This series's book discussion centers around major literary prizes. We meet at 5:00 on the 2nd Thursday at the Main Library, 305 Wick Ave., in the 2nd floor meeting room.
Our May title and the last in this series is Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (biography) by Carolyn Fraser, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. This book is available at the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County and the YSU Barnes & Noble. Haven't read the book yet? No worries.
"Extensively researched, PRAIRIE FIRES reflects Fraser’s deep knowledge of westward expansion, and captures the full arc of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life in three acts: poverty, struggle, and reinvention. Fraser illuminates how Wilder’s wildly popular Little House series was a ‘profound act of American myth-making and self-transformation’ by a woman who had reimagined her frontier life as epic and uplifting, with disappointment and loss transformed into parable. Fraser keys into the vexed relationship between Wilder and her daughter, Rose, a profligate tabloid journalist prone to dramatic mood swings, and locates a dark libertarian strain running through the family. This biography considers a cultural touchstone–Little House on the Prairie–and magnificently places it in the American experience and imagination.” https://prairiefiresbook.com/
Our next discussion series will center around the literary element of place.
September (historical fiction) A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
October (poetry) The Parting Present by Manuel Iris
November (nonfiction) Historic Theaters of Youngstown by Sean Posey
December (essays) Ohio Apertures by Robert Miltner
January (short stories) The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
February (creative nonfiction) Just Us by Claudia Rankine
March (short stories) What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg
April (memoir) 50 Miles by Sheryl St. Germain
May (novel) Ohio by Stephen Markley