CC Book Club

Welcome to the Champlain College Book Club Webpage. 

For the cold winter months Jan-March we are going to host a book club in hopes to inspire reading across disciplines, reviewing literature on current and urgent topics, and create opportunity to meet others in the college from any year of study including staff, faculty and alumni.  On this webpage we will introduce new books, share book club discussion Discord details, link to the end of month discussion events, and book reviews by our students and staff.

Every month a new book will be selected, with discussions, arguments, or spoilers, being shared via Discord chat, and optional ZOOM hangouts! To register send us your discord handle via Qualtrics and we will add you to our discussion board! Zoom links for monthly meet ups will be posted in chat ahead of scheduled sessions.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

January 2022 

Johnny Appleseed

Written by Joshua Whitehead

"You're gonna need a rock and a whole lotta medicine" is a mantra that Jonny Appleseed, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, repeats to himself in this vivid and utterly compelling debut novel by poet Joshua Whitehead.

Off the reserve and trying to find ways to live and love in the big city, Jonny becomes a cybersex worker who fetishizes himself in order to make a living. Self-ordained as an NDN glitter princess, Jonny has one week before he must return to the "rez"--and his former life--to attend the funeral of his stepfather. The seven days that follow are like a fevered dream: stories of love, trauma, sex, kinship, ambition, and the heartbreaking recollection of his beloved kokum (grandmother). Jonny's life is a series of breakages, appendages, and linkages--and as he goes through the motions of preparing to return home, he learns how to put together the pieces of his life.

Jonny Appleseed is a unique, shattering vision of First Nations life, full of grit, glitter, and dreams.

Join the book club here!

February 2021

The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power

Written by Desmond Cole

From the book insert:

Both Cole’s activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book, The Skin We’re In. Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year—2017—in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from the States, Indigenous land and water protectors resisting the celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, police across the country rallying around an officer accused of murder, and more.

To learn more about book club please contact us at champlain@trentu.ca.