Village Reads

Email us at villagereadsorg@gmail.com to submit any questions you would like to ask of the author.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar!
When: August 10, 2020 04:00 PM EST:

Village Reads: Readers and Writers in Conversation with Abdi Nor Iftin

The event does not require registration.

You will require access to a Zoom account (basic services are free) and the Webinar ID and password below. 

Or, please click on the link to join the webinar Monday, August 10th at 4 PM: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88973964153?pwd=eFdORUNJcThiYzhYK29Hdi82dElIQT09

Webinar ID: 889 7396 4153

Password: 374314

Introducing our 2020 Authors & Their Books:

June 22 - July 13

Blue Marlin by Lee Smith

Author event: 4:00 PM, Monday, July 13th.

Longtime summer resident of Castine, Maine, New York Times best-selling author Lee Smith was born and raised in the tiny town of Grundy, Virginia, deep in Appalachia, where most of her short stories and novels are set. Released in April 2020, in time to make many quarantine reading lists, Blue Marlin tells the story of a small-town Virginia family as they head south to Key West for a much-needed vacation meant to patch up a floundering marriage.

Narrated by the 13-year-old daughter Jenny who spies on her neighbors and keeps a notebook—“I would use this stuff later, in my novels,” she explains—the story’s central conflict is an internal one, which from the very first page of this story lands eerily close to home: “One day I was riding my bike all over town the way I always did, and the next day I was riding my bike all over town knowing it, and this knowledge gave an extra depth, a heightened dimension and color, to everything.”

Shannon Ravenel reviewing Smith’s work wrote, "In almost every one of [her stories] there is a moment of vision, or love, or unclothed wonder that transforms something plain into something transcendent." 

 “Fiction has always been how I try to make sense of my own life,” Smith explained in an interview. “I am not my characters, but often they are going through things I’ve been through. I can read over an old story and remember exactly who I was then, where I was, and what I was dealing with when I wrote it.”

Rest assured that Jenny’s character and this charming novella will leave you with a wonderful set of fresh insights into the author as a young girl and the art of reading.

July 15 - August 10

Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftin

Author event: 4:00 PM, Monday, August 10th.

Abdi nor Iftin was born and raised in the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, far away from his home in Portland, Maine. For 29 years before he was randomly selected to apply for a United States green card in 2013 while living as a refugee in Nairobi, Kenya—“a status we are assigned,” he explains, “and everything else that follows is a daily reminder of not being a full participant in the opportunities of planet earth”—at the whim of the police and in flight from the extremist militant group al Shabaab, Iftin dreamt of living in a world free of wars and brutality.

Called to tell his story and the stories of “my friends who risked their lives in the Sahara, who crossed oceans and the ones who were imprisoned pursing this dream,” Iftin risked his own life in recording audio diaries that were broadcast by the BBC and NPR.

“I wanted to tell the human side of the story, of ordinary people, not the warlords or fighters,” he explained in an interview at Boston College, where he is a part-time Woods College student majoring in political science. “Those were the stories the world needed to hear.”

This journey would become Call Me American, a memoir published on World Refugee Day in 2018.

“For those of us who went through [war, oppression, and violence], every day of freedom is both a gift and a reminder of the dangers facing those who have fled their homes.”

In January 2020, at the age of 34, Iftin became an American citizen. “It gets more exciting from here,” he responded in an interview with the Bangor Daily News. “This November I will get to vote for the first time in my entire life. I’ve never voted anywhere.”

Abdi Nor Iftin’s memoir Call Me American was released in a new, young adult version this week, as reported by the Bangor Daily News.

August 01 - August 27

MY GRANDMOTHER’S HANDS: RACIALIZED TRAUMA AND THE PATHWAYS TO MENDING OUR HEARTS AND BODIES by Resmaa Menaken

We are joining with the Readings on Race discussion group of the Blue Hill Public Library, organizers of this community read or this book by Resmaa Menakem
The Blue Hill Public Library discussions will be on Zoom Sat 8/1 at 2-4pm, Wed 8/12 at 6-8pm, Th 8/27 at 6-8pm- CLICK HERE for more details on events.

“Moving from race to culture is important, transformative, and takes work. A lot of work. I help people, communities, and organizations find strength in healing that is holistic and resilient. Together let’s set a course for healing historical and racialized trauma carried in the body and the soul. I am a healer. I help people rise through the suffering’s edge. I am a cultural trauma navigator. I am a communal provocateur and coach. I consider it my job in this moment to make the invisible visible.”—Resmaa Menaken, Healer, Author, Trauma Specialist

“My Grandmother's Hands is a gripping journey through the labyrinths of trauma and its effects on modern life especially for African Americans. In this important book, Resmaa's penetrating insight into trauma is profoundly impactful but even more powerful and useful are his strategies for addressing it. For healing.

He is a brilliant thinker who is able to bring a multitude of research and experience together to guide us in understanding how trauma affects our lives. How trauma is a part of all of our lives. And how the history and progression of trauma has produced a culture in which no one is immune.

This is essential reading if we are to wrest ourselves from the grips of trauma and discover the tropes in which our bodies and our minds are free of it.” —Alex Pate

In response to the Black Lives Matter Movement we will be partnering with the Readings on Race discussion group at the Blue Hill Public Library, organizers of this community read.

We will send updates on the status of this community read text and encourage all interested to listen to Menakem’s recent conversation with Krista Tippet on her excellent podcast OnBeing. Audio and ebooks for this title are readily available for purchase.