February’s book for book club left me in puddles of tears with five empty Kleenex boxes surrounding me as I read the painful ending of Never Let Me Go. The book was about three friends- Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth who grow up in a seemingly idyllic English boarding school where they are treated with immense care and are pushed toward the direction of the arts. Kathy falls in love with Tommy at a young age and although Tommy’s feelings are mutual, Ruth (Kathy’s best friend) snatches poor Tommy up for her own after one of the school teachers announces that the students at Hailsham school will grow up to be organ doners. The story follows the three friends through their childhood memories at Hailsham and their experiences in the real world before they are assigned to start donations. The book is beautifully written and tugs at the heart while forcing the reader to question what he/she would do if the plot was real.
This month, I will be reading Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. This thin somewhat-graphic prose poetry depicting the author’s memories of racial injustices in her and others’ personal life. Rankine writes with simple diction but grabs her audience’s attention through her emotional experiences with racism and segregation in the 20th century.
