I’ve read two previous Octavia Butler books, and I didn’t like either of them, so I wasn’t too excited about starting the next #CannonBookClub book. But oh, happy day! Now I get it. I thought Kindred was gripping and intense and thoughtful and layered and wicked good. For the first layer, it’s a time travel story. Dana is randomly pulled back in time to save a young boy who turns out to be her ancestor. She never knows when she’ll be called, or how she’ll get home. […]
Discussion Topics: Kindred
Book Club Discussion is Today, June 8-9! Visit our Discussion Post and speak your mind! Our second #CannonBookClub of 2018 on June 8 and 9 is Kindred by Octavia Butler as our first of two Anniversary Reads. Kindred is an historically highly rated and reviewed book for Cannonballers: in the ten years of Cannonball Read we’ve had eleven reviews of Kindred with a Cannonballer average rating of 4.64, which is only 0.16 away from our highest rated book of all-time. It’s time to get thinking about […]
The things we take for granted
I first learned about Octavia Butler a few years ago when searching online for innovative novels and Kindred showed up on just about every list I came across. When I went to the bookstore, I had become so enthusiastic about her that I decided to buy not only this book but also Fledgling, and then I read the latter first after a coin toss. That was probably a mistake, because I disliked it so much that I put off reading Kindred indefinitely. I’d finally put […]
The Cellar Door is an Open Throat
Last week I went to a conference in southern California. I took Kindred along, hoping to have time to read a few chapters. My first day there, I sat outside on my lunch break to read. I couldn’t put Kindred down (except, I had to in order to get back to the conference). I finished it before I came home. I read most of it sitting outside in a comfy chair, in beautiful weather. The contrast between my life and Dana’s at that moment felt […]
The Gifts and Curses of our Ancestors
It’s no secret or shock to anyone with a decent knowledge of history that America is a country built on the backs of enslaved people. When Michelle Obama, speaking at the DNC in 2016, stated that slaves built the White House, it generated waves of shock and faux outrage. How dare she point out a historical fact. I remember not being surprised by her statement at the time nor thinking it should be particularly shocking to anyone, but it was for white people who didn’t […]
I am trying to figure out the audience here.
Kindred by Octavia Butler
I need to say straight away that I love the novel Kindred, which I read for a Black Women’s Writers class in college. It was an inspired choice to put on the syllabus that also included Song of Solomon, Brothers and Sisters by Bebe Moore Campbell, Dessa Rose by Sherley Anne Williams among others. I think that that novel is a tremendous combination of sci fi, 1970s Black writing, political fire, angst, and a few other things all tied into one great novel. It shares some really important themes […]