The Gender Book Club May’s selection is Unexpected, refreshing and unique

If you have ever giving any thoght to being part of the Gender Book at the Netork now would be a fun time to join, the selections for May and June are not your useal book club book selecitons, The book section for the May 15 meeting is a graphic novel “The Fun Home: A family tragicomic”, by Alison Bechdel. The book is an unexpected autobiography with illustrations that add humor and depth to the story. This novel was the best book of the year on many national lists, such as the New York Times, Village Voice, the Advocate, and Newsday, when published in 2006.

 The book jacket best describes Alison Bechdel’s work:

“In this Groundbreaking, best-selling graphic memoir Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.

Distant and exacting Bruce Bechdel was and English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the “Fun Home.” It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered her father was gay, A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.”

On June 19 the club will discuss The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves. In this anthology, sixty-three award-winning authors such as Michael Cunningham, Amy Bloom, Jacqueline Woodson, Gregory Maguire, David Levithan, and Armistead Maupin make imaginative journeys into their pasts, telling their younger selves what they would have liked to know then about their lives as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender. These are words of love and understanding, reasons to hold on for the better future ahead. They will tell you things about your favorite authors that you never knew before.

The Gender Book Club, meeting since last September, has been a wonderful adventure of books, where in a fun casual setting we learn about gender and LGBT issues and have enlightening and enjoyable discussions. The club meets the third Thursday of every month 7:00 PM -9:00 PM at the Network, 343 Atlas Ave S.E, Grand Rapids, MI. If you are new to the club, don’t be intimated because you didn’t read the book, everyone is welcome to join in on the conversations. This is a great group who is excited to read and talk about interesting gender and LGBT books. Please send any questions, suggestions for books, or just a note that you would like to participate to: [email protected].