Category: In The Club

In The Club

Best of Book Club Books, Part I

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date December 14, 2021

Nibbles and Sips

This post got me in a holiday cookie-making mood, so here are a couple cookie recipes to add to your repertoire:

–Sufganiyot Cookies, which were inspired by a Hanukkah treat

–Almond Cookies (Bánh Hạnh Nhân) because I wanted something almondy

Now that you’re all cookied up, on to the books!

End of the Year Roundup

It’s that time of year. Time to do a best-of post dedicated to the most interesting books of 2021. All of these books are great conversation starters, but of course, there are so, so many more out there. These are just to get you started:

Cultish by Amanda Montell

With Cultish, Montell promises to finally explain the appeal of cults for some people through language without jargon. She tackles everything from biological survival responses to society’s treatment of the word “cult” and how even that can be detrimental. She interviewed survivors of Jonestown, former members of the 3HO Foundation, and even covers certain fitness programs that have the us vs. them stance and sense of community that many cults have.

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

I’m not going to lie, this is a tome at around 800 pages. It’s definitely more than my struggle attention span can handle, but I know it’s worth pushing through. Jeffers tells a truer story of America, one that takes into account the mixing of cultures and its duality. This duality presents itself in many ways, one of which was first described at length by the books namesake. The duality Du Bois spoke of, or the “Double Consciousness,” has been inherent to many Black Americans, and isn’t lost on the book’s main character Ailey Pearl. Ailey is named after the famed Black choreographer Alvin Ailey, and her ancestor Pearl, who was a descendent of enslaved people. Ailey’s need to better understand her roots drives the story as she uncovers the truth of her ancestors— who they were, what they did, and what that means for her now— in this sweeping, elegant new American standard.

How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith

It’s curious how different parts of history are treated. Objectively, they’re all just what happened, and are no fault of those living now, but some people take offense at what certain parts of history imply. Take for instance, the guard in the Angola museum that Smith spoke to. When asked about what part Angola took in perpetuating slavery, the guide responded ” I can’t change that.” And so, books like this will always be necessary. The simple act of trying to arrive at a solid, undeniable truth is met with denial. Luckily, Smith’s quest to chronicle how specific locations— eight U.S. cities and one city in Senegal— reckon with their role in slavery is told with the grace of a poet.

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Growing up, there was distance between Zauner’s mother and her brought about by her mother’s expectations of her, as well as her mother’s inherent otherness. This otherness is something that is commonly felt between the children of immigrants and their parents. With a new country comes a new way to grow up, while parents bring their own rearing from their home countries. The two experiences often clash. Despite this difference, Zauner and her mother bonded over food when they would visit her grandmother in Korea, and the food descriptions here might have you making some bad decisions at 10 p.m. on your food app of choice (jk, any time you’re able to order Korean food at 10 p.m., it’s a good decision).

Zauner is starting to come into her own as a musician just as she starts to feel the Korean aspects of her identity slip away. When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, she seeks to reconnect with that part of herself, and by doing so, her mother. As disease began to ravage her mother’s body, she wished away parts of herself— the parts that had bonded with her mother through food— by not eating. This is a lyrical and honest look at grief and identity, generously peppered with mouthwatering descriptions of food.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

This is the perfect story for lovers of stories, as it shows the power of tales told through time. And by time, I mean hundreds of years. It starts in 15th century Constantinople as Anna reads the story of Aethon— and how he hopes to be turned into a bird and fly to freedom— to her sister as the city is attacked.

The ’50s saw Zino, an ex-soldier now in Idaho, working on translating the manuscript that holds Aethon’s story from Greek. When he reaches his eighties, he leads a play that showcases the story, and is acted out by children. Unbeknownst to him, there’s a bomb that’s been planted by a misguided teenager nearby, its existence an ever constant threat throughout the book.

Finally, hidden away in a ship, Konstance, who has never been to Earth, is busy writing down the story of Aethon as her father told her. As these stories converge, and the story of Aethon ends, we see the impact that stories can have.

There’s a great conversation here about how this relates to religion. And how certain civilizations have religions with similar stories.

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

I’m tempted to say that this is a queer retelling of The Great Gatsby, but that isn’t exactly true, as the original was actually queer. It’s interesting how I don’t remember it being discussed when I first read it as a teenager, but it was very clear once I revisited it as an adult. Vo gives more flesh to characters from the original as she tells of Jordan Baker, the queer, adopted Vietnamese girl brought into the monied American social circles of the ’20s. Jordan is seen as exotic and somewhat like a pet among the white socialites. The familiar story unfolds, as Gatsby tries to regain the object of his obsession, but there is more still. Dark bargains and magic surface as Jordan begins to understand her place in society.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

Suggestion Section

Anne Rice passed away this past Saturday.

