by Sophie
The American Women’s Club of Amsterdam (AWCA) is is a vibrant and diverse group of over 300 women, ranging from newcomers to long-time residents of the Netherlands. They embrace life abroad while staying true to their American roots, and strengthen the bond between the Netherlands and the United States through public outreach, activities, and cultural events.
One such activity is reading, and lots of it! Every month the AWCA plans to highlight several books around a central theme, which we’ll share with you right here on the ABC blog as AWCA Page Turners. Because we love it when people are passionate about their reads, and no one’s TBR is ever big enough!
July theme: What America Means to Me
There, There by Tommy Orange
There There, the debut novel of Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange, follows a cast of modern Native Americans getting ready for the Big Oakland Powwow. Orange writes full characters allowing a window into facets of the modern Indian experience in America. It’s funny, beautiful, and a little bit devastating. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer and won the 2019 PEN/Hemingway award. It is also easily one of my favorite books of the last decade. – AWCA member Jana B.
“We are the memories we don’t remember, which live in us, which we feel, which make us sing and dance and pray the way we do, feelings from memories that flare and bloom unexpectedly in our lives like blood through a blanket from a wound made by a bullet fired by a man shooting us in the back for our hair, for our heads, for a bounty, or just to get rid of us.” – There There
“Brilliantly, furiously, magnificently, tragically, the story of America” (Elle), Orange crafts a novel of “pure, soaring beauty” (New York Times Book Review), “pulling together the intimacies of family, community, history, and violence” (Rumpus).
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
Notes of a Native Son is an essay collection exploring the profound complexities of race, identity, and personal struggle in mid-20th-century America and Europe. Writing many of his essays at cafes in Paris and from a small village in Switzerland in the 1950s, Baldwin (who was an openly gay Black man) occupied a distinct vantage point to dissect America from outside the mainstream identity. In Notes of a Native Son he explores the difference between simply fleeing a culture and truly understanding it. I love this book because it reminds us – whoever we are – that to truly understand where we come from, we must leave that place behind. – AWCA member Jill D.
“I love America more than any other country in the world, and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” – James Baldwin
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird represents what America means to me because it shows both the country’s greatest ideals and its greatest challenges. The novel reminds me that America is built on the belief that everyone deserves fairness, equality, and justice, even when those values are difficult to uphold. Through Atticus Finch’s courage and integrity, the reader sees the importance of standing up for what is right, even when it is unpopular. At the same time, the story honestly acknowledges the prejudice and injustice that have existed in American history, showing that progress requires courage, compassion, and a willingness to challenge unfairness. To me, To Kill a Mockingbird represents an America that is constantly striving to become a more just, inclusive, and compassionate nation. – AWCA member Sherryl S.
