Tsar Follow Up - Sellout Preview

This is a slightly delayed follow up to the excellent Tsar of Love and Techno  discussion of a few weeks ago.  Thank you to all participants.  I loved the substance and structure of the conversation and will continue to look for ways to broaden the level of the conversation going forward.

 

As I hope you know by now, the next BBGG selecton is The Sellout by Paul Beatty and is scheduled for Wednesday, May 18th at 7pm.  The book is a modern day Huckleberry Finn, with biting, inflammatory social/racial satire that is one of the funniest books I've read in a long while.  The Sellout knocked Tsar out of The Morning News Tournament of Books and ended up going on to win the whole thing (always a great endorsement) and should provide the backbone for a great conversation.  I couldn't put the book down and ended up finishing it in a couple of days.  If you find yourself in a similar situation and are looking for some additional (and more serious) background reading, you should pick up Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, a recent winner of the National Book Award and one of our store's top sellers.

 

 

Alexander Hamilton did not make the list

Time magazine just released its annual list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World." Coates was among the handful of authors showcased: Bryan Stevenson wrote: "Many of us have known for years that Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of America's most compelling and thoughtful voices. His timely, provocative and well-researched writings about race and this nation's shameful history of inequality have been essential reading.... Between the World and Me is brilliantly structured, insightful and forcefully argued. He navigates the complexities and burdens of race in America compassed by a father's love for his son. But it's the soulful writing that makes the work a classic... He has much more to say, and we will all be the wiser for reading it."

Hope to see you all on the 18th.