Join Outright VT, the Mad River Valley Libraries, the Waterbury Public Library, and the Harwood Union High School Library for a community book discussion open to all teens and adults.
Facilitators from Outright Vermont will lead a discussion of this year's Vermont Reads 2023-24 book selection, "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" by Malinda Lo. Recommended for ages 14-adult, the book won the 2021 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, The Stonewall Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, among many other honors. This year it was chosen by Vermont Humanities for their statewide one-book reading program, Vermont Reads.
Our discussion will explore themes centering on the lives of LGBTQ+ youth, finding community, and how the lessons from a book set in the 1950s are relevant today. Copies of the book are available to check out from the Mad River Valley Libraries and are available at the Harwood Union High School library.
Registration is appreciated: https://forms.gle/vycu7ZDdCt29f6Jb6 Walk-ins also welcome. We will meet in the high school library.
About the book:
Teenager Lily Hu is fully immersed in the life and culture of San Francisco's Chinatown, home to Chinese immigrant families like hers. But as she comes of age in the 1950s, her passion for rockets and space exploration is matched by her curiosity about the Telegraph Club, located in a neighboring part of the city her parents have asked her to avoid. Lily and her new friend, Kathleen, begin to sneak out at night to the club, which hosts performances by Tommy Andrews, a woman who dresses and performs in a traditionally masculine style. Kath and Lily's interest in each other continues to grow despite the very real danger faced by two girls falling in love in 1954.
At the same time, McCarthy-era fears about Communism, coupled with ongoing anti-Asian hate, shake the stability of the Chinese community and threaten to engulf Lily's own father.
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