Book in Common

2021-22 Book in Common Resources

  • Understanding and Discussing the Novel

    Publisher (Penguin Random House) Readers Guide Questions and Topics for Discussion

    There There Character Map (by Dr. Sue Abbotson, Rhode Island College)

    Native Knowledge 360° Educational Resources (National Museum of the American Indian)

    The Modern Novel: A Short Introduction (ebook available through Meriam Library)

  • Theories, Methodologies, and Literary Criticism About the Novel

    Brygida Gasztold, "History, Heritage, and the Urban Native Experience in Tommy Orange’s There There," Amerikastudien / American Studies 65.3 (2020): 279-98.

    Sanja Runtić and Marija Krivokapić, "Native American Urban Narratives: Theodore Van Alst’s Sacred Smokes and Tommy Orange’s There There," sic: Journal of Literature, Culture, and Literary Translation 10, no. 3 (2020).

    PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America devoted a section of an issue to There There (135, no. 3 (2020): 551–97). Chico State users can access this issue and the following articles by clicking here, then clicking “Miscellaneous E-journals,” then locate the May 2020 issue (135, no. 3).

    Chadwick Allen, "Propulsive Energies"

    Matt Cohen, "Hacking Colonialism"

    James H. Cox, "Tommy Orange Has Company"

    Margaret Noodin, "Oden Oodenang/Hearts of the City"

    Beth Piatote, "No Spoiler Alerts"

    Stephen Ross, Steven B. Sexton, "Digital Tribalography"

    Gary Snyder, "Now I'll tell you what food we lived on then"

    Melanie Benson Taylor, "Orange Is the New Red"

    Tommy Orange, "Response"

  • Additional Context: Books, Articles, and Videos

    Renya Ramirez, Native Hubs: Culture, Community, and Belonging in Silicon Valley and Beyond

    Susan Lobo, Urban Voices: The Bay Area American Indian Community 

    Indigenous Studies Commons (open source articles)

    Urban Indians, 1950s relocation, Oakland (Rhode Island College)

    Powwows (Rhode Island College)

    1969-71 Alcatraz Occupation (Rhode Island College)

  • Book Readings by Tommy Orange

    Reading at Wisconsin Book Festival (2018)

    Reading for Poets & Writers (2018)

  • Interviews with Tommy Orange

    YouTube collection of video interviews

    Library Journal, "Spotlight on Big-Buzzing Debut Novelist Tommy Orange."

    Morning Edition, NPR, "Tommy Orange’s There There has a Wide Cast of Native American Characters."

    Poets & Writers, "Tommy Orange whose debut novel, There There, was published in June by Knopf."

    NPR, "Native American Author Tommy Orange Feels A 'Burden To Set The Record Straight.'"

    The Guardian, "Tommy Orange: ‘There’s a monolithic version of what a Native American is supposed to be’."
    The New Yorker, "Tommy Orange on Native Representation."

    The Paris Review, "Tommy Orange and the New Native Renaissance"

    Time, "In Conversation with Two Rising Voices in Native American Literature."

    World Literature Today, "Resisting the Violence through Writing: A Conversation with Tommy Orange."

  • Additional Works by Tommy Orange

    "Doors and Perception," Booklist

    "Escape Velocity," Esquire

    "Ghost Dance." YouTube, 2016.

    "How to Talk to Each Other When There's Little Common Ground," Time

    "The State," The New Yorker

    "The Team." The New York Times Magazine

  • Additional Book Recommendations by Native Authors

    Fiction

    Eddie Chuculate, Cheyenne Madonna (2010, short stories)

    Natalie Diaz, When My Brother Was an Aztec (2012, poetry); Postcolonial Love Poem (2020, poetry)

    Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves (2008, novel); The Round House (2012, novel); Love Medicine (1984, novel); The Night Watchman (2020, novel)

    Kelli Jo Ford, Crooked Hallelujah (2020, novel)

