In honor of the KU Black Love Symposium, which celebrates the 80th anniversary of Their Eyes Were Watching God, we wanted to join in on the excitement and discuss this beautiful classic!
Bookish News:
HUGO Awards — women kicked butt!
N.K. Jemisin is the second woman to win two years in a row in a quarter century!
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and The Hate U Give are being made into movies. Find out more info here.
Two Book Minimum:
Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard (2017)
Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (2012)
Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw (2017)
Uptown Thief by Aya De Leon (2016) from the Justice Hustlers series
bonus: Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (2012)
She Said/She Said: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel and the best known work by African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston. The novel narrates main character Janie Crawford’s “ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny.”[NEA] As a young woman, who is fair-skinned with long hair, she expects more out of life, but comes to realize she has to find out about life ‘fuh theyselves’ (for herself), just as people can only go-to-God for themselves. Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received for its rejection of racial uplift literary prescriptions. Today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African-American literature and women’s literature. TIME included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923. [More info]
Upcoming Events:
- Claudia Rankine discusses Citizen – Sept 7th
- Black Love Symposium – Sept 11-18th, with panel activities on Sept 14-16
- Feminism & Sci-Fi forum – Intro session on Tuesday, Sept 19
- Banned Book Trading cards — surprise host! Stay tuned!
- Beach Author series presents George Saunders! Find more info here.
Once a month, the librarians are in, with their favorite recommendations in Two Book Minimum, a toe-to-toe discussion on a book or topic in She Said/She Said, as well as news from the book world, updates from Lawrence Public Library, and beyond. This episode was produced by Jim Barnes in the Sound & Vision studio.
You can find the Book Squad Podcast on iTunes, opens a new window, Stitcher, opens a new window, or SoundCloud, opens a new window. Please subscribe and leave us comments – we’d love to know what you think, and your comments make it easier for other people to find our podcast. Happy reading and listening! xo, Polli & Kate
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