And the winner is...

Either a black woman or a white man. Uh oh. It’s a tie, folks, between two literary titans, Toni Morrison and John Steinbeck. The Bluest Eye or The Grapes of Wrath. One about a girl coming to grips with race and beauty standards, the other about a family facing economic hardship, migrating west in search of a new beginning. Which one will it be?

I put a lot of thought into the tiebreaker, and the first book of the inaugural title for The Great American Book Club will be The Grapes of Wrath.

There are a couple of reasons for this. One, I’ve actually read Steinbeck, though only Of Mice and Men. I gave East of Eden a shot several years ago and got decently far but I recall being weirded out and unconvinced by the character of Cathy, though I’m certainly due for a retry.

I’ve been wanting to read Toni Morrison for a while, mainly Beloved, but there was no way in hell I was kicking off the book club with that subject matter, so I chose The Bluest Eye instead. Unfortunately, after doing some more research, it appears that Morrison’s debut novel deals with more complicated topics than just race, topics that may be upsetting to some and ones I’m not particularly keen on tackling for our first ever read.

So even though it’s about double the length, I think Steinbeck is an easier jumping off point, because of both his familiarity with readers and its themes. What better way to start of The Great American Book Club than with the story of a family traveling west, across our vast and beautiful land, in search of something better?

What now?

Get the book! Purchase it or borrow it from your local library. I will post the reading assignment tonight, for which the first post will go live on Sunday, 2/2. I’m not going to start with any prompts or discussion points, at least for now. We are just going to read a segment and chat about whatever comes to mind.

For those of you who voted for Morrison or any of the other titles: don’t worry, they will be back, and I hope you will still participate even if Steinbeck wasn’t your first choice.

Lastly, assuming you aren’t all bots: 1) thank you and 2) tell your friends. Even though the vote is over, it’s not too late to join the party. The more the merrier. I want this to be a community, and a strong community requires people from all walks of life, with different opinions and perspectives and experiences. I want people who want to talk about ourselves and our identity but also people who simply want to find solace and meaning and understanding in a good book. So tell your friends, and let’s get this started.