Exploring the West...Whose West?
Let's Talk About It book discussion group meets once a month to discuss a work chosen from the semester's theme and to learn more about the author. This fall, we will explore the myths and the history of the American West.
Copies of the books are available for loan from the Library's Information Desk. To sign up for this series, call (515) 239-5656 or visit the Information Desk.
Tuesday, September 16
Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West by Patricia Nelson Limerick
Organizing this history of the American West around the notion of "conquest," Limerick examines the ways in which the myths of the west—both as open space to be settled and as sage wilderness to be tamed—have allowed those in power to defend their claims to property and resources.
|
 |
Tuesday, October 21
"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," a short story by Dorothy Johnson, and
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
As the myths of the West were called into question, fiction writers attempted to reflect this change by exploring a very different West than that enshrined in the cowboy-and-Indian stories first elaborated in dime novels and perpetuated in Hollywood movies.
Check Our Catalog >>
|
 |
Tuesday, November 18
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
This episodic novel follows the fortunes of an all-Indian rock band. In doing so, it reminds us that Indians did not vanish with the frontier and shows how difficult it is, even at the end of the twentieth century, to escape from the everyday tragedies of reservation life.
|
 |
Tuesday, December 16
On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of a Chinese-American Family by Lisa See
Tracing her family through five generations, Lisa See not only tells the story of her own immigrant family but shows how the anti-Chinese sentiments and laws shaped the lives of the Chinese in America.
Check Our Catalog >>
|
 |
