This year the Arroyo Book Club will once again be participating in NEA’s Big Read program. This year the book we will be reading is The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui. Let’s turn to what the NEA has to say about this book:
Bui’s memoir traces her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Việt Nam in the 1970s and their effort to build new lives for themselves in America. Bui documents parental sacrifice, excavates family histories, and grapples with the inherited struggles of displacement and diaspora. “This memoir feels not just created but also deeply lived” (The Washington Post). “A stunning work of reconstructed family and world history” (Booklist Online). “Narratively intricate, intellectually fastidious, and visually stunning” (Vulture). Writes Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize winner and board member: “A book to break your heart and heal it.”
Find more information about the book at its NEA Big Read site (https://www.arts.gov/initiatives/nea-big-read/best-we-could-do-illustrated-memoir)
The book is available via Hoopla (https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/12474862) if you would like to read it online. You may also elect to place a hold on a library copy and, since our branch is currently closed for repairs, arrange to pick it up at another branch.
We will meet to discuss the book via Zoom on April 23 at 3:00. Email ayosco@lapl.org if you would like to join us.
