Year Zero Book Club Commencing Soon

Let's read classic works of history and narrative nonfiction together

I have been meaning to launch a book club for a while and now that I am engrossed in J. Anthony Lukas’ Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, I figured it would be a good time to invite paid subscribers to read alongside me. The linked wikiPedia page briefly summarizes the book, which traces the paths of three Boston families through the racial turmoil of the 1970’s. So far, I find it to be an amazingly thorough and perceptive work of narrative nonfiction that deserves its reputation as an enduring classic of the genre.

I’ll be publishing a book report in the next few weeks and we can soon thereafter convene on Zoom to discuss. I’ll have some prepared remarks to begin the conversation leading to open-ended conversation. Perhaps some readers will in the interim contact me stating an intention to make prepared remarks of their own, preferably accompanied by some demonstration of merit that makes such an allocation seem a worthy use of the group’s time. Some others may just want to leave a comment here indicating interest in taking part, thus providing me with a sense of how heavily subscribed such an event would be, or perhaps even start a conversation about the period of state-enforced school integration that is the book’s subject.