Well-Read Citizen Wrapped, With Eye on ‘25

Have a book you’re itching to talk about with others?

If only others read this, you might think, as you fan the pages of what? The magical realism of Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, which ends in Indiana? The starkness cost of the opioid epidemic in Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead? The untold story of James, Huck Finn’s protector, by Percival Everett? Some non-fiction about pressing issues in our democracy?

For the third year, the League of Women Voters in Montgomery County gathered for rich conversations around fiction and nonfiction, local, national and international authors. We’ll continue to do so in 2025.

               We read our way through 2024, largely choosing books linked to women’s history, democracy, the purpose of the League – to educate and engage with democracy. Here’s a synopsis of what we read:

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhorn fictionalizes a real American midwife — not a housewife – who oversaw hundreds of births in 1700s America without death. We followed up columns on women’s reproductive health, looking at the fraught regulations around midwives, freedom of birthing choice and the problem of healthcare deserts in rural Indiana. We hope to revisit this issue as more OB-GYNs leave Indiana and other states that have enacted laws that penalize women’s healthcare.

We dug into history with Timothy Egan’s A Fever in the Heartland, looking at how Indiana became the center of the Ku Klux Klan at the moment when its membership swept the nation. The story uncovers its crooked leadership under the conman D.C. Stephenson and the horrors that Madge Oberholtzer endured while undoing his horrific power.

Warren Rosenberg, retired professor of literature, drew us into a deep discussion of Jewish immigrant women finding their rights in The Breadgivers. He invited us to glimpse into discussions he had over decades of teaching young Wabash men about the impact of immigration, socioeconomic status, religion and culture on women’s lives.

When we read Reading Lolita in Tehran (Azar Nafisi), we looked at the impact of American literature in nations where human rights and free speech have been eradicated in the interest of religious fundamentalism.

The slightly more academic How Migration Really Works by Hein de Haas challenged us to face data sets that don’t fit the left and right narratives about why people move from one nation to another. We learned that a proportion of the world’s population is always on the move and that percentage remains steady. Most people would rather stay close to their homes and cultures, so they tend to migrate mostly within their national borders. When they have the means and cannot thrive in their homes, they migrate to other nations, usually to those nearby. The book contextualizes migrations over time and place, reminding us that spikes in our present time and place are issues we can address with thoughtful, humane policies.

One selection, The Tyranny of the Minority by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, evaluated the imbalance of political groups in power compared to the American public and analyzed how traditionally “conservative” resistance to change introduces some vulnerabilities in democratic self-governance. As countries grow or retract in population and respond to dynamic changes to culture, which is just natural to being human, they need the tension between change and status quo, which the book examines.

The more academic How Organizations Develop Activists by Hahrie Han looked at well-known organizations and how they maintain energy and engagement with their volunteers.

Local author and Wabash Professor of English Agata Izabella Brewer gave a book talk for her award-winning memoir, The Hunger Book, about growing up in Communist Poland. Protected by her grandparents, Brewer and her brother survived food shortages, the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in nearby Ukraine, her parents’ divorce and her mother’s alcoholism and mental illness. Her story reveals the empathy and inner work she brings to her roles as a writer, professor, mother and wife.

The Death of the Public School mapped out the history of a long campaign to dismantle public education with the efforts of well-known figures such as Milton Friedman.

After Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack that left over 1,200 Israelis dead and another 251 in hostage, Israel launched a defense that has left 44,000 to 45,000 Palestinians dead and with another 105,500 injured — and many more displaced. We wanted to better understand the nation of Israel’s political, historical and cultural climate. Warren Rosenberg led a thoughtful discussion for American citizens with limited awareness of the nuances of Middle East politics and the claims around them. The book behind our discussion was Noa Tishby’s Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth.

We wrapped up with the historical fiction Good Night, Irene, about the little-known Red Cross Donut Dollies — women who wore lipstick to war — who served coffee and donuts in Great Britain, France and Belgium during World War II.

               The Well-Read Citizen book club is open to all. Each year we kick off by voting on the list of books submitted by our readers, who do not have to be members of the LWVMC. If you’d like learn more, join us at our annual white elephant book exchange at 7 p.m., Jan. 8 at Backstep Brewery.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, multi-issue political organization which encourages informed and active participation in government. For information about the League, visit the website www.lwvmontcoin.org; or, visit the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, Indiana Facebook page.