I've facilitated Pearl Buck's book Peony in multiple venues, most recently in my county-wide public library around three years ago. The group has been meeting monthly since August 2012; the discussion of Peony was one of the most successful. This is from participants' written comments even recently; the group included/s retired academics, retired high LOC librarians, retired Jewish communal professionals, authors ... and a significant minority do not identify as Jewish.
By coincidence, for a new facilitating venue, just put together a short list of suggestions about books for the group to read about two weeks ago. Here is my short description: Nobel Prize winner, daughter of Protestant missionaries in China, the novel about the decline of the Kaifeng Jewish community, her writing so historically accurate used in university curricula. Have seen some comments and the original query [get digest, so more may come in that would not have seen]. My perspective is that whether a particular author can write about other genders, other cultures, ... depends on the talent of that author. After these multiple preparations for facilitations, I also happen to think that if Pearl Buck hadn't been a woman, she would have won a Nobel Prize for Peace in addition the one in Literature. Pearl Buck was bilingual, and spent her first forty years in China. Here's a quick bio, from a university source. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/Buck/biography.html*:*:text=From*20childhood*2C*20Pearl*20spoke*20both,Kung__;I34lJSUlJQ!!KGKeukY!lS6IJAP94RRre2CAGHFQzn33qHTBJnWU_1AfiNUOwdRNXdE5ENrYxZB0dFg2dlZE2Do$ . May take a few weeks to get to my stored files; however, if anyone is going to facilitate and would like suggestions about background reading and preparation, please email me at jonina.du...@aya.yale.edu And if it's okay for an AJL conference "plug" ... I am talking about my experience facilitating a Judaic-themed book discussion group in a county-wide public library. Please see the detailed conference materials for what will be covered. (Also, while a very infrequent poster, I try to send a copy to the original poster in case my response isn't accepted by the moderator; due to the Digest format somehow I couldn't find an email for the person who first asked about Peony.) Wishing all safety and health during the virus siege. Good Shabbos and Chag Sameach in advance. Praying for peace .... __ Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) ================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: hasaf...@lists.service.ohio-state.edu To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: galro...@osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html Earlier Listserver: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org -- Hasafran mailing list Hasafran@lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
