This is something I handed out at the last discussion from the Scottish Poetry Library. I think it’s a great guide for people who don’t read poetry often or at all.
Ocean Vuong Reading
Here is Ocean reading at the T.S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings. Ocean does not talk until about the 2nd minute. The person introducing him is Ian McMillan
Ta-Nehisi Coates: A Reading List
The author gave a talk with the New York Review of Books and the New York Public Library made a list of books he had recommended in the talk. In the comments readers give their personal recommendations as well.
Homelessness
The Walls’ itinerant nature brings up an important point about homelessness. So I thought I would share some stories and statistics to give people a basis as to what homeless people in America face today. This would be extra credit reading as it were and won’t actually apply to our discussion of the book
Family Homeless Facts – Green Doors
Surveys Show Homeless Kids, Families On The Rise – Stephanie Dickrell
Hidden Homeless: Some Valley Families, Students Struggle – Marcia Moore
Supporting Teens and Families in Crisis – Nina Shapiro
Homeless and Hoarding – Leah Sottle
Bill Offers Day-Care Subsidies to Families With Homeless Kids – MacKenzie Riggs
In Baltimore Schools, Free Meals for All – Erica L. Green
Concentration of Public School Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch – National Center for Education Statistics
That Homeless Man You Stepped Over Is My Dad – Abigail Haworth
The Reason I Jump
For February 2016 we are reading The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida for our February 29th discussion.
As always if you didn’t pick up your copy of this month’s book at the last discussion, you can pick it up at at the Circulation Desk on the 1st floor.
Edwardian Spiritualism
It’s mentioned early in Thunderstruck about the Edwardian Age’s fascination with the paranormal. Spiritualism, a holdover from the Victorian period, fascinated the minds of many in European and American society. I decided to look a little closer into this phenomenon and brought out a few great articles!
First is this thoroughly researched article from Collector’s Weekly which not only goes into the history of planchettes – one of the many devices employed by mediums – but also a detailed look into Spiritualism itself.
Second I decided to pull up some newspaper articles of the time to get a feel for how people wrote about the seances; believers and skeptics.
The Evening News – 4/5/1904 – Look for the “Gossip of the Day” on Mr. William Frith, R.A.
The Monitor and New Era – 11/14/1908 – Read a “Seance Story”
St. James Gazette – 8/28/1903 – Some con artists and what the St. James Gazette sees as the root of Spiritualism
The Evening News – 3/9/1906 – A fraud is exposed
The Evening News – 6/20/1903 – Colonel Mayhew catches a con artist
If you want to read more articles from London newspapers from this time, or even American newspapers, you can use the database I used Access Newspaper Archives. It’s a great tool!
True Story Book Club 