By The Real Word
The podcast currently has 8 episodes available.
The Real WORD Podcast, produced by Reading Opens Minds.
This season on The Real WORD we read and discussed the following books:
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes,
Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith - aka J.K. Rowling,
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman,
Tattooed Soldier by Hector Tobar,
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng and Pleasantville by Attica Locke.
From these books, we’ve considered questions about parental expectations and the sheltering and protection of family, the amount of power we have as individuals in shaping our lives, aspirations for the future, and how we deal with the inconsistencies of our world and how we can survive change.
I spoke with one of our program alumni, Jackie Amezcua, who’s on a Posse Scholarship (full tuition for all 4 years) at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. I asked her about how joining book club in her sophomore year of high school is helping her now.
We’ve seen our students take advantage of our programming because they are hungry for knowledge and hungry to experience a world outside of their communities. Some of them have dreams of being artists and writers, but these dreams sometimes become unattainable due to lack of resources available to them because of their race and socio-economic situation.
The question then arises: Are we running the risk of losing these unique voices?
We at Reading Opens Minds want to keep the voices of these young people, these cultures alive in this country. Extra-curricular reading, especially for schools in low-income areas seems to have almost completely lost its importance and value. The more we turn our attention away from reading and critical thinking, the less vibrant and resilient we become.
We want to continue to give attention, love, encouragement and new books to the people in our programs because we know, especially in these times of disconnection, building supportive relationships in our communities is incredibly important.
The Real WORD Podcast produced by Reading Opens Minds and edited by Saul Black.
You can find us on iTunes or the podcast app on your phone, or on the web at: LAReviewofbooks.org/the-real-word. Thank you to the LA Review of books staff and supporters for giving this podcast a home and some tender loving care.
For more information about Reading Opens Minds goto: readingopensminds.org - there you can subscribe to our newsletter and see what else we’re up to!
Special thanks for this episode goes to Jackie Amezcua for producing, and -- to all of the people who donated to our Indiegogo campaign last year to make this project happen.
If you want another season of The Real WORD, you can donate at our website, Or if your company wants to sponsor the next season, please contact: [email protected].
We hope to have the opportunity to produce Season Two of the Real WORD for you!
In this episode, we’ll be discussing Pleasantville by Attica Locke, a thriller in which an election volunteer is kidnapped and murdered. Kirkus says of Pleasantville: “Locke serves up a panorama of nuanced characters and writes with intelligence and depth.”
Pleasantville is set in an local and national election year in the ‘90s, and discusses race, politics, and a search for justice. Attica Locke is an author local to LA, and a writer and producer for the hit television drama Empire.
The Real WORD Podcast is produced by Reading Opens Minds and edited by Saul Black. In the next and last episode of this first season of The Real WORD, we’ll do a wrap-up, and touch base with one of our book club alumni who is now a sophomore in college.
Until then, I’m Lauren wishing you happy reading!
In this episode we’re talking about The Tattooed Soldier by Héctor Tobar, which was first published in 1998 and was praised by LA Weekly as “The Best LA Novel Ever”.
Tobar’s novel is set in the 1990s and it follows a young man named Antonio, a refugee from the dictatorship in Guatemala, now living in Los Angeles. As Los Angeles erupts into the LA Riots, Antonio plots revenge against his wife’s killer.
Héctor Tobar joins us to talk about his early days as a journalist, and covering the LA Riots. We also talk about nurturing more young Latino writers. Our reading group talks about connecting to a book set in their home town and about the limits of empathy.
The Real WORD Podcast is produced by Reading Opens Minds and edited by Saul Black.
Special thanks for this episode goes to Stacy Reader and Mercedes Vasquez for facilitating the book club.
In our next episode, we’ll be talking about Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.
Until then, Happy Reading!
In this episode, we’re talking about the book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane was published in 2013 by HarperCollins. Gaiman himself has said he wasn’t sure as he was writing it whether it would be an adult novel - his first in a while - or a novel for young adult readers.
Reviewers have come down on both sides with The Guardian reviewer noting that, “When I thought about it, I realised that I am an adult reading self, and also a child reader, and that it was my childhood self who settled into this story.”
When I began to read the book, it reminded me of the film, Pan’s Labyrinth by Mexican filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro, where the real world of a child is intermingled with a magical one in order to make some sense of the darkness around them.
We talk about how in the book memory becomes fabric and what would make a sacrifice worthwhile.
The Real WORD Podcast is produced by Reading Opens Minds and edited by Saul Black.
Special thanks for this episode goes to Stacy Reader and Mercedes Vasquez for co-facilitating the book club.
Next episode we’ll be talking about the book, The Tattooed Soldier by Hector Tobar.
Until then, Happy Reading!
In this episode we’re talking about the book: The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling.
The Cuckoo’s Calling was first published in the UK in 2013 by Sphere Books, and had placement at number 4,709 on Amazon.com before it was revealed that the author of the Harry Potter book series had actually penned the book under the pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. The book shot to the top of the charts nearly overnight when Galbraith’s true identity was leaked!
This is a crime novel about a model who falls to her death from a balcony. Though it looks like suicide, her brother is not convinced and hires private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case and find the killer. Reviews were good (even before the outing of the author) with The Independent noting that it’s “...a book about looking and listening...and about using loss to develop emotional intelligence and about friendship.”
This group hadn’t read a crime novel yet, so we thought it would be a fun new experience with the Harry Potter author tie-in --- of course, this was before we learned that many of them hadn’t actually read the Harry Potter books! We talk about the relationship between the two main characters, and the killer in the story and his motives -- SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Real WORD Podcast is produced by Reading Opens Minds and edited by Saul Black.
You can find us on iTunes or the podcast app on your phone, or on the web at: LAReviewofbooks.org/the-real-word. Thank you to the LA Review of Books staff and supporters for giving this podcast a home and some tender loving care.
Special thanks for this episode goes to Maria Jose Vazquez and Stacy Reader for co-facilitating the book club.
Next episode we’ll be talking about the book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.
Until then Happy Reading!
The Real WORD Podcast, produced by Reading Opens Minds and hosted by the LA Review of Books.
In Episode Two of The Real Word, the Reading Opens Minds teen book club will be discussing the novel, Me Before You (2012) by JoJo Moyes. Me Before You is a love story about a young, novice caregiver and a wealthy, former adventurer, paralyzed by an accident.
Listen in as our young men and women banter about family dynamics, morality in love and what it might feel like to be in a wheelchair
*A word here about how we’re honoring privacy for our students. You’ll hear some first names here and there, and in upcoming episodes, you’ll also hear certain details about the lives of these students, but not too many. We hope to offer enough to enjoy, but not enough to expose.
The Real Word Podcast is produced by Reading Opens Minds and edited by Saul Black. For more information about Reading Opens Minds go to: readingopensminds.org. Subscribe to our newsletter and see what we’re up to!
Special thanks for this episode goes to Michelle Kholos-Brooks, Lesley Peters and Jackie Amezcua for story editing, Katie McCuen for graphic design, and Stacy Reader for co-facilitating the book club.
Until next time, happy reading!
Welcome to the first season of the Reading Opens Minds podcast, produced by the people behind the Reading Opens Minds non-profit, whose mission is “to promote literacy in at-risk communities through book clubs, empowering individuals, building relationships and inspiring hope.” This podcast will follow a group of teenagers in Los Angeles, who will meet each week to discuss a book, their ideas and their lives.
Like MTV’s The Real World, we hope to introduce you to a new generation. You will get to know these talented young men and women intimately as they tell their own stories through the books they read.
Listen now to Episode One – “An Introduction”
The podcast currently has 8 episodes available.