Book Group: The 57 Bus

Monday, November 18, 7:30 p.m.

The next LRUCC book club meeting is on zoom on November 18 at 7:30 p.m. The pick by the Open and Affirming ministry is The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater, the New York Times magazine reporter who covered the crime. The book is a quick read and is also suitable for young people as well as adults. Fairfax County Library has multiple copies, and it is available in hard copy on Amazon for $8. 

Review by Kiera Parrot adapted from School Library Journal: It was late afternoon on Monday, November 4, 2013. Sasha was napping on the 57 bus in Oakland, CA, when Richard, egged on by friends, set their gauzy skirt on fire. (Sasha is gender queer and prefers the pronoun they). Sasha survived, but sustained third-degree burns on their calves and thighs. The incident was captured on video cameras installed in the bus, and the next day Richard was arrested for a hate crime and processed in the justice system. From the start, the deck was stacked against Richard, an African American teenager with a criminal history, who had now committed a horrific crime that grabbed media attention, caused national outrage, and fomented local protests. Slater goes beyond the headlines to tell the very human stories behind these individuals and their families. It’s a powerful story of class and race (Sasha is white), gender and identity, justice and mercy, love and hate. Using interviews, court documents, and news accounts, Slater has crafted a compelling true-crime story with ramifications for our most vulnerable youth.