In honor of Black History month in February, LT’s book club read books written by Black authors to commemorate and educate members on Black history. 

“We thought it was important to honor BLM [Black Lives Matter] and Black history, doing so especially by reading and choosing Black authors,” club ambassador Darragh McDermott said. “It’s important to honor the creativity of Black authors.” 

On Feb. 11, a handful of students in the book club met over Zoom at 6 p.m. to discuss the books The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet and Indigo by Beverly Jenkins, McDermott said. The books for that month were chosen via a survey with different book suggestions from club members.  

“I honestly thought it was a cool idea to read a book from a Black author because they understand the experience of being Black in the U.S.,” club student leader Lillie George ’21 said. “For example, in the book The Vanishing Half, it followed the twins being light skinned. The rest was kind of a story about them having more privilege over darker skinned Black people, something like that really showed me how deeply rooted racism was here. It really shows the major preference between the two.”

Some other members of the club, like Marilyn Fagan ‘24, appreciated the theme as well and thought it was a good way to shine light on this topic.

“It was nice that the club acknowledged the month and its meaning because the teachers really didn’t talk about it too much, especially these days when it is very important to go over and talk about with each other,” Fagan said.

The theme chosen for February was meant to have an impact on the club readers by letting them gain their own perspective about the topics they read about and educate them to become more compassionate, empathetic and open towards other people’s situations, McDermott said. By opening yourself up to reading books like this, you become a lifelong learner, she said.

“Books are so often overlooked by people because they are perceived as being boring,”  George said. “People forget how much of an impact reading can be by opening your eyes to new experiences, along with different ways to think, no matter who you are.”