Lucky by Marissa Stapley is Reese’s book club pick for December

Bright Burning Things Lisa Harding is Jenna Bush Hager’s book club pick

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins is Belletrist’s December pick (the cover is cute and the title is a mood)

A fun Christmas quiz

Here’s a list of reimagined romance classics

A helpful list of last minute gift ideas!

I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_ . You can also catch me talking more mess in the new In Reading Color newsletter as well as chattin’ with my new cohost Tirzah Price on the Hey YA podcast.

Yours in almond cookie realness,

-Erica

In The Club

❄️Reading in a Winter Wonderland ❄️

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date December 7, 2021

Nibbles and Sips

If you’re plant-based and lamenting the absence of Korean friend chicken in your life, don’t despair! Here’s this wonderful recipe that replaces the chicken with oyster mushrooms from Joanne Lee Molinaro, who just released The Korean Vegan Cookbook this October. She has it with a spicy vegan mayo, but if you’re looking for that glaze that Korean fried chicken usually comes with, here’s a recipe for that:

SOY GARLIC GLAZE

4 garlic cloves minced
¼ cup + 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
¼ cup mirin
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp Gochujang
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water

Directions:

To make the glaze, add all glaze ingredients except cornstarch and water to a small saucepan. Stir to evenly mix and bring sauce to a simmer. Taste and adjust as needed. Keep in mind the final version will have a more concentrated flavor. For a more savory sauce, you can add a little more soy sauce.
In a small bowl, stir cornstarch and water until cornstarch is fully dissolved. Add to the glaze and immediately stir it in so the cornstarch does not clump. Allow sauce to simmer until thickened. Remove from heat.
Brush fried “chicken” pieces with glaze. Garnish with sesame seeds and scallions.

Now for the books!

❄️+☕️+ 📚=😌

On the east coast, we’re still nestled in that cozy time in Fall when it’s comfortably chilly, but not offensively cold. A time to treasure, in other words. I’m a bit of a seasonal reader, and love it when the general outside mood matches my reading, so now’s the time I love to read books that are a lil frosty, bonus points if there’s a touch of the fantastical. Here are some books that you can snuggle up with this season.

Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated by Aneesa Higgins

Sokcho is the border town between North and South Korea that attracts tourists during the warmer months. But it’s winter when a middle-aged French cartoonist begrudgingly comes into the unkempt inn that a young, half Korean woman is working at. The two form an awkward relationship, as he convinces her to show him around for an authentic experience, and she gets the chance to spend time with someone who reminds her of the French father she never met. This is a subtle exploration of identity, alienation, and the beauty of North and South Korea in the winter. It has also won the National Book Award for translated literature.

Book club bonus: As mentioned before, this is a novel that explores identity and alienation through subtle and poetic prose and a protagonist who often refers to and regards her body in a certain way. How do the ways in which the protagonist views her body correspond with her independence and ever developing sense of self?

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

“Where am I?”

He shrugged. “Back of the north wind. The end of the world. Nowhere at all.”

This book, y’all. I shut the world out and read this entire trilogy in a few days in December last year. It was that good. In it, we’re dropped in the dead of winter in the Russian wilderness where there are stories of Frost, the winter demon, and other spirits from Russian mythology that Vasilisa grows up hearing stories about. These spirits are respected, with some even being given tributes as house protectors, until Christianity comes and threatens to “kill” the spirits by forbidding people from worshipping them.

When Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father eventually remarries a devout Christian woman from the city who forbids the honoring of traditional spirits. General mess follows, and suddenly crops die and villagers go through it. There’s also an evil from the forest that seems to be creeping nearer and nearer. This actually had some really creepy/scary moments. You’ve been warned!

Book club bonus: We just had a fabulous conversation last night for our Insiders group read discussion of Elatsoe, and the topic of cultures’ deities and spirits came up. I think this book would lend itself well to that convo, so discuss themes of religious imperialism, and what it means for women.

Death in D Minor by Alexia Gordon

This is the second book in a cozy mystery series that has quite a few unique elements. The first book introduced Gethsemane Brown, a Black American expatriate living in a haunted cottage in Ireland who starts to solve murder cases as an amateur sleuth… obviously.

