Our local shelter for abused women – WISE (Women’s Information Service) – recently designed an educational program involving the use of fiction and non-fiction books in discussion groups sponsored by local libraries and bookstores. It is their hope that these specially selected titles will serve as a platform for safe discussions, and will support their mission of reducing the number of sexual assaults in our community. This groundbreaking program launches today, the first day of Sexual Violence Awareness Month, and specific outcomes remain unknown. We are certain, however, that good literature can lead to very positive outcomes; so we at The Book Jam are hopeful.
Below are some of the books being used in this important program that we can recommend as excellent reading.
And, we truly hope that this program leads to action and the reduction in the number of crimes against women.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (2006). Years after reading this award-winning young adult novel, I still remember reading it and being completely taken by the narrator, Melinda, and her story. The novel opens in autumn with Melinda in High School and outcast because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the police. Nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. In turn, she stops talking altogether. An art project allows her to finally able to face what really happened at that party: she was raped. And unfortunately, the rapist attends her high school. As the year progresses, she has another violent encounter with him. In this moving novel, this heroine bursts open many of the hypocritical aspects of high school. In doing so, Melinda illustrates the importance of learning to speak up for oneself (and I would argue to speak up for those who can not speak for themselves), and opens a window into the horrors of rape. Speak is a 1999 National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature. ~ Lisa Christie
Lucky: A Memoir by Alice Sebold (2002). In this memoir, which we read years ago but remember for its honesty and extreme candor, Ms. Sebold shows how her life was utterly transformed when, as a college freshman, she was brutally raped and beaten in a park near her campus. Through her prose, she shows her profound struggles for understanding, how her friends and family can’t quite help — even though they desperately try and truly want to do something useful, and finally how she “recovers”. She also manages to help the police and prosecutors in her rapist’s arrest and conviction along the way. With this book, Ms. Sebold provides a strong voice for trauma victims (even if she herself is only one individual case) and ultimately states that, “You save yourself or you remain unsaved.” ~ Lisa Christie and Lisa Cadow
Other titles suggested by this WISE program, that we have not yet read (and thus can not review), include:
- Aftermath: Violence and Remaking of a Self by Susan Brison (2003). WISE lists this as a non-fiction academic treatment of assualt.
- The Lolita Effect by Meenakshi Gigi Durham (2009). WISE describes this non-fiction book as good for skill building for parents and adults invested in youth.
- Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the rise of raunch culture by Ariel Levy (2006). WISE says this non-fiction read offers an investigative work on media culture that is appropriate for adults and older teens.
- Our Guys by Bernard Lefkowitz (1998). Unfortunately, this appears to be out of print, so we can not provide a link to it. However, your local bookstore or library can track it down for you. WISE describes this as a non-fiction, investigative work on the secrets of sexual assault that is appropriate for adults and older teens.
If you have questions about WISE or this program, please contact Edith Walsh at 603-448-5922 x118, or edith.walsh@wiseoftheuppervalley.org.
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