This book club is for people at the U-M School of Social Work to connect over brown bag lunches to discuss good books.
Currently the club is organized by Marisa Tucker and Betsy Williams, with thanks to Callie Torkelson for co-organizing our restart. We welcome your involvement at all levels. To join you can email Marisa or Betsy, or simply add yourself to our listserv (U-M login required).
Tuesday August 12 at noon, in person in room 4684 SSWB, with a zoom option.
This review from the Irish Times names difficult topics shown in the book.
This review from the LA Times discusses how McDaniel interviewed family members and wove their experiences of racism and abuse into her fiction.
In this interview with Guernica, McDaniel discusses those interviews and the sexism she encountered on her road to publication, and explains why she is not smiling in her author photo.
This Instagram reel includes photos of some of the women in the book.
In this 3 part video interview, McDaniel discusses all of the above.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM9UZcTTkW0 - time point 5:52 shows a photo of Betty and her sisters
Tuesday July 1, noon-1, in person in room 4684 SSWB, with a zoom option.
Read Scholastic's interview with Suzanne Collins, in which she discusses decisions she made in writing the book, the philosophy of David Hume, and the problem of 'implicit submission.' (note - this interview does contain spoilers but, becuase this book is a prequel, we already know a lot about what happens to the main character.)
Hear Suzanne Collins read chapter one.
Read about the upcoming movie (2026).
Tuesday May 13, noon-1, in person in room 4684 SSWB, with a zoom option.
Reviews of The Vanishing Half, from NPR, and from the New York Times
Interviews with Brit Bennett:
with Nashville PBS (video, 3 minutes)
Tuesday March 4, 2025, noon -1, in person in SSWB 4684 with a zoom option.
Tuesday January 14, 2025, noon-1 pm - in person with a zoom option
Video of interviews with Octavia Butler: (none mention Kindred)
interview recorded at Balticon 34 in April 2000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG68v0RGHsY
interview - 19 min - first half focuses on science fiction & marketing, nothing about Kindred - starting at minute 11 she discusses how she started writing & her career
1995 interview w Julie Dash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4DHYK2y3zM
- 30 min, interviewed for 1995 conference - 40 acres and a microchip - first Black cyberspace conference in the UK.
short video clip from 2005 in which Octavia Butler speaks about climate change and Parable of the Sower