    Santee Frazier, Dark Thirty (2009, poetry); Aurum (2019, poetry)

    Linda LeGarde Grover, The Road Back to Sweetgrass (2016, novel)

    Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise: Poems (2019, poetry); The Last Song

    Brandon Hobson, Where the Dead Sit Talking (2018, novel); The Removed (2021, novel)

    Linda Hogan, A History of Kindness (2020, poetry); Mean Spirit (1991, novel)

    LeAnne Howe, Shell Shaker (2001, novel); Savage Conversations (2019, novel)

    Toni Jensen, From the Hilltop (2010, short stories)

    Stephen Graham Jones, The Only Good Indians (2020, novel); My Heart is a Chainsaw (2021, novel)

    Chip Livingston, Owls Don’t Have to Mean Death (2017, novel)

    Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn (1968, novel)

    nila northSun, love at gunpoint (2007, poetry)

    Simon J. Ortiz, From Sand Creek Rising in The Heart Which Is Our America (1981, poetry)

    Tommy Pico, IRL (2016, poetry)

    Susan Power, The Grass Dancer (1997, novel)

    Greg Sarris, Watermelon Nights (1998, novel)

    Greg Sarris, Grand Avenue (2015, novel);

    Jake Skeets, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers (2019, poetry)

    Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977, novel); Almanac of the Dead (1991, novel)

    Layli Long Soldier, Whereas (2017, poetry)

    Dennis E. Staples, This Town Sleeps (2020, novel)

    Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., Sacred Smokes (2018, novel)

    Margaret Verble, Cherokee America (2019, novel); Maud’s Line

    David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Winter Counts (2021, novel)

    James Welsh, Winter in the Blood (1974, novel)

    Non-Fiction

    Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986)

    Jo-Ann Archibald, Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit

    Joanne Barker, Native Acts: Law, Recognition, and Cultural Authenticity (2011)

    Joanne Barker, Red Scare: State Discourses of the Indigenous Terrorist (2021)

    Joanne Barker, ed., Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies (2017)

    Joanne Barker, ed., Sovereignty Matters: Locations of Contestation and Possibility in Indigenous Struggles for Self-Determination (2005)

    Vine Deloria Jr., Custer Died for Your Sins (1988)

    Nick Estes, Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (2019, history)

    Ernestine Hayes, The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir (2019, memoir)

    Patricia Penn Hilden, When Nickels Were Indians: An Urban, Mixed-Blood Story (1995, memoir)

    Linda Hogan, Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World (1995)

    LeAnne Howe, Seeing Red – Hollywood’s Pixeled Skin (2013)

    Michelle M. Jacob, Yakama Rising: Indigenous Cultural Revitalization, Activism, and Healing (2014)

    Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2020)

    Susan Applegate Krouse and Heather Howard, Keeping the Campfires Going: Native Women’s Activism in Urban Communities (2009, history)

    Kishan Lara-Cooper and Walter J. Lara Sr., Ka'm-t'em: A Journey Toward Healing (2019)

    Susan Lobo, Urban Voices: The Bay Area American Indian Community (2002)

    Henrietta Mann, Cheyenne-Arapaho Education, 1871-1982 (1997, history)

    Deborah Miranda, Bad Indians (2012, memoir/mixed-genre)

    Terese Marie Mailhot, Heart Berries (2018, memoir)

    Renya Ramirez, Native Hubs: Culture, Community, and Belonging in Silicon Valley and Beyond (2007)

    Cutcha Risling Baldy, We Are Dancing For You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalizations of Women's Coming-of-Age Ceremonies (2018)

    David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present (2019, history)

  • There There Community Read Websites at Other Universities

    Lansing Community College: Capital Area One Book, 2019-20

    Rhode Island College: Open Books – Open Minds Common Book, 2020-21

    UC Santa Cruz, The Humanities Institute: The Deep Read, 2021

Book Cover