On this page you'll find information about past book clubs.
Would you like the Library to run a club in the future?
Please let me know and I'll be in touch.
Jessica Silver-Sharp/Librarian
<silversharpj@smccd.edu>
What: This Spring we're reading Mia Alvar's highly acclaimed In the County: Stories. Three times this semester, we enjoy discussions as an informal group via Zoom and/or in-person @ Skyline College. No homework beyond reading is required.
For April 12, please read from page 63 to page 154. If you're using the audiobook, listen to the following three stories: Legends of the White Lady, Shadow Families and The Virgin of Monte Ramon.
Who: The Book Club is facilitated by librarian Jessica Silver-Sharp.
When: Our second meeting takes place Tuesday April 12 @ 2:00-3:00pm. Didn't attend the first meeting? No problem - just sign up here so we'll know you're coming: bit.ly/MiaAlvar
Where: This is a hybrid club! You can join in person at the Library (Skyline College, Building 5, 2nd floor) or by zoom at this link:
https://smccd.zoom.us/j/83121121288?pwd=SGRPYzBGSU03bFJxSGNFL2oxQkxkUT09
Who can join? The Book Club is open to students, faculty and staff in SMCCCD. Undocumented students are especially welcome. The Book Club is a safe space for discussions about sometimes difficult topics. The theme of this book of fiction is the Filipinx diaspora.
Can I get credit for participating? This is a non-academic book club. However, you may speak to your professor to learn whether they might offer extra credit for facilitating a club meeting.
Do I need to read the entire book? As this is a book of short stories, we'll discuss only selected stories at each meeting. Attendance at every meeting is not required. You can also listen to the audiobook if you choose. Send Jessica an email message if you need help locating a copy of the book. (Skyline's copies are checked out but others are available).
Questions? Please contact Jessica Silver-Sharp, Librarian <silversharpj@smccd.edu>
Join a campus Book Club at Skyline College Library!
What: We'll read modern fiction with a theme related to migration or life as an immigrant or undocumented person. We'll enjoy great discussion as an informal group. A copy of the book will be provided. No homework beyond reading is required.
When: Drop by the Library any time during the Week of October 14 to vote for the book you'd like to read. See the book display next to the Library Check Out desk!
When: We'll meet at the Library about every two or three weeks for one hour through the end of the semester (dates to be scheduled). Snacks and drinks will provided.
Who can join? Book Club is open to undocumented and immigrant students and their allies (students, faculty and staff). Discussions will be facilitated by Pamela Ortiz Cerda and Jessica Silver-Sharp & hosted by Skyline College Library.
Questions? Contact Jessica Silver-Sharp <silversharpj@smccd.edu> or stop by the Reference Desk
Sign up today: bit.ly/TenorioBookClub
What: Our student FIRE Club has chosen Lysley Tenorio's highly acclaimed The Son of Good Fortune as our Fall 2021 selection. (Tenorio is also our UndocuWeek keynote speaker Friday morning at 10am). Three times this semester, we'll enjoy discussions as an informal group via Zoom. A free copy of the book will be provided. No homework beyond reading is required.
Who: The Book Club will facilitated by librarian Jessica Silver-Sharp. Any students interested in co-facilitating should please get in touch! This is a nice leadership opportunity for your resume.
When: Our first meeting will take place Thursday, November 4 @ 4pm on zoom. Once I hear from you, I'll send you a zoom link and help you get a free copy of the book to borrow for the entire semester.
Who can join? The Book Club is open to undocumented and immigrant students and their allies (fellow students, faculty and staff) in SMCCCD.
Interested? Questions? Please contact Jessica Silver-Sharp, Librarian <silversharpj@smccd.edu>
U.S.A. Student Club, faculty, and staff gravitate to new campus Book Club
For those who love great books and salty snacks, a first ever Book Club collaboration between Skyline College’s U.S.A. undocumented students club, the Dream Center, and Skyline Library proved a perfect ending to a long semester. While the initial idea was for a student book club based on bestselling author Nicola Yoon’s The Sun is also a Star, a romantic novel whose protagonist is undocumented, the idea quickly attracted Skyline faculty and staff. With U.S.A. and the Library providing free copies of the book, the group gathered in the Library to discuss the book during two meetings in April and May. For a quick hour, all titles were scrapped as members gathered as equals to explore and critique themes, characters and plot. After the semester concludes, U.S.A. will sponsor a group trip to the movies to enjoy the just released film of the same title.
