Five or six people is a good number to start a book club with. Clubs usually meet once a month, although your group may choose to meet twice a month, or once every two months. The meeting can take place in a member’s home, in a school or in a place of worship.

One person can be asked to be the facilitator, or this role can be shared or rotated. The facilitator’s job is to make sure each person has the space to express herself or himself. Groups can decide on their own way to run the meeting—some clubs like to share a meal together before talking about the book they’ve read. There are two general rules that many groups find useful: listen to each other with respect and without interrupting; and use ‘I’ statements when speaking (in other words, speak for yourself and about your own feelings, experiences and reactions, and not about or for others).

In order to begin the discussion, the questions below might be helpful to ask the group:

What feelings came up for you while you read the book or watched the movie?

What stands out most for you about the book or movie? What character or scene do you remember the most?

How were gender relations portrayed in the book or movie? Was this portrayal realistic or unrealistic?

Do you see any similarities between the issues the book or movie explore and what is going on in your own life, or in the life of your community? Any differences?

Did the book or movie make you want to take action? What is the next step? What do you need in order to take the next step?

The following books and movies are recommended. If the book or movie does make the group want to take action on an issue, there are action suggestions listed in each May 24 International Women’s Day on Peace and Disarmament Action Pack. If you would like to recommend a book or movie, or would like to tell the WPP about your book or movie club, please email us at office@ifor.org

Month 1

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip. This is a powerful autobiography by a Vietnamese woman who survives the US war in Vietnam, marries an American soldier, and moves to the US. Hayslip wrote a second book, Child of War, Women of Peace, about her life in the US and her work that brings US veterans back to Vietnam to build clinics and schools.

Hayslip’s first autobiography was made into the film Heaven and Earth in 1993 by director Oliver Stone, as part of his Vietnam trilogy. The documentary Friendship Village also shows the work of a group of veterans who are building a village for war orphans in Vietnam (see www.vietnamfriendship.org).

Month 2

The Little School: Tales of Disappearances and Survival in Argentina by Alicia Partnoy. “Ours is the revenge of the apple…to overpower with our sweetness the strength of the executioner who has cast us away, as rotten fruits, condemned to die in isolation,” says acclaimed writer Alicia Partnoy. Partnoy was “disappeared” and survived three years of Argentina’s Dirty War in a torture center. She writes about her experiences with humor and dignity.

The film Death and the Maiden (1994), based on a play by Ariel Dorfman, explores the complicated issues of memory, revenge and justice. An activist, played by Sigourney Weaver, meets by accident years later a man she is convinced tortured her under government orders.

Month 3

Almost 300 historical examples of women’s nonviolent action, ranging across time and many different cultures, are highlighted in You Can’t Kill the Spirit by Pam MacAllister. “We need this book, especially for the history we learn about women and nonviolence,” writes Alice Walker. MacAllister’s second book, This River of Courage: Generations of Women Resistance and Action, is equally inspiring.

Ladies First: the Role of Women in Rwanda’s Nation Building (2004) is a remarkable documentary which shows how women’s roles during and after conflict. Women were almost 70 percent of Rwanda’s population after the 1994 genocide. The Rwandan Parliament is 49 percent female, the largest percentage in the world.

Month 4

A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous. Powerfully written war diaries by a German journalist who chronicled the sack of Berlin by the Russian Army in April 1945. “These days I keep noticing how my feelings towards men—and the feelings of all the other women—are changing. We feel sorry for them; they seem so miserable and powerless…” she writes.

Rosenstrasse (2004) (German with English subtitles) by award-winning director Margarethe von Trotta tells two stories: the contemporary journey of a Jewish woman to find the non-Jewish German woman who sheltered her mother during the Holocaust, and the nonviolent resistance of Aryan woman who, in 1943, gathered in front of the Gestapo headquarters on Rosenstrasse, Berlin, to demand the release of their Jewish husbands. From a handful of women the crowd grew to 1,000 women. On the third day SS troops are told to train their guns on the crowd. The women refused to give up. After six days all 1,500 men were released.

Month 5

Rethinking War and Peace by Diana Francis. As the blurb states, this nonfiction book is “a timely and necessary book. It explodes the myth of war’s inevitability.” Dr. Francis, who has conducted Women Peacemakers Program trainings, critiques the Just War theory and explores alternate ways of confronting aggression and injustice. She looks at the need to include women in decision-making and emphasizes that pubic participation in decision-making must be increased.

The Wajir Story is a documentary on how a group of women from different clans came together in northern Kenya to stop war. Their work eventually led to an on-going peace process which brought together youth, local tribal elders, former combatants and politicians, and which helped to revitalize the entire community. Available from Responding to Conflict, 1046 Bristol Road, Birmingham, B29 6LJ, UK. Fax +44 (0)121 415 4119. Email: enquiries@respond.org Web: www.respond.org