From the topic of the Japanese internment during WWII to the race riots of L.A. in the 60s, there was lots of history to slog through - in a good way. I'm not sure I'm qualified to summarize the whole discussion because it really ran the gamut from the truly analytical - why so many voices and points of view; how one-dimensional some characters seemed; the author's choice to flip frequently from one time period to another - to the more subjective - why didn't Jackie break up with her girlfriend before kissing another woman?!; why did everyone love the grandfather so much?

It was a great discussion. Thanks everyone.

March's title is Dionne Brand's 2006 novel What We All Long For. Random House has some discussion questions on their site. Be sure to check those out.

Take note we've selected titles for April and May as well. For April we chose something that appears to be a bit on the lighter side - we need that after The Child and Southland - Ali Leibegott's Lambda winner The IHOP Papers. And for May we're going with a Lindy pick, another graphic novel, Skim, by Mariko Tamaki. Lindy's never steered us wrong.

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