Fletcher Division Books
FLETCHER DIVISION – Round 1
MATCHUP #1
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Book title: To Kill a Mockingbird
Book author(s)/editor(s): Harper Lee
Paperback price: $9
324 pages
Other formats available:
- Audible audiobook: Yes
- CD audiobook: Yes
- Kindle: Yes
Used as common read elsewhere?
Yes (no count though)
Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?
The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator’s father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. Historian, J Crespino explains, “In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism.”
As a Southern novel, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets. (Wikipedia)
What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?
Programs on class, ethics, gender roles, sexual assault and racial inequality
Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?
We can watch the movie at the end
VERSUS
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Book title: Indian Horse: A Novel
Book author(s)/editor(s): Richard Wagamese
Paperback price: $11
240 pages
Other formats available:
- Audible audiobook: Yes
- CD audiobook: Yes
- Kindle: Yes
Used as common read elsewhere?
Unknown
Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?
This book is about an Ojibwe man’s experience growing up in an Indian Boarding school in the 80s in Northern Ontario. This could start conversations about the Native American and Indigenous experience.
What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?
We live in an area rich with Ojibwe history. We could have a local Ojibwe story teller, Ojibwe artists, and other cultural experts come in. I would love to see a regular Pow-Wow at LSSU and this might be a good connection to the book. Indian school survivors could share their stories or we could show documentaries about the experience. We could have people talk about treaty rights. A couple years ago the Arts Center hosted a screening of “Our Fires Still Burn” with a panel discussion – we could do that or a similar film again.
Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?
This book is short and heavily features hockey. It is a very powerful book but I feel I need to give a warning that it also details physical and sexual abuse that occurred in the schools. I worry that it would be triggering to some students but I also feel that it’s important to make sure people are aware of the truth of what happened at these places.
MATCHUP #2
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Book title: Beneath a Scarlet Sky
Book author(s)/editor(s): Mark Sullivan
Paperback price: $10
524 pages
Other formats available:
- Audible audiobook: Yes
- CD audiobook: Yes
- Kindle: Yes
Used as common read elsewhere?
Unknown
Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?
Beneath a Scarlet Sky is a novel, based on a true person and his accounts of his time during world war II. The author chose a novel approach to better tell the story, rather than simply writing a biography. The book follows Pino Lella, a teenage boy, as the Nazis invade Italy. Pino is sent to a monastery in the mountains where he helps Jews cross into Switzerland. Eventually he is called back and forced to enlist in the military and ends up as the driver for a Nazi General. Throughout the book there is a sense of needing to unite among many characters, and there is heroism in helping Jews escape the Nazis. Throughout the book we see several struggles for Pino, such as balancing his hatred for the Nazis and their treatment for people with the need to work for the common good and continue to spy for the allies. We also see a romance between Pino and a woman, who is servant to the General’s mistress. In the end she is killed by a mob who associates her with the Nazis, unaware of the contribution she has made by helping Pino spy. Pino, in this situation is paralyzed and fails to speak up on her behalf and then must live his life knowing he let her die, thus showing a lesson about speaking out for right and against wrong and the incredible cost of not doing so.
What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?
social justice, discussions of tribalism and heroism that goes un-noticed, marginalized populations
Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?
I probably did not do the programs part justice but I feel this could be an excellent campus reads. Also, it is being made into a movie.
VERSUS
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Book title: The Alice Network
Book author(s)/editor(s): Kate Quinn
Paperback price: $11
560 pages
Other formats available:
- Audible audiobook: Yes
- CD audiobook: Yes
- Kindle: Yes
Used as common read elsewhere?
Unknown
Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?
It’s fascinating to learn about the key role that female spies played in WWI. I think it will start conversations about female empowerment 100 years ago.
What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?
Not sure
Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?
It’s a great read! But, there is some graphic sex in the book. Not sure if that’s a deal-breaker.