Would you like to join or know more about U.S.A.? Join a Fall 2019 book club on a similar theme? Contact Dream Center Coordinator Pamela Ortiz Cerda <ortizcerdap@smccd.edu> or Jessica Silver-Sharp <silversharpj@smccd.edu>.
In the Country: Stories by
These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere--and, sometimes, turning back again. A pharmacist living in New York smuggles drugs to his ailing father in Manila, only to discover alarming truths about his family and his past. In Bahrain, a Filipina teacher drawn to a special pupil finds, to her surprise, that she is questioning her own marriage. A college student leans on her brother, a laborer in Saudi Arabia, to support her writing ambitions, without realizing that his is the life truly made for fiction. And in the title story, a journalist and a nurse face an unspeakable trauma amidst the political turmoil of the Philippines in the 1970s and '80s. In the Country speaks to the heart of everyone who has ever searched for a place to call home. From teachers to housemaids, from mothers to sons, Alvar's powerful debut collection explores the universal experiences of loss, displacement, and the longing to connect across borders both real and imagined. Deeply compassionate and richly felt, In the Country marks the emergence of a formidable new writer.
Book Reviews:
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/books/review/in-the-country-by-mia-alvar.html
Kirkus: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mia-alvar/in-the-country-alvar/
Illegally Yours: A Memoir by
A funny and poignant memoir about how as a teenager, TV writer Rafael Agustin (Jane The Virgin) accidentally discovered he was undocumented and how that revelation turned everything he thought he knew about himself and his family upside down. Growing up, Rafa's parents didn't want him to feel different because, as his mom told him: "Dreams should not have borders." But when he tried to get his driver's license during his junior year of high school, his parents were forced to reveal his immigration status. Suddenly, the kid who modeled his entire high school career after American TV shows had no idea what to do -- there was no episode of Saved by the Bell where Zack gets deported! While his parents were relieved to no longer live a lie in front of their son, Rafa found himself completely unraveling in the face of his uncertain future. Illegally Yours is a heartwarming, comical look at how this struggling Ecuadorian immigrant family bonded together to navigate Rafa's school life, his parents' work lives, and their shared secret life as undocumented Americans, determined to make the best of their always turbulent and sometimes dangerous American existence. From using the Ricky Martin/Jennifer Lopez "Latin Explosion" to his social advantage in the '90s to how his parents--doctors in their home country of Ecuador--were reduced to working menial jobs in the US, the family's secret became their struggle, and their struggle became their hustle. An alternatingly hilarious and touching exploration of belonging and identity, Illegally Yours revolves around one very simple question: What does it mean to be American?
Youth Activism in an Era of Education Inequality by
Diverse case studies on how youth build political power during an era of racial and educational inequality in America This is what democracy looks like: Youth organizers in Colorado negotiate new school discipline policies to end the school to jail track. Latino and African American students march to district headquarters to protest high school closure. Young immigration rights activists persuade state legislators to pass a bill to make in-state tuition available to undocumented state residents. Students in an ESL class collect survey data revealing the prevalence of racism and xenophobia. These examples, based on ten years of research by youth development scholar Ben Kirshner, show young people building political power during an era of racial inequality, diminished educational opportunity, and an atrophied public square.
