In 2024-25, Tempe Public Library’s Reading Global Book Club will read fiction and non-fiction focusing on Tempe’s Sister Cities. Each book is either written by an author from one of Tempe’s Sister Cities, or focuses on those cities, and each book club meeting will include discussions led by individuals with deep experience in the diverse and compelling histories and cultures of these communities.

All Reading Global Book Club meetings will be held at Tempe Public Library, 6:00pm-7:30pm.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Mr. Pip, Lloyd Jones (2006)

Lloyd Jones was born and raised in Lower Hutt, Tempe’s sister city in New Zealand. Mr. Pip, his tenth novel, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2007. Set in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea during that country’s civil war, it traces the power of words and the imagination as a source of hope, as a makeshift teacher shares Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations with his students.  The book was adapted for the screen, starring Hugh Laurie (2012).

Discussion will be led by Dede Carrera, Country Director, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, Tempe’s sister city since 1981.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Jawbone, Monica Ohayda (2017, translation 2022 by Sarah Booker)

Ecuadorian writer Monica Ohayda is one of Latin America’s most daring new voices.  She draws on classic horror as well as the internet phenomenon of “creepypastas” in what she calls “Andean Gothic.”  Jawbone has won wide recognition, most recently as a finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Fiction. Framed as a coming-of-age story of a group of teens, Jawbone has been described as “a hair-raising novel about the horrors of adolescence.”

Discussion will be led by Jill Glickman, Country Director for Cuenca, Ecuador, Tempe’s Sister City since 2008.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts, Joshua Hammer (2016)

Situated on the trans-Saharan caravan route, Timbuktu was for centuries a center of Islamic scholarship, and home to thousands of precious Arabic- language manuscripts. Award-winning journalist Joshua Hammer first visited the city in 2006. His book describes how Timbuktu citizens responded when their city’s historic legacy was threatened during Mali’s 2012-13 Islamist insurgency. 

Discussion will be led by Beth Berlage, Country Director for Timbuktu, Mali, Tempe’s Sister City since 1991.

And coming in Spring 2025…

February: The Time of the Goats, Luan Starova (1993, translation 2012 by Christina Kramer)

Discussion will be led by Jean Rusen, Country Director for Skopje, North Macedonia; and Christina Kramer, translator. 

March: Making Paradise: Art, Modernity, and the Myth of the French Riviera, Kenneth Silver (2001)

Discussion will be led by Burke Files, Country Director for Beaulieu-Sur-Mer, France.

April: The Murder Farm, Andrea Maria Schenkel (2008, translation 2014 by Anthea Bell)

Discussion will be led by TBD.

About Tempe Sister Cities, Tempe Public Library, and the Reading Global Book Club

Since the early 1970s, Tempe AZ has been a leading participant in the United States’ Sister Cities’ Association, which aims to bring people together across the boundaries of nation, race, creed and ideology, “One Friendship at a Time.”

Tempe has eleven sister cities on four continents, and for over 50 years students, teachers and professionals have traveled to and from Arizona as citizen-diplomats, advancing mutual understanding and building relationships across the world. 

For more information on Tempe Sister Cities, including the high school youth exchange and other programs, please visit  https://tempesistercities.org/

For up-to-date information on Tempe Public Library’s book clubs, including Reading Global, please visit https://www.tempepubliclibrary.org/event-calendar/book-clubs

To see past titles and reading guides from the Reading Global Book Club, please visit https://melikian.asu.edu/research-and-partnerships/projects-and-initiatives/reading-group