February's book and film clubs...

Both our book (Red River by Lalita Tademy) and film club (In the Heat of the Night, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger) selections this month were thematically linked with Black History Month, and our conversations were quite interesting. Red River addressed prejudice/inequalities experienced by blacks during post-Civil War Reconstruction through the 1930s in the deep South, and In the Heat of the Night exposed the continuing racial prejudices in the deep South during the 1960s. And, at both the book and film club meetings, we marveled at the fact that racial prejudice persists in subtle and not-so subtle forms today, but having a viable biracial Democratic Presidential candidate (Barack Obama) seems to illustrate "the times they are a-changin'," to quote Bob Dylan.

MARCH BOOK & FILM CLUB SELECTIONS:

Book club - Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle America's Soul by Karen Abbott - celebrating Women's History Month by reading about the "world's oldest profession." Join us on Sunday, March 16 at 1:00 or Thursday, March 20 at noon for discussion. Copies of the book are available at the library.

Film club - Streetcar Named Desire, starring Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando. Join us on Wednesday, March 19 at 7:00 to discuss this flick. Copies of the film will be available about a couple weeks before the discussion meeting. AND, there will be some copies of the play itself available, if you're curious to see the similarities/differences between Tennessee William's original play and the Hollywood film version....