Thank you to everyone who joined the conversation on Sunday about Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World by Laura Spinney. Below find notes from the discussion, information about the upcoming Bay Area Book Festival (online this year, of course) and the chance to win a free pass, and the details for our April discussion of The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak .
Notes from Sunday's Discussion
A hopeful takeaway from the book: The 1918 pandemic led to improvements in public health, public housing, and sanitation; gains in scientific understanding; and the implementation of health systems.
And a caution: Our participants from the US, UK, and Germany reported learning little to nothing about the 1918 pandemic during their high school history classes. If we want the lessons of our current pandemic to last, we will need to prioritize it.
Links for further reading, viewing, and exploring:
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter (the short novel inspired by the author's experience with the flu appears in various collected works). An article about the writing of the novel.
On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf (Check out the opening 181-word sentence here.)
A History channel article on mask-wearing in 1918
Video of a May 2020 talk by Laura Spinney: "The 1918 Spanish flu and why it still matters"
PBS documentary, Influenza 1918
Local Literary Events: Bay Area Book Festival
The Bay Area Book Festival has released the schedule for this year's festival, which is being held online this year. Some events at the May 1-9 festival are free and some are ticketed. Two of our past authors are participating: Yaa Gyasi (author of our January book, Homegoing) and Adam Hochschild. One of the free events that may interest our world affairs readers is the May 9 event "Splitting the World Open: A Booker International Prize Roundtable of Dangerous Women Writers." Schedule and details.
The organizers have announced a chance to win an all-access pass. Here is how you can enter the drawing, if you are interested:
Upload the cover of a book you are reading OR looking forward to reading in 2021 to Instagram or Twitter and hashtag it #MyBayBookFest along with a short caption of what excites you about the book. Make sure to tag @baybookfest in your post.
All photos submitted will populate at baybookfest.org and will automatically be entered into win one of seven all-access passes to the virtual 7th Annual Bay Area Book Festival taking place May 1-9, 2021. Winners will be chosen randomly--and you can enter up to once a day!
The winner will be chosen and contacted through social media on April 28th.
April Discussion
For April, we turn to The Bastard of Istanbul by the renowned novelist Elif Shafak, author of a past book group favorite, The Architect's Apprentice. Discussion scheduled for April 25!
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