February Reading Group Selection: Parable of the Sower

The Book Beat reading group selection for February is Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. This will be a virtual Zoom meeting scheduled for Wednesday, February 23rd at 7 PM. Books are available at the bookstore now and are discounted 15%.

If you would like to attend, and are not on our reading group list, please RSVP to us with your name, phone number and email and we will send you notices. Reminders and login links are sent to your inbox on the morning or day of the meeting. Please check your email and try to login 5-10 minutes before the meeting so we can begin on time. The reading group is specialized in reading literary fiction and World Lit in translation. The group is free, open to the public, and meeting since the 1990s. Listed below are many of our selected titles:

When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others’ emotions….”

“In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time, Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable’ books may be unmatched.” — Abby Aguirre, The New Yorker

“If there is one thing scarier than a dystopian novel about the future, it’s one written in the past that has already begun to come true.” — Gloria Steinem

“Unnervingly prescient and wise. A worthy read for those intent on building a better world as this pandemic continues to lay bare how untenable, how depravedly unequal, the American way of life is and has always been.” — Yaa Gyasi, The New York Times

“I’ve now read these books three times, at three very different points in my life, and each reading has shown me just how powerfully prescient Butler was.” — N.K. Jemisin, EW

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) was born in Pasadena, California, on June 22, 1947. She broke new ground as a woman and an African American in the realm of science fiction, a genre typically dominated by white males. She lost her father at a young age and was raised by her mother. To support the family, her mother worked as a maid. As a child, Butler was known for her shyness and her impressive height. She was dyslexic, but she didn’t let this deter her from developing a love of books. Butler started creating her own stories early on, and decided to make writing her life’s work around the age of 10. She later earned an associate degree from Pasadena City College. Butler also studied her craft with Harlan Ellison at the Clarion Fiction Writers Workshop. To make ends meet, she took all sorts of jobs while maintaining a strict writing schedule. In 1976, Butler published her first novel, and in 1979 she had a career breakthrough with Kindred. In the mid-1980s, Butler began to receive critical recognition for her work. She won the 1984 Best Short Story Hugo Award for “Speech Sounds.” That same year, the novelette “Bloodchild” won a Nebula Award and later a Hugo as well. In 1995, Butler received a “genius” grant from the MacArthur Foundation—becoming the first science-fiction writer to do so—which allowed her to buy a house for her mother and herself. In 1999, Butler abandoned her native California to move north to Seattle, Washington. She was a perfectionist with her work and spent several years grappling with writer’s block. Her efforts were hampered by her ill health. After starting and discarding numerous projects, Butler wrote her last novel Fledgling in 2005. On February 24, 2006, Butler died suddenly at her Seattle home. Many astronomic sites have been named in her honor, including an asteroid, a mountain on Charon, and the landing site of the Perseverance rover on Mars.