The Brown Bag and a Book club recently discussed Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, a book set in the late 1970s and centered on a family caught up in animal experimentation with regards to behavioral science. Team services librarian Renata Sancken, who facilitated the meeting, shares some of her thoughts about the book and talks about the best book she’s ever read.
From the book: “We call them feelings because we feel them. They don’t start in our minds, they arise in our bodies, is what my mother always said, with the great materialist William James as backup. It was a standard component of her parenting — that you can’t help the things you feel, only the things you do.” -p 223
What is the best book you’ve ever read and why?
“This is a hard question for a librarian to answer! I might say The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It’s a great combination of beautiful writing on important topics (religion, colonialism, racism, sexism, privilege), populated with compelling characters. The novel is narrated in turn by five women who each have their own distinct voice.”
Read more about Brown Bag and a Book’s discussion and see what other book clubs are reading in our spring issue.
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