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Activities | Book Club
Join the RPCV-WI Madison Book Club! Our gatherings are usually at 2PM the 4th Sunday of each month.
Book Club Calendar
| Sunday,
May 1st 2011,
at 2 PM
(April meeting)
|
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
By Leslie T. Chang
Chang, a former Beijing correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, explores the urban realities and rural roots of a community, until now, as unacknowledged as it is massive—China's 130 million workers whose exodus from villages to factory and city life is the largest migration in history. Chang spent three years following the successes, hardships and heartbreaks of two teenage girls, Min and Chunming, migrants working the assembly lines in Dongguan, one of the new factory cities that have sprung up all over China. |
China |
Judy |
| Sunday, May 29th 2011, at 2 PM |
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
By Nicholas D. Kristof and S
New York Times columnist Kristof and his wife, WuDunn, a former Times reporter, make a brilliantly argued case for investing in the health and autonomy of women worldwide. More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century, they write, detailing the rampant gendercide in the developing world, particularly in India and Pakistan. |
Worldwide |
open |
| Sunday, June 26th 2011, at 2 PM |
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century
By Ross E. Dunn
Known as the greatest traveler of premodern times, Abu Abdallah Ibn Battuta was born in Morocco in 1304 and educated in Islamic law. At the age of twenty-one, he left home to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. This was only the first of a series of extraordinary journeys that spanned nearly three decades and took him not only eastward to India and China but also north to the Volga River valley and south to Tanzania. |
Worldwide |
open |
| Sunday, July 24th 2011, at 2 PM |
Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World
By Seth Stevenson
Anyone familiar with Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days will already know the basic premise of Stephenson’s book: an around-the-world voyage in which we visit strange lands, meet unusual people, and have interesting adventures. |
Worldwide |
open |
| Sunday, August 28th 2011, at 2 PM |
Buttertea at Sunrise: A Year in the Bhutan Himalaya
By Britta Das
Often seen as a magical paradise at the end of the world, Bhutan is inaccessible to most travelers. When Britta Das goes to work as a physiotherapist in a remote village hospital, her good intentions are put to the test amid monsoons, fleas, and startling conditions. But as she visits homes in the mountains and learns the mysteries of Tantric Buddhism, the country captivates her very soul. |
Bhutan |
open |
| Sunday, September 25th 2011, at 2 PM |
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
By Barbara Demick
Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over 15 years – a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il Sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his sun Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the North Korean population. |
North Korea |
open |
| Sunday, October 23rd 2011, at 2 PM |
War Trash
By Ha Jin
Ha Jin’s new novel is the fictional memoir of a Chinese People’s Volunteer, dispatched by his government to fight for the Communist cause in the Korean War. Yu Yuan describes his ordeal after capture, when P.O.W.s in the prison camp have to make a wrenching choice: return to the mainland as disgraced captives, or leave their families and begin new lives in Taiwan. |
Asia |
open |
Indicates that Madison Public Library has a book club kit for this, including discussion questions.
Contact the Book Club Event Chair for more details. |
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