Global Issues Book Group
The Global Issues Book Group, reads and discusses books on the vital Political, Economic, Environmental and Social issues that challenge humankind in the 21st Century.
January 2019
Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy
Starting with the question "what is this place?", Ece Temelkuran guides us through her beloved country. In challenging the authoritarian AKP government, Temelkuran draws strength and wisdom from people, places and artistic expression. The result is a beautifully rendered account of the struggles, hopes and tragedies that make Turkey what it is today.
"Ece Temelkuran, with this book, has become one with those who have stood up throughout history to despotic and criminal leaders."-Seymour Hersh
Tuesday, January 8th at 6:30 PM
February 2019
The Last Girl
Co-Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2018
Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. On August 15, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to be sold into slavery. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade. After being repeatedly raped and beaten, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety.
Today, Nadia's story has forced the world to pay attention to the ongoing genocide in Iraq. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.
"This devastating memoir unflinchingly recounts Murad's experiences and questions the complicity of witnesses who acquiesced in the suffering of others." -The New Yorker
Tuesday, February 8th at 6:30 PM
