Program Description
Event Details
Join us for the Pacific Beach Library's monthly book discussion! Our group meets in a hybrid format, so you can choose whether you'd prefer to join us in-person in the PB Library's Community Room or virtually (please send an email to cwainwright@sandiego.gov for this year's Zoom login info). April's selection is The Color of Water by James McBride.
Description: Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion—and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain.
If you'd like to check out a print copy of the book, they are available 1 month before each discussion at the Pacific Beach Library's Circulation Desk. Please call 858-581-9934 x0 before coming to pick it up so that staff may confirm availability.
Book Discussion Calendar
- January 9, 2025: Select titles to discuss in 2025
- February 13: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
- March 23: The Gambler Wife by Andrew D. Kaufman
- April 10: The Color of Water by James McBride
- May 8: The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn & Janie Chang
- June 12: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
- July 10: How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr
- August 14: 1984 by George Orwell
- September 11: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
- October 9: The Women by Kristin Hannah
- November 13: One Book, One San Diego selection (to be announced)
- December 11: The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger
- January 8, 2026: Select titles to discuss in 2026
- February 12, 2026: James by Percival Everett