As we begin to settle into the new semester, the similarly exciting prospect of welcoming in another term of Center for Women and Gender Equity’s (CW&GE) Book Club crests the horizon! This fall, we will be reading “The Skin and Its Girl” by Sarah Cypher, a story examining and piecing together the Rummani family’s history and legacy, as well as the secrets and half-truths spun and embedded within their fabric, queerness and one’s personal responsibilities to family. The blurb for the novel on Penguin Random House’s website reads:
In a Pacific Northwest hospital far from the Rummani family’s ancestral home in Palestine, the heart of a stillborn baby begins to beat and her skin turns vibrantly, permanently cobalt blue. On the same day, the Rummanis’ centuries-old soap factory in Nablus is destroyed in an air strike. The family matriarch and keeper of their lore, Aunt Nuha, believes that the blue girl embodies their sacred history, harkening back to a time when the Rummanis were among the wealthiest soap-makers and their blue soap was a symbol of a legendary love.
Decades later, Betty returns to Aunt Nuha’s gravestone, faced with a difficult decision: Should she stay in the only country she’s ever known, or should she follow her heart and the woman she loves, perpetuating her family’s cycle of exile? Betty finds her answer in partially translated notebooks that reveal her aunt’s complex life and struggle with her own sexuality, which Nuha hid to help the family immigrate to the United States. But, as Betty soon discovers, her aunt hid much more than that.
Needless to say, planning the book club got me thinking about books and the fact that I find book history endlessly fascinating. For me, this extends beyond the history of books, beyond the creation and dissemination of such texts and encompasses the history of a book in an individual’s life, and, yes, I may be playing fast and loose with terminology. A book will mean one distinct, inscrutable thing to one person and a categorically different, inexplicable thing to another. Such is the beauty of words! Book clubs can bridge the gap of inexplicableness or offer a nice viewing window, and there lies the importance of collective journeys – they don’t erase one’s own interpersonal connection, but create an entirely new one: a shared legacy within a novel. Everyone’s own thoughts, feelings and experiences intertwining and connecting, creating one exciting, fervent jumble of understanding.
As former Peer Educator and Book Club extraordinaire Haley Mattes states, “Book clubs and rallying around literature allow us to move from the personal to the collective; what starts as internalized personal growth and pursuit of knowledge transfers to the involvement of others and widespread care and investment.” There is endless joy to be found within community building, particularly when that community has the opportunity to craft a shared connection or legacy with a piece of art. It is, in fact, an act of community care to enjoy, experience or witness art together.
This fall’s CW&GE Book Club will take place from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays in Main Hall 200. The first session will be on Sept. 24. Our first meeting will involve introductions, predictions and anticipations for the text. Meetings will then occur every Tuesday, with each meeting covering roughly 70 pages. Even if you have not read that week’s reading, please come — if you’re comfortable with spoilers — to discuss! You are also welcome to stay for as long as you like and arrive after the start time, whatever works best for you and your schedule — Book Club will welcome you! Refreshments and drinks will be provided, and the first 15 attendees will receive a free copy of the book.
Alexis Stakem is a third-year English major with a minor in Social Work Concepts. AS996397@wcupa.edu