Last year, a small group gathered at Sitka Public Library for the Big Ideas Book Club. For a couple of months, they’d meet weekly to discuss short stories and novellas across eras and perspectives. Earlier this month (8-18-26), the book club returned for its second year— this time with a new, historical focus.
Garrett Faulkner sits at one of six tables circled up in the middle of Sitka’s public library. He teaches writing and literature at Outer Coast, an undergraduate liberal arts program in town, and he’s helping lead this year’s Big Ideas Book Club.
“History of any type — especially American history — is so put together and kind of reconstituted every time we think about it, and so I thought it would be interesting to look at the way that different pieces of American art are thinking about American history and American culture,” Faulkner says.
This year marked the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Faulkner, alongside Adult Services Librarian Margot O’Connell, selected texts, visual art, and music that look back on the nation’s history from different perspectives.
“We like to celebrate big anniversaries, but also those are sort of moments of reflection and reckoning with our own memories, how things are collectively remembered, how things are memorialized,” O’Connell says.
To prepare for today’s conversation, Sitkans read three excerpts: the opening chapter of Benjamin Franklin’s memoir, a lesser known short story by 19th century writer Nathaniel Hawthorne called “My Kinsmen, Major Molineux,” and an article from The Atlantic reflecting on Hawthorne’s point of view in that piece.
“We’re kind of looking at like founding myths of the republic, and how people — some of whom were much more contemporary to those times — were looking back on those times and remembering them,” O’Connell says.
Lynn Bastoky, an English teacher at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, is a returning book club member. For Bastoky, the big ideas in this week’s readings are spurring some big questions.
“As we move through history and change and evolve, how do we feel about our past? How do we feel about ourselves now? How did we feel about our past when we were in the past?” Bastoky asks.
Faulkner says historical content can spark conversations about how diverse people from different time periods perceive the past.
“Art doesn’t have to treat with history necessarily, but when it does, it introduces all sorts of contradictions and points of contention,” he says. “Not that it has to be something especially contentious, but it is definitely fun to talk about with peers in the community.”
O’Connell says we consume a lot of information — the things we see in the news or on social media. But we don’t always have the time to digest it all. In response to that, this book club offers some breathing room.
“It is valuable to look at things with intent and to look at things carefully, and then to kind of sit with how you feel about those things to present that to other people, and also to be challenged by other people’s ideas,” O’Connell says.
In the coming weeks, the Big Ideas Book Club will analyze how sculpture, public art, and music capture American culture and memory. The group is full, but O’Connell hopes this creates conversations across the community.
