Hi folks! Emily here. It’s a lovely Saturday in Tucson, and I’m sitting at my dining room table reflecting on the beautiful energy and thoughtful conversations that we participated in last week during our second Solutions Focused Community Book Club. It perhaps goes without saying, but if you joined us for our second “Solutions Focused Community Book Club,” then you know it was a fabulously fun night filled with great conversation, amazing snacks and drinks, and a lot of book-sharing, including a raffle of next month’s selection (look at the happy winners, below!). Thank you to Caitlin Schmidt and The Tucson Agenda for sponsoring the book raffle ❤

For our book club this month, we read Sara Nisha Adams’ The Reading List, which is a lovely novel that explores, through a shared reading list, how various members of a small London suburb came together and built relationships over a shared reading experience.

For us, this book was so perfectly aligned with our “solutions-focused” book club theme and offered some good reminders about the power of reading and community building:

• Feelings of loneliness and isolation are challenges that members of every community face, but our public institutions, including libraries (and for us, the shared convening space at our Community Foundation!) can serve as places where people can connect over shared experiences and shared interests. Bringing people together and creating spaces for conversation, relationship building, and (perhaps!) problem-solving IS at the heart of true community-building! If we want to go far, we need to go together.
• Reading builds empathy and breaks down barriers. As we learned during our first book club back in June (I Never Thought of It That Way by Monica Guzman), judgment rather than curiosity can deepen divisions and polarization between people and groups. If the idea of engaging in curious conversations is still somewhat uncomfortable for you, there is a lot of evidence showing that reading engages your mind in a perspective (or lived experience) that is different from your own. Having a sense of what others might experience – including challenges they face, increases empathy and understanding. Ultimately, this gnome is a HUGE believer in reading as a way to better understand others, break down barriers, and cultivate an appreciation for experiences and cultures outside of your own.
• Reading helps us learn how to solve problems. This was, perhaps, one of the strongest themes of The Reading List – each of the characters learned some valuable life lessons from the books they read – whether it was how to be brave, how to stand up for others, how to deal with regrets, how to process grief, and how to find solace during difficult times. Seeing each of the characters harken back to the books they had read in order to help them solve a challenge they were faced with was remarkable. Reading (including fiction!) is learning, and learning is key to problem-solving.

Ok, it’s probably time that I got off my “everyone should read!!!” soapbox, but I’m still so energized from the buzz and positive energy we had in the room this week (I think over 40 of you came out to chat about the book!). If you haven’t read The Reading List, you should!

And if you want to see a typed-up list of what’s on the reading list that the book club participants co-created, you can view it here!

If you’re intrigued by the book club, we welcome you to join us at our next book club on Wednesday, September 27, 2023. Again, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona is collaborating with us on this and will be hosting us, and Caitlin Schmidt (co-founder of The Tucson Agenda) will be co-hosting as well! We’ll be reading How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong. Through research, interviews, and stories of lived experience, the book challenges us to return to our inherent connectedness where we find strength, safety, and support in vulnerability and generosity, in asking for help, and in being accountable. You can learn more by watching this interview with the author (via the Aspen Institute).

You can RSVP for the book club here! We would love to see all your smiling faces there. We look forward to engaging in more inspiring, productive, and energizing conversations with you!

And our usual reminder applies: as a super small nonprofit, we can’t do any of this without your amazing financial support and generosity. We’ll soon be launching our fundraising campaign for next year’s programs and book-hiding adventures. But if you’re feeling inspired, gifts to support our work are always welcome (this link will take you to our PayPal donation page)! THANK YOU!