Reading Programs, Resources, and Communities: #GBCTalks

#GBCTalks is a book-based discussion program designed to facilitate conversation about difficult issues in the Gettysburg College community.

The first events were held in spring 2016 and focused on race and social justice. We read Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

In fall 2016, we read Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine.

In spring 2017, we read Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

In spring 2018, we are reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler.

In future semesters, we would like to engage additional topics related to diversity and inclusion, especially books with intersectional themes. Have a suggestion? Please email us.

#GBCTalks is made possible by support from Musselman Library, the office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Office of Multicultural Engagement.

Please abide by the following rules during #GBCTalks discussions:

• Share airtime
• Speak honestly
• Speak from your perspective: "I" statements
• Notice your own judgment of others
• Respect confidentiality
• Welcome discomfort (as you like)

Modified from "Waking up White" by Debby Irving.

Participants have suggested these titles for campus discussion. We are sharing so folks can read independently!

• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
• The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy Tyson
• The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read the Newspapers by Aaron McGruder
• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
• Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diez
• Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust
• Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
• The Distance Between Us: A Memoir by Reyna Grande
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison, and the rest of the Broken Earth series
• From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler
• Loving Day by Mat Johnson
• Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
• Passing by Nella Larson
• Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality by Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Laura T. Hamilton
• The Power: A Novel by Naomi Alderman
• Racism Without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
• Salvage the Bones: A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
• Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
• The Sellout: A Novel by Paul Beatty
• Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
• Small Great Things: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
• Strange as this Weather has Been by Ann Pancake
• Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
• Version Control by Dexter Clarence Palmer
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
• Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson
• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Xenogenesis by Octavia E. Butler