A Beginner’s Guide to America by Roya Hakakian

Monday, October 4 through Friday, October 8, 2021. Read by Michele Good.

Written as a “guide” for the newly arrived, and providing “practical information and advice,” Roya Hakakian, an immigrant herself, reveals what those who settle here love about the country, what they miss about their homes, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others. With tenderness and humor, she captures the texture of life in a new place in all its complexity, laying bare both its beauty and its darkness as she discusses race, love, death, consumerism, and what it is like to be from a country that is in America’s crosshairs.

(Alfred A Knopf; ISBN: 9780525656067)

Theme: “America”, Soundtrack of West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein