What we are reading

We are starting up again on Monday, October 19 at 6 PM in Sparkill, Rockland County, and this time we’re taking on a book that should give us plenty to talk about over the five months we’ll be meeting together: Jennifer Welch’s new book, Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us, which will be published October 6 by Hanover Square Press.

Many of you may already know Jennifer as the co-host of the I’ve Had It podcast. In this new book, she brings her own perspective as a progressive atheist from a Bible Belt state to questions surrounding religion and American politics, the separation of church and state, economic inequality, the political influence of large religious institutions, and what she sees as the growing threats of theocracy and authoritarianism in America. Those are Welch’s arguments, and part of the reason I chose this book is that I want our Book Club to be a place where we can examine ideas, ask questions, challenge one another, and actually talk to each other.

Don Lemon writes of Jennifer, “The truth is worth fighting for. And if you want the truth, you want Jen Welch.”

What interests me about a Book Club like this is not sitting in a room where everybody has to agree. Quite the opposite. I want us to read, think, listen, question, and have the kind of conversation that is increasingly difficult to have when so much of our political dialogue takes place in sound bites and social-media posts.

We’ll meet once a month for five months, using Not Today, Fascists as the starting point for a much larger conversation about democracy, politics, religion, our differences, and the country we share.

If that sounds like a conversation you’d like to be part of, please join us. Come having read the book, come with your questions, and most importantly, come prepared to listen as we speak.