For those of you in the Ann Arbor — Ypsilanti area who are still interested, we still plan to move forward with the idea of the progressive book club. I talked with the folks at the Ypsi public library, and they said that we could use their space. Now we just need to decide on a date and time. While I’m working that out (the first meeting will probably be early in February), I thought that you (at least those of you who plan on participating), might like to start reading the first book in the line-up. Fortunately, I just spoke with my friend Jim, the EMU professor who will be leading the first discussion, and we’ve made a decision as to what that first book should be. It will be Tomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America“… So, if you’re so inclined, you can go ahead and pick up a copy and get reading. (For those of you who aren’t in the area, or can’t make it to the meeting, I’ll see what I can do about putting some of our discussion on-line in some format.)
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Wasn’t there any space available in Ann Arbor?
I called the Peace Neighborhood Center (in Ann Arbor) and they wanted to charge us. My second choice was the Ypsi library, and they said the space would be free. That’s when I stopped looking. I’d be glad to keep looking, however, if those of you from Ann Arbor, like Kristin, are afraid of coming to Ypsi… Our library can get pretty rough at night.
Is that book available at any Ypsi branch yet?
Though the AA “libary” has swearing patrons and not enough porn filters (http://bpdw.com/blogfodder/banforcussing.html), I will bring my knife to protect the people who brave the far East.
I’m not sure, Leighton. I haven’t looked for “What’s the Matter with Kansas” in the library. I was thinking of buying a copy so that I could write in it… And thanks for allerting me to the Ann Arbor Public Library’s “cussing ban.” (I wonder if the guy profiled in the article will be coming to Ypsi now that he’s been told to stay out of the Ann Arbor branch.)
An update on the “cussing patron” controversy. Apparently he’s enjoying the sybaritic life in sunny California:
“Foul-mouthed patron Frederick Alan Maxwell has dropped his lawsuit against the Ann Arbor District Library. Maxwell had filed a $115,000 suit after the facility banned him for a year. Maxwell claimed his suspension was the result of his uttering the f-word within earshot of a staffer; the library however, asserted the ban was the result of several violations by Maxwell, including his ignoring a previous one-month ban and violating several library policies. In the suit, Maxwell contended that the library violated his First and 14th Amendment rights and that its director Josie Parker libeled him in a memo. Maxwell told U.S. District Judge George Steeh that since he has bid Ann Arbor adieu he no longer has the “time, resources, or inclination to continue returning from the California sun to the Michigan snow to be an unpaid change agent for a town where I used to live.” Steeh thus dismissed the case.”
(From Library Journal, 12/16/2004)
I’d be interested in the book group you proposed, so please post the time & place when you know for sure.
First we lost Steve and Hillary Cherry, and now the cussing library patron. Washtenaw County doesn’t have a chance. (And, Felix, I’ll be posting something else about the book club this week.)
Does anyone know of good reading clubs in Ann Arbor? If so, please let me know by emailing me at abdulrahman292@hotmail.com.
Thanks.
abdulrahman,
I’ve heard that the “ypsi-arbor progressive book club” is pretty good.
I think that perhaps he was suggesting that ours was not “good.” (Like how an attractive woman might walk up to man at a bar and say, “Are there any attractive men here tonight?”) Of course, that may just be my reading of it… As you all know, I have very low self-esteem.