In the Club 1/7/21

This book was my big white whale, a book I’ve picked up and put down several times and finally tackled in the final days of 2020. At an elite college tucked away in Vermont, a group of eclectic misfits opt to study Ancient Greek—and only Ancient Greek—under the tutelage of a charismatic and unconventional professor. We learn right away that the narrator and his friends have committed a murder, then slowly come to understand how the bubble of a world they’ve crafted for themselves may have facilitated the crime, one where the self-importance runs high and the boundaries of ethics and morality are blurred. This is me putting it very, very simply so that you might experience the entirety of this beautiful mess for yourself.

Book Club Bonus: This is a little longer than I’d normally suggest for book club, and many of you may have already conquered it. I’m tossing it in anyway because it’s a polarizing read rich with book club potential. I really was not a fan of The Goldfinch and was scared Donna Tartt may just not be for me, especially since there are some definite similarities in pace and the characters’ drug, drink, and angst-filled ennui. But the slow revelation of each character’s background and motivation in The Secret History was both maddening and ingenious to me, plus the searing critique of elitist institutions. You may agree or want to chuck this book at the wall—discuss!

TW: eating disorders and body stuff (not quite body horror, per se, but think the physical toll of dancing on the body).

Gigi, Bette, and June are three young ballerinas at the intensely competitive American Ballet Conservatory in New York City. Kind and lighthearted Gigi is the only Black girl at the school and just wants to dance, but the act could literally kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette is a piece of work (!!!) dancing in the shadow of her ballet-star sister, and she’ll stop at nothing to end up on top. June is a dangerous perfectionist who has to land a lead role this year to keep her mother from pulling her from the school, and she too is ready to do so by any means necessary. Feathers are ruffled (understatement!) when Gigi is chosen for the role of Sugar Plum Fairy in the school’s Nutracker performance, and an absolute mess of a scandal ensues. I caught myself holding my breath over and over while reading this book and gripping it with white knuckles. What a ride!

Book Club Bonus: There’s plenty to discuss about the competitive nature of ballet and all the related pressures, body issues, disordered eating, etc. But also dive into the motivations of the less palatable characters (hurt people hurt people!): none of their dysfunctions exist in a vacuum.

I hope to internalize and put the ideas in this book into practice more in 2021. Reshma Saujani is the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code and starts off by telling us about the time she quit her stable and lucrative career for a disastrous run for political office. She not only lost, she lost hard. The hardest! That moment was a turning point in Saujani’s life and a hell of an epiphany: women are taught to chase perfection since childhood, and that pattern ends up holding us back in adulthood. Through a combo of personal anecdotes and some in-your-face statistics and studies, Saujani challenges readers, especially women, to embrace imperfection and live a bolder life.

Book Club Bonus: You know how bad I am at reading self-help, but this book resonated with me tons and gave me some Year of Yes vibes. Share the ways in which you have and continue to hold yourself back (whether you identify as a woman or not) in the name of perfection. On the flip side, examine how teaching boys to be always be brave and not perfect could be problematic, too.