The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men's Prison - Hardcover

"Charming...In the end, the club shows how reading literature can be a moral project, a workshop open to all."--Boston Globe

"Readers see more than how criminals respond to literary masterpieces. They also see how the author realigns her own college professor thinking about books she sees anew through the eyes of her tough-minded students. Great literature reassessed in a gritty world far removed from academe's ivory towers."--Booklist

"Take nine convicted felons...Add a well-meaning literary scholar armed only with cheap reprints of challenging books...The resulting dynamic is the subject of Mikita Brottman's fascinating and unvarnished book about criminals as rough-hewn literary critics. I tore through THE MAXIMUM SECURITY BOOK CLUB."--Wally Lamb, New York Times bestselling author of WE ARE WATER

..".Steers clear of facile sentimentality. There is no transformation or redemption in Brottmann's story, only honest moments of encounter...made possible by the act of reading literature. Brottman gives us a candid, unillusioned account of her work behind bars. A brave and admirable book about a brave and admirable project."--William Deresiewicz, author of EXCELLENT SHEEP: THE MISEDUCATION OF THE AMERICAN ELITE and THE WAY TO A MEANINGFUL LIFE

"The prisoners are real. The fiction classics they read and discuss are real. Honest, engaging, surprising, and often unsettling, THE MAXIMUM SECURITY BOOK CLUB beautifully captures the banal insanity of prison life in America while exploring the power of literature to transform, reform, and illuminate."--Kim Wozencraft, author of RUSH and THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE

"Idiosyncratic...poignant... When Brottman writes, she's a virtuoso: poised and sure-footed, confident and graceful, witty and relaxed."--Baltimore Sun

"Swiftly and sensitively written...we should all strive to build book clubs with people whose days and life histories are quite different from our own, rather than discussing books mainly with our friends. Until then, there's Mikita Brottman's wonderfully witty and deeply honest report from just that sort of space."--Sheila Heti

"One of the best books about teaching I've ever read, it is not only lively and engaging from the first page to the last, but dazzles by virtue of its honesty, sympathy and humanity."--Phillip Lopate

"This memoir's energy emanates from Brottman's sharp understanding of group dynamics and her determination to avoid clichés. She delves into the personal stories of the men she met behind bars, and is clear-eyed both about literature's powers and its limitations."--Los Angeles Times, "4 new nonfiction books not to be missed"