Happy
Black History
Month!
This month we are reading "Black Buck" by Mateo Askaripour. We will be discussing this book at our next meeting on March 2nd.
The Olive G Pettis Book Club meets on the first Thursday of each month from 6:30 to 7:30 PM
In February we are reading Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour. This book was chosen in honor of Black History Month.
"In his debut novel, Mateo Askaripour offers a witty yet thrilling examination of the complexities of race in corporate America. The novel centers on Darren Vender, a 22-year-old Black man who shares a Brooklyn brownstone with his mother and works as a shift leader at Starbucks. Despite graduating at the top of his high school class, Darren did not go to college and seems to lack ambition. That changes after a chance encounter with Rhett, the CEO of a buzzy tech startup called Sumwun, who invites Darren into the ruthless world of corporate sales.
While fighting for his upward mobility at Sumwun, Darren risks alienating his family, friends and himself. Eventually, an unfortunate incident rattles the foundation of Sumwun and sends Darren on a life-changing and culture-shifting journey that is full of twists, turns and some truly profound messages.
(...)
Black Buck is an ambitious book. While being an intellectual and captivating work of satire, it also serves as an instruction manual for Black and brown people working in white-dominated spaces. Askaripour embeds tokens of wisdom in his well-crafted plot and delivers direct messages of advice and encouragement to readers. There is great risk in such ambition, but Askaripour is a fine writer and superbly executes his vision.
This is an entertaining, accessible and thorough look at America's race problem, a book both of the moment and one for all seasons. It’s a necessary read for those living under the weight of oppressive systems as well as for those looking to better understand their complicity within them"
-Reviewed by Langston Collin Wilkins for BookPage.com
Recent Reads
January 2023, New Year
We read: Reader's Choice of Memoirs
December 2022, Holiday Season
We read: Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
Overall we give it: 1/5 stars
November 2022, Native American Heritage Month
We read: Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Overall we give it: 5/5 stars!
October 2022, Halloween/Mystery
We read: The Thirteenth Tale by Debbie Macomber
Overall we give it: 3.5/5 stars
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