Drop-In Book Discussion: Ain’t No Grave by Mary Glickman
Join us for an in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library of one of this year’s One Bay One Book selections, facilitated by Jim Van Buskirk. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking on Pierce between Ellis and Eddy.
To register, click here. You may borrow a copy of Ain’t No Grave at no charge as a printed book, eBook, or audiobook. Contact us at info@jewishcommunitylibrary.org.
About the book:
Nine-year-olds Max Sassaport and Ruby Johnson are best friends who can’t imagine a world where they aren’t together. Unfortunately, no one—not their families, nor anyone else in rural Georgia in 1906—wants to see a middle-class Jewish boy get too close to the Black daughter of a sharecropper. It’s only a matter of time before fate will separate the two. And that day comes on the eve of Ruby’s womanhood, when a violent act sends her running from her home to the life of a child laborer at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta.
Max moves to Atlanta a few years later, still longing for the girl he has never forgotten. He is soon taken under the wing of Harold Ross, star reporter for the Atlanta Journal. But when Max is assigned to the Leo Frank case that pits the Black and Jewish communities against each other, he’s unexpectedly reunited with Ruby. The bond between them is still strong, but with the trial igniting racial tension throughout Atlanta and across the nation, do Max and Ruby dare dream of a future together?
About the facilitator:
Jim Van Buskirk is a retired librarian (San Francisco Public Library, Jewish Community Library) who currently works as a book group facilitator, writer, editor, public speaker, exhibit curator, and collections manager. He frequently writes articles and/or presents programs related to Jewish, literary, film, and/or queer history. He also leads Death Cafes and other programs encouraging participants to speak openly about death.