2017-2018 Pirate Read Selection: Evicted
The Pirate Read Committee is pleased to announce Evicted by Matthew Desmond as the 2017-2018 Pirate Read Selection.
“In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.
The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.”
Evicted is a New York Times bestseller; winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction; Finalist for the Pen/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Non Fiction; and Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review; The Boston Globe; The Washington Post; NPR; and Amazon as well as numerous others.
Evicted presents key issues that are applicable across disciplines. Major (or key) themes include:
- America’s Poverty Crisis
- Social inequality
- Law, ethics, and morality
- Homelessness
- Effects of evictions on family
- Impact of economic policies
Activities will be planned for 2017-2018. We are also excited to announce that Matthew Desmond will be on campus January 16, 2018. A LibGuide has been created and is available here. Please refer to this page for more information as it develops. For more information contact Dr. Mary Beth Corbin at corbinm@ecu.edu.