The APU/UAA Books of the Year began as part of a “Difficult Dialogues” grant funded by the Ford Foundation – one of only 26 in the nation.  Thus, the Books are selected to provoke serious discussion about serious issues, rather than as an “introduction to college” exercise or a freshman class bonding experience as other university book of the year programs may be.  

In October 2006 UAA and APU solicited all faculty for:
     (1) members willing to serve on the Book Selection committee, and
     (2) nominations for Book of the Year based upon the theme

Nominations began October 27 and ended November 20, 2006.

The Book Theme for 2006 was “Religion and Politics” (i.e., religious fundamentalism, religious action in the political sphere, etc.).  This theme was selected to complement the APU “Engaging Muslims” project, a series of community education events about Islam and its impact on the modern world.  

Criteria for Book Nominations:

• Must pertain to the “Religion and Politics” theme
• Preference is for a book of fiction or imaginative literature, rather than nonfiction
• Must be available in paperback
• Must be accessible to student readers

The Book Selection Committee consisted of:

UAA faculty members              APU faculty members
Sarah Kirk                              Sharon Sibbald                                      
Toby Widdicombe                    Roseanne Pagano
Nelta Edwards                         Mei Mei Evans
Trina Carter                            Robert Wilkinson
Deborah Periman

The Committee began meeting in December.  Their charge was to discuss all the book nominations from both campuses, and select a set of “finalist” books to read completely and discuss at length.

Fourteen books were nominated that met the criteria.  From these, the Committee selected six to read over the holiday break and discuss in January.  The six “finalists” were:

• The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
• The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
• Taras Bulba – Nikolai Gogol
• The Swallows of Kabul – Yasmina Khadra
• The Lemon Tree – Sandy Tolan
• Under the Banner of Heaven – John Krakauer

After discussion and deliberation, the Committee recommendations were:

• The Swallows of Kabul and The Handmaid’s Tale (as a set)
• The Swallows of Kabul and Under the Banner of Heaven (as a set)

The APU/UAA Book of the Year Implementation Team actually selected the Book of the Year, taking into consideration the curricular, social, and fiscal environments of the campuses and opportunities for additional learning opportunities and community partnerships.  The Team was composed of:

• Lauren Bruce - UAA CAFÉ                                                            
• Marilyn Barry - APU Academics                            
• Kelly Smith -  APU Student Affairs                                     
• Renee Carter-Chapman - UAA Community Partnerships          
• Steve Rollins - Consortium Library                                    
• Kristen DeSmith - UAA Advancement                  
• Theresa Norman - UAA Student Orientation                    
• Greg Kimura - Alaska Humanities Forum

The Team selected The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra and The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, to be used only as a set.

Strengths of The Swallows of Kabul include:

• It’s relatively short (200 pages), engaging, well constructed, and uses a wide vocabulary
• It’s a very “human” story, with believable characters.  The perspectives of the two couples in the book would be similar to our students’ backgrounds.
• According to those that have read both books, it’s better at addressing the same issues as “The Kite Runner”.  In “The Kite Runner”, much of the plot deals with the personality flaws of the protagonists, rather than issues of religion.
• Themes within the book:  The types of love between couples, the impacts of religious fundamentalism, the power of crowd behavior.

Strengths of The Handmaid’s Tale include:

• It’s a relatively short (200 pages) book, much used in book clubs and universities
• It addresses fundamentalism in general terms, not singling out a specific religion (although Christianity is the base), and could be used to address the similarities between religious extremists.
• It takes place in the suburban culture in the West, the frame of reference for many of our students.
• It offers some insights on how religious convictions can become a political structure, as well as the cracks that appear within that structure.
• Themes within the book:  power relationships (between women and men, and women and women), environmental collapse and response, human responses to fundamentalism.

This pair of books, both relatively short, provide a strong set for teaching.  Both are works of fiction, from a male (writing under a pseudonym) and a female author.  One deals with Islamic fundamentalism, the other with Christian fundamentalism.  One’s writing style is relatively lush (translated from French), the other relatively spare.  Both books are accessible to students from many backgrounds.