Book Discussion

Book Discussion is typically held the first Sunday of each month at 4:00 pm.


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A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

Sunday, April 12, from 4-5:30 pm


We will be reading  A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza.


A Place for Us, the debut novel by author Fatima Farheen Mirza, opens with a kind of homecoming. Amar, the youngest child of an Indian American Muslim family, has returned after a three-year absence to attend his oldest sister Hadia's wedding. Layla, the young man's mother, has been looking forward to finally seeing her son, but is worried about how Amar's father, Rafiq, will react: "The only men she had left in this world to love and neither of them knew how to be with one another."


Mirza's book gets to a universal truth: To be part of a family is to learn how to be more than one person, how to remain an individual while fulfilling the duties we have to those who love us, who made us. It is almost never easy; it is sometimes, in fact, impossible. A Place for Us is a stunning novel about love, compassion, cruelty and forgiveness — the very things that make families what they are.


A Place for Us follows Amar and his sisters, Hadia and Huda, as they grow up in northern California. Their family is, at its best, a happy one, although Rafiq is a strict father who sometimes lets his temper get the best of him. The siblings have a tight bond, keeping secrets from their parents for one another, watching each other's backs, performing small acts of kindness when they can.


 We will meet on 4/12 from 4:00 pm -5:30 pm.

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Agism by Ashton Appewhite

Sunday, May 3, from 4-5:30 pm



We will be reading This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Agism, by Ashton Applewhite. 


From childhood on, we’re barraged by messages that it’s sad to be old. That wrinkles are embarrassing, and old people useless. Author and activist Ashton Applewhite believed them too—until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces Applewhite’s journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life. The book explains the roots of ageism—in history and in our own age denial—and how it divides and debases, examines how ageist myths and stereotypes cripple the way our brains and bodies function, looks at ageism in the workplace and the bedroom, exposes the cost of the all-American myth of independence, critiques the portrayal of olders as burdens to society, describes what an all-age-friendly world would look like, and concludes with a rousing call to action. Whether you’re older or hoping to get there, this book will shake you by the shoulders, cheer you up, make you mad, and change the way you see the rest of your life. Age pride!


Visit https://thischairrocks.com/ for more details.


We will meet on 5/3 from 4:00 pm -5:30 pm.