The next Dear Evanston book group will meet on Wednesday, December 13 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
We'll be reading Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond.You can pick up a copy of the book at We have a stack of the book at the 2nd floor desk at the Main Library or purchase one at Bookends & Beginnings.
RSVP: deadline to register is December 6 at 5 p.m.
Locations to be announced.
Registration is free. Click here to register.
Co-sponsors: Action for a Better Tomorrow - Evanston Chapter, Connections for the Homeless Evanston Collective, Evanston Public Library, OPAL, Open Communities, YWCA Evanston/North Shore
ABOUT THE BOOK
From Harvard sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond, a landmark work of scholarship and reportage that will forever change the way we look at poverty in America.
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.
Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.
Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
