Let’s Talk About It . . . about life and love and work and people and ideas—it’s all in books and it can come to your library. Each Let’s Talk About It series consists of five sessions, and each two-hour session is led by a professor from an area college, university or community college. Check out the series listed below and then—let's talk about it!

Affirming Aging

This series captures the hard truths that come with growing old: the surprise of seeing a wrinkled face, the anger at being unable to do what was once easy. Each of these novels takes a unique look at shared histories, mutual dependency, and the humbling experiences that come when the body wears out but the mind remains lively.

• The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry
• Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years by Sarah L. Delany, A. Elizabeth Delany, and Amy Hill Hearth
• Water for Elephants by Susan Gruen
• The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
• Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

Altered Landscapes: North Carolina's Changing World

These four novels and one history-based memoir were all written between 2003 and 2007. They bring a childhood perspective to bear on dangerous worlds where innocence is quickly lost. These works from the new millennium begin starkly with recognitions of the inevitability of violence and loss. Darkness fills the margins. Yet as grim as life can sometimes get, hope exists where it always has, in human hearts, in strong memories, in a commitment to reach across the divide to hold another's hand.

• Salt: A Novel by Isabel Zuber
• Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
• If You Want Me To Stay by Michael Parker
• Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story by Timothy Tyson
• Plant Life: A Novel by Pamela Duncan ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

America's Greatest Conflict: Novels of the Civil War

Sometimes historical facts alone are not enough to evoke the truth of the past—perhaps this is what Walt Whitman meant when he claimed of the Civil War that 'the real war will never get into the books.' In these selections novelists use their imaginative powers to re-create the greatest upheaval in our nation's history in a way that touches emotions and senses as well as the intellect.

• The March by E. L. Doctorow
• On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon by Kaye Gibbons
• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
• Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles
• Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis

 

Beyond the Battlefield: Alternative Views of War

This series features books about five different American wars. Rather than the physical landscape of armed conflict, readers examine the battlefield of the heart, the individual's struggle through the emotional consequences of witnessing the ravages of war.

• March by Geraldine Brooks
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque
• The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
• The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea by Jim Brady
• The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

 

Destruction or Redemption: Images of Romantic Love

Such a transcendent force as romantic love can have great power to destroy or redeem. and this ambiguity is a central theme in these five novels. Perhaps the most basic aspect of this kind of love is its potential to transform us in some way, however briefly.

• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
• The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
• Morgan's Passing by Anne Tyler
• A Mother and Two Daughters by Gail Godwin

 

Discovering the Literary South: The Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Series

As novelist, essayist, teacher, editor, and publisher, no single figure has done more to "discover" the literary South than Louis Rubin. So it is appropriate to name this series in his honor. The books in this series were published within the last twenty years by writers who have moved beyond the Southern hometowns of their youth. Yet they take a long look back, not for nostalgia's sake, but to bear witness to the full panoply of time's interactions with place, memory, and family.

• Gap Creek: The Story of a Marriage by Robert Morgan
• A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons
• The Jew Store by Stella Suberman
• Clover by Dori Sanders
• The Coal Tattoo: A Novel by Silas House

 

Divergent Cultures: The Middle East in Literature

In this series readers explore ancient and modern conflicts to build understanding about the varied and richly textured peoples, culture, histories, and geographies of the Middle East. A place of divergent cultures, faiths, and people, the literary landscape offers stories of tragedy, triumph, and perseverance. Libraries will choose five of the six titles for their series.

• Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi (Iran)
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
• Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
• A Perfect Peace by Amos Oz (Israel)
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace. One School at a Time by Greg Morenson & David Oliver Relin (Pakistan & Afghanistan)
• Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks (Iran Saudi Arabia Ethiopia)

 

Explorations of Faith in Literature

Religion has always been a critical element in establishing and defining our identity as Americans. In the novels of this series, we may come to see our world and oursleves with fresh eyes as we encounter faith differences and different faiths.

• Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
• The Chosen by Chaim Potok
• Travelin' Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
• Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

 

Exploring the American West . . . Whose West?

The American West offers not one story but many. Together as we read these books, we will examine some of those storiest—violent or nostalgic, tragic or heroic. Ths series offers us a way of exploring a more honest creation myth, a story truly shared.

• Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West by Patricia Limerick
• Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
• Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
• Last Refuge: The Environmental Showdown in the American West by Jim Robbins
• On Gold Mountain: The 100-Year Odyssey of a Chinese-American Family by Lisa See

 

Imagining the Future: Scientific Revelations in Fiction

Much of the joy in reading the books in this series lies in reflecting on their "scientific" predictions, but we also have an opportunity to examine our attitudes toward science and the cultural and societal by-products produced by modern science. Certainly all of the authors in this series embraced science as a source of revelation, but their emotional attitudes toward science often differed.

• The World Set Free by H. G. Wells
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
• The Space Merchants by Frederick Pohl and C. M. Kornbuth
• Greenhouse Summer by Norman Spinrad

 

Journeys Across Time and Place: Mapping Southern Identities

People constantly rethink their personal and collective identities in the flow of history. This series explores how the journey that shapes such rethinking is likely different for each of us.

• Shiloh and Other Stories by Bobbie Ann Mason
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones
• Nowhere Else on Earth by Josephine Humphreys
• Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Land of Opportunity (A Picturing America Series)

The story of the championship racehorse Seabiscuit is the story of the American Dream realized. The central figures came together in the gloomy years of the Great Depression and, through a combination of determination, perseverance and previously unrealized talent, they achieved greatness and captured the hearts of people worldwide. But all American stories do not end happily, and the books in this series explore the extent to which the American promise has been fulfilled. Selected images from the Picturing America collection may be included in the series materials to enhance discussion of themes explored in the readings and in these masterpieces of American art.

• Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow
• All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
• Seabiscuit by L auren Hillenbrand
• Noon Wine by Katherine Anne Porter
• Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia

Law and Literature: The Eva R. Rubin Series

Blaise Pascal once wrote that "Justice is what is established." In this series, writers who demonstrate the powerful interaction of law and human affairs invite readers to ponder the difference between what is established and what is just. This series is named for Eva Rubin, a leading North Carolina scholar on public policy and the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Billy Budd & Other Stories by Herman Melville
• The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
• A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
• The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter

 

Mad Women in the Attic

What happens to a woman whose behavior defies social and domestic expectations? Perhaps she is locked in an attic; more often she is a woman involved in a quest to discover her identity. These works may help us redefine "mad women."

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Sula by Toni Morrison
• Surfacing by Margaret Atwood

Making Tracks (A Picturing America Series)

In 1876, fewer than fifty years after the first railroad lines were laid in North America, Walk Whitman composed a poem—-"To a Locomotive in Winter"—- that captured the power and engery of the train. The non-fiction books, poems, novel and film selected for Making Tracks explore the ways in which the railway transformed the American landscape and helped determine where settlements and industry would develop. Selected images from the Picturing America collection may be included in the series materials to enhance discussion of themes explored in the readings and in these masterpieces of American art.

• Nothing Like It in the World by Stephen Ambrose
• Poems:
  • "I Like to See It Lap the Miles" by Emily Dickinson
  • "To a Locomotive in Winter" by Walt Whitman
  • "Window" by Carl Sandburg
  • "Night Journey" by Theodore Roethke
  • "Riding the A" by May Swenson
  • "January Chance" by Mark Van Doren
  • "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Rising from the Rails by Larry Tye
• Riding the Rails (film) directed by Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell
• Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

 

Mysteries: Clues to Who We Are

Modern crime is not elsewhere and someone else's problem but is our own dilemma in the community where we live. Modern mystery stories reflect the complexity of contemporary life. These books will encourage us to discover clues to our own identities.

• Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman
• Time's Witness by Michael Malone
• Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
• Burn Marks by Sara Paretsky
• The Last Child by John Hart

 

Myth-Making in Popular Fiction

The mass appeal of many fiction best-sellers seems to come from the combination of mythic characters and realistic historically identifiable settings. These five novels are united not only by their reliance on a sense of place but also by the similarity of their myth making.

• Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Shane by Jack Schaefer
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

 

Not for Children Only

Preeminent twentieth-century English poet W. H. Auden asserted, "... there are no good books which are only for children." While there are many reasons why great children's literature is "not for children only," the best reason may be that we as adult readers, will enjoy and discover meaning in these books.

• The Classic Fairy Tales by Iona and Peter Opie
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Dragonwings by Lawrence Yep
• The Giver by Lois Lowry

 

Places in the Heart (A Picturing America Series)

The books chosen for this series suggest the ways in which human experience is shaped, even defined, by place. They are set in an urban ghetto (Brothers and Keepers), along one of the great scenic rivers in North America (A River Runs Through It), and in small towns from Colorado (Plainsong) to Iowa (Gilead) to Maine (Empire Falls). In each, there is a deep connection between the characters and their surroundings, between them and the places they call home. Selected images from the Picturing America collection may be included in the series materials to enhance discussion of themes explored in the readings and in these masterpieces of American art.

• Empire Falls by Richard Russo
• A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
• Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman
• Plainsong by Kent Haruf
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
  

Tar Heel Fiction: Stories of Home

North Carolina writers figure prominently whenever Southern literature is discussed. This series invites us to deepen our appreciation for the South from the perspective of some of our state's finest writers.

• Raney by Clyde Edgerton
• Oral History by Lee Smith
• A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan
• Ferris Beach by Jill McCorkle
• I Am One of You Forever by Fred Chappell

 

The African American Experience: Looking Forward, Looking Back

African American literature embodies both a literary tradition and particular perspectives with which to view American history—from the horrors of slavery to the struggles of segregation and to the trials and triumphs of the civil rights movement and beyond. Literature by and about African Americans offers a variety of cultural lenses through which to better see the identities and relationships of black and white Americans. This body of literature incorporated the ways in which African American culture and sensibilities have been interwoven into the social, political, intellectual and artistic fabric of America.

• Family by J. California Cooper
• Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe M. Campbell

 

The Journey Inward: Women's Autobiography

The quest for identity often involves undertaking a journey, whether literally or figuratively. The autobiographies in this series tell of both kinds of journeys and may spur us to join the authors in attempting to makes sense of our own lives.

• One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty
• Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart
• Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
• An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
• West with the Night by Beryl Markham

The Many Voices of Latino Literature

In this series, we will encounter many of the themes and motifs that give Latino literature its richness. We will explore the diversity and the commonalities expressed by writers who share a linguistic and cultural heritage.

• In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
• Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García
• Daughter of Fortune: A Novel by Isabel Allende
• Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

 

Writers from North Carolina's Literary Hall of Fame

The shared past of these authors is the Civil War and its aftermath which gave North Carolina a distinctive history, literature, music, and lifestyle. We will find common motifs in this series including attachment to place as well as the effects of racism. These five authors share the distinction of being members of the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.

• The Marrow of Tradition by Charles Chestnutt
• Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
• The Winter People by John Ehle
• Roxanna Slade by Reynolds Price
• On Agate Hill by Lee Smith