Let's Talk About It

Let’s Talk About It for 2024 has ended. Our Tuesday Teabirds Book Club is starting up in April!

The Let’s Talk About It program brings together local libraries with humanities scholars to host a series of enhanced book discussion sessions on a particular theme. Each session focuses on a different book within the theme, and each session is hosted by a different visiting scholar. A guest speaker presents information on the book, the author, issues and topics presented in the book, and how all this information relates to the theme. Following the presentation, participants engage in discussion centered around the book and the theme. Program speakers are educators or experts in various humanities fields, and these scholars enjoy meeting avid readers in Idaho’s communities while gaining new perspectives on literature that helps them enrich their teaching and research.

Tough Paradise

Reading Materials

Developed by Susan Swetnam, Professor of English, Idaho State University (1995)
In 1995 the Idaho Humanities Council received an Exemplary Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct a special project highlighting the literature of Idaho and the Intermountain West. “Tough Paradise” explores the relationships between place and human psychology and values. Representing various periods in regional history, various cultural groups, various values, the books in this theme highlight the variety of ways that humans may respond to the challenging landscape of Idaho and the northern Intermountain West.

The Let’s Talk About It program is made possible by funding and support from the Idaho Commission for Libraries, the Idaho Humanities Council, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.