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On Teaching Thi Bui’s “The Best We Could Do”

Books We Love to Teach

Date

Oct 20 2026

Time

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Location

Durham County Library

300 North Roxboro Street, Durham, North Carolina

On teaching Thi Bui's The Best We Could Do 

A discussion with Professors Marguerite Nguyen and Susan Thananopavarn

 

Join us for this discussion guided by Duke Professors Marguerite Nguyen and Susan Thananopavarn about why they love to teach Thi Bui’s graphic memoir The Best We Could Do.

Thi Bui’s beautiful graphic memoir tells her family’s story in a way that takes us through war, colonialism, and a harrowing escape from Vietnam by boat.  It also reckons with the complexity of families: what do we carry with us from our past, and what do we choose to pass onto our children?  I love to teach this book because it grapples with questions we can all understand, while telling a history that often goes untaught in schools. - Prof. Susan Thananopavarn

Free copies of the book are now available at Letters Community Bookshop, 116 W Main St., Durham, for the first 15 people who request one. (Please take just one book!)

Open to all. Come prepared to discuss why you love (or don't) this book.

NOTE: WHILE THIS PROGRAM WILL BE HELD IN THE MAIN CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING ROOM AT THE DURHAM COUNTY MAIN LIBRARY, THE BOOK IS MOST APPROPRIATE FOR OLDER TEENS AND ADULTS.

Registration required at the DCL event page.

 

Books We Love to Teach is co-sponsored by Letters Community Bookshop. It is part of “Forum @ the Library” - a monthly series featuring Duke faculty sharing their work in an interactive format, hosted by the Durham County Library (DCL) in partnership with the Forum for Scholars and Publics at the Franklin Humanities Institute. This event is co-sponsored by Duke's Department of English and the Asian American & Diaspora Studies Program.

A series about teaching, reading, and loving books
CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION

Speakers

Marguerite Nguyen

Duke University

Marguerite Nguyen, PhD, is an Associate Professor of English at Duke University. Her research and teaching cover American literature, Asian American literature, Vietnamese diasporic studies, critical refugee studies, and ecocriticism. She is author of America's Vietnam: The Longue Durée of US Literature and Empire (Temple University Press, 2018) and co-editor of Refugee…...

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Susan Thananopavarn

Duke University

Susan Thananopavarn, PhD, is the Director of Duke's program in Asian American and Diaspora Studies (AADS) and a Lecturing Fellow in the Thompson Writing Program. Her research interests include contemporary American literature, ethnic studies, and Asian American studies.  Her book, LatinAsian Cartographies: History, Writing, and the National Imaginary (Rutgers UP, 2018), examines…...

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On teaching Thi Bui's The Best We Could Do 

A discussion with Professors Marguerite Nguyen and Susan Thananopavarn

 

Join us for this discussion guided by Duke Professors Marguerite Nguyen and Susan Thananopavarn about why they love to teach Thi Bui’s graphic memoir The Best We Could Do.

Thi Bui’s beautiful graphic memoir tells her family’s story in a way that takes us through war, colonialism, and a harrowing escape from Vietnam by boat.  It also reckons with the complexity of families: what do we carry with us from our past, and what do we choose to pass onto our children?  I love to teach this book because it grapples with questions we can all understand, while telling a history that often goes untaught in schools. - Prof. Susan Thananopavarn

Free copies of the book are now available at Letters Community Bookshop, 116 W Main St., Durham, for the first 15 people who request one. (Please take just one book!)

Open to all. Come prepared to discuss why you love (or don't) this book.

NOTE: WHILE THIS PROGRAM WILL BE HELD IN THE MAIN CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING ROOM AT THE DURHAM COUNTY MAIN LIBRARY, THE BOOK IS MOST APPROPRIATE FOR OLDER TEENS AND ADULTS.

Registration required at the DCL event page.

 

Books We Love to Teach is co-sponsored by Letters Community Bookshop. It is part of “Forum @ the Library” - a monthly series featuring Duke faculty sharing their work in an interactive format, hosted by the Durham County Library (DCL) in partnership with the Forum for Scholars and Publics at the Franklin Humanities Institute. This event is co-sponsored by Duke's Department of English and the Asian American & Diaspora Studies Program.

A series about teaching, reading, and loving books
CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION

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