The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on College Campuses by
Meet the new breed of student activists--uncompromising, focused, and connected. Activism is once again back on college campuses as students protest issues such as sexual assault, climate change, racial injustice, and student debt. It's perhaps unsurprising that the current political moment has triggered the rise of a new breed of student activist--uncompromising, focused, and connected. But many pundits have variously derided student activists as either "snowflakes," too fragile to encounter opinions that run contrary to their own, or as "social justice warriors" who aggressively fight against those who transgress the ever-changing bounds of political correctness. The New Student Activists moves beyond these simple stereotypes and convenient caricatures to examine the nuanced motives and complex experiences of real-life, present-day college student activists. Jerusha O. Conner offers insight into who these student activists are--the causes they care about, the strategies they deploy, the factors that motivate and sustain them, and the impact they have had on their campuses and beyond. Conner dubs today's student activists "neoactivists," who borrow from and build on the legacies of past generations of college student activists. Exploring when, how, and why this diverse group of students turned to activism, Conner examines the social and educational influences on their sociopolitical development. She also reveals the fraught but mutually transformative relationship between institutions of higher education and student activists in the contemporary moment. Written for anyone interested in better understanding the latest wave of student activism on campuses, The New Student Activists raises fascinating implications for developmental theory and higher education policy and practice.
The Activist's Handbook by
In this thoroughly revised and updated edition of The Activist's Handbook, Randy Shaw's hard-hitting guide to winning social change, the author brings the strategic and tactical guidance of the prior edition into the age of Obama. Shaw details how activists can best use the Internet and social media, and analyzes the strategic strengths and weaknesses of rising 21st century movements for immigrant rights, marriage equality, and against climate change. Shaw also highlights increased student activism towards fostering greater social justice in the 21st century. The Activist's Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century details the impact of specific strategies on campaigns across the country, from Occupy Wall Street to battles over sweatshops, the environment, AIDS policies, education reform, homelessness, and more: How should activists use new media tools to expose issues and mobilize grassroots support? When should activists form coalitions, and with whom? How are students--be they DREAMers seeking immigration reform or college activists battling ever-increasing tuition costs--winning major campaigns? Whether it's by inspiring "fear and loathing" in politicians, building diverse coalitions, using ballot initiatives, or harnessing the media, the courts, and the electoral process towards social change, Shaw--a longtime activist for urban issues--shows that with a plan, positive change can be achieved. In showing how people can win social change struggles against even overwhelming odds, The Activist's Handbook is an indispensable guide not only for activists, but for anyone interested in the future of progressive politics in America.
We Demand: The University and Student Protests by
"Puts campus activism in a radical historic context."--New York Review of Books In the post-World War II period, students rebelled against the university establishment. In student-led movements, women, minorities, immigrants, and indigenous people demanded that universities adapt to better serve the increasingly heterogeneous public and student bodies. The success of these movements had a profound impact on the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century: out of these efforts were born ethnic studies, women's studies, and American studies. In We Demand, Roderick A. Ferguson demonstrates that less than fifty years since this pivotal shift in the academy, the university is moving away from "the people" in all their diversity. Today the university is refortifying its commitment to the defense of the status quo off campus and the regulation of students, faculty, and staff on campus. The progressive forms of knowledge that the student-led movements demanded and helped to produce are being attacked on every front. Not only is this a reactionary move against the social advances since the '60s and '70s--it is part of the larger threat of anti-intellectualism in the United States.
Rise and Resist: How to Change the World by
The revolution has arrived- get ready. Rise & Resist takes a wild trip through the new activism sweeping the world. The political march is back in a big way, as communities rally to build movements for environmental and social justice. But today's context calls for increasingly creative strategies to make our voices heard. Crossing the globe, Clare Press meets passionate change-makers who believe in the power of the positive. From eco warriors and zero wasters to knitting nannas, introvert craftivists to intersectional feminists, they're all up for a revolution of sorts. Are you? Join Press as she tracks the formation of a new counterculture, united by a grand purpose- to rethink how we live today to build a more sustainable tomorrow.
Call Number: KF224L64H4
Publication Date: Ramparts Press, 1972
The Best We Could Do by
An intimate and poignant graphic novel portraying one family's journey from war-torn Vietnam, from debut author Thi Bui. This beautifully illustrated and emotional story is an evocative memoir about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family's daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui's story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent--the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through. With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home. In what Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen calls "a book to break your heart and heal it," The Best We Could Do brings to life Thi Bui's journey of understanding, and provides inspiration to all of those who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past.