Book Discussion: You Have to be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live

Join us for a book discussion of Paul Kix's new book, "You Have to be Prepared to Die before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham that Changed America" on Wednesday, May 31 at 2:00pm or 6:00pm. Copies of the book will be available at the library's Check-Out Desk after May 2. 

In You Have To Be Prepared To Die Before You Can Begin To Live, Paul Kix takes the reader behind the scenes as he tells the story of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s pivotal 10 week campaign in 1963 to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. At the same time, he also provides a window into the minds of the four extraordinary men who led the campaign―Martin Luther King, Jr., Wyatt Walker, Fred Shuttlesworth, and James Bevel. With page-turning prose that read like a thriller, Kix’s book is the first to zero in on the ten weeks of Project C, as it was known―its specific history and its echoes sounding throughout our culture now. It’s about Where It All Began, for sure, but it’s also the key to understanding Where We Are Now and Where We Will Be. As the fight for equality continues on many fronts, Project C is crucial to our understanding of our own time and the impact that strategic activism can have.

Paul Kix is an author and writer from Hubbard, Iowa whose last book was The Saboteur, a bestselling and critically acclaimed true story of the most daring man in World War II. His writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, GQ, and ESPN The Magazine, among other publications. He lives in Connecticut with his family. Kix will visit the Marshalltown Public Library for a reading and book signing on Thursday, June 8 at 6:30pm. 

For questions or more information, please contact the library's Information Desk at 641-754-5738 ext. 4.