Recently, the ARRT Book Club Study met to discuss Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew DesmondHere is the summary from Goodreads:
From Harvard sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond, a landmark work of scholarship and reportage that will forever change the way we look at poverty in America In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.
The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.
Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.
Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
Click here for the notes on our excellent discussion. And click here for our leadership training notes from the second half of the meeting on serving outside book groups in your community.
Also, even though attendance at the Book Club Study discussion and leadership training meeting is a member perk, as always you can visit the ARRT Book Club Study Archives to see the notes on every book we have discussed [in alpha order] and also the Leadership Topics [also in alpha order].
This archive is a wonderful training tool for you to learn about topics all book groups struggle with and see examples of discussions for a wide range of books.
And we do this 4x a year. Here is the announcement of our next discussion Look for notes soon after April 16th:
Please join us for a discussion of Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, led by Carrie Straka.
The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker in a home whose squalor is the talk of the neighborhood and a day job as a secretary at the boys’ prison, filled with its own quotidian horrors. Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city. In the meantime, she fills her nights and weekends with shoplifting, stalking a buff prison guard named Randy, and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes. When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at Moorehead, Eileen is enchanted and proves unable to resist what appears at first to be a miraculously budding friendship. In a Hitchcockian twist, her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.
-Summary courtesy of Goodreads.
The discussion will be held:
Tuesday, April 16th, 2-4 p.m.
RSVP to Carrie Straka (cstraka@itascalibrary.org)
As always, discussion of the book includes a nuts-and-bolts session devoted to sharing practical solutions to the problems and concerns of book discussion leaders. Our upcoming leadership topic, led by Greta Ulrich, will offer participants a chance to share their favorite under the radar book discussion gems. Please come ready to book talk a title or two that worked really well with your group. Try to focus on less obvious choices.
Also, remember that you can always bring any problems or concerns you have with your group, no matter the topic, so we can all help each other.
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