In this book, her cottage is about to be sold by the landlord, her ghost friend has disappeared, and her brother-in-law shows up for Christmas only to be accused of stealing an expensive antique. So naturally, she goes undercover at a charity ball to find out the true thief, but unwittingly conjures the ghost of an eighteenth century sea captain and is accused of murdering the ball’s host. Also naturally: sis is pressedT.

Book club bonus: There’s a lot going on here. How do you think all of the elements complement each other, and do you think they would work better or worse in an American setting?

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

Suggestion Section

Noname’s book club pick for December is The Spook Who Sat by the Door (the title of this book gave me a visceral reaction, not going to lie)

Interesting reads from Book Riot:

How much do you know about the author Lewis Carroll? 🧐
How ’bout the horror genre? 🧐🧐
Also, what do you think the message in A Christmas Carol is supposed to be?

Until next week,

-E

In The Club

Reading Harder

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date November 30, 2021

Nibbles and Sips

Rosalynn Daniels gives us this recipe for this beautifully crusted vegetable au gratin that I think could be graduated to being the main course.

To the books!

In Other Words, I Need to Read More Nonfiction

Since the world has the nerve to already be in the month of December, I’ve started looking back and thinking about what I’ve done this year, etc. One place I think I could have done a bit better in is reading more books outside of my comfort zone. I used Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge to draw some topics from.

#12. A WORK OF INVESTIGATIVE NONFICTION BY AN AUTHOR OF COLOR

Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

Talaga gives a voice to Indigenous children whose deaths were never properly explained. She makes the case about how the lives of the Indigenous people of Canada have never been treated equally. This is easily seen in how missing cases and deaths of Indigenous people have a history of not being properly investigated. The 1966 case of Chanie Wenjack who froze to death at the age of twelve after having run away from a residential school is an example of this. Although there was an inquest and recommendations given to prevent it from happening again, none of it was taken seriously.

Decades later, seven Indigenous high schoolers died in Thunder Bay, Ontario hundreds of miles away from their families. A few were found in rivers, a couple died in their boarding houses, and one disappeared into the freezing night. Seven years after the first child, Jethro Anderson, was found, an investigation was finally ordered in response to Reggie Bushie’s death. Talaga focuses on the Northern City of Thunder Bay, but its history of handling Indigenous children and people is representative of Canada as whole.

#16. AN OWN VOICES BOOK ABOUT DISABILITY

Disfigured by Amanda Leduc

Leduc examines the role fairy tales have played in society’s view of disability. Throughout her book, she critiques tales that range from the Brothers Grimm to modern Disney iterations, showing how happiness has only ever been thought to be for beautiful, able-bodied people. It’s interesting how every culture has myths, and how much these stories are meant to shape the cultures in turn. Many of the myths from the Disney fairy tales that Leduc discusses here were borrowed from other continents, so the views regarding disability didn’t originate with the entertainment company, but I wonder just how much actually seeing this kind of discrimination play out in the form of movies made them that much harder to dispel.

#22. A BOOK SET IN THE MIDWEST

Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome

Broome frames his memoir around Gwendolyn Brook’s poem “We Real Cool.” In it, he recounts his experiences growing up in Ohio as a dark-skinned, queer Black kid. As you might have imagined, this was an experience was full of homophobia, racism, and even abuse from his father. He further describes how he used sex and drugs to self soothe to disastrous effects in this beautifully written memoir that just won a Kirkus Prize.

Side note: The book blurb describes Brook’s poem as a “loving ode to Black boyhood,” which I think is… interesting. Reading the poem gives me anything but Black joy vibes, but this isn’t the first time I’ve seen blurbs use examples of other well-known Black art to describe Black books, even when it doesn’t exactly fit (all the “just like the movie Get Out” books, I’m looking at you). Let me know what y’all think about this.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

Suggestion Section

Good news! We’re hiring for an Advertising Sales Manager. Do you like books and comics? Does helping advertisers reach an enthusiastic community of book and comics lovers intrigue you? This might be your job. Apply by December 5, 2021

Here are some more book club themed gifts for your fellow book clubbers

For December’s Book club pick, GMA has chosen Dava Shastri’s Last Day

B*tch Media has chosen Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth as their last pick of the year. There will be an interview with the author that you can join on December 13

Until next week,

-E

In The Club

Gifting for The Club

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date November 23, 2021

On the Write Track: Books about Writers

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date November 16, 2021

Nibbles and Sips

When I opened my front door and was greeted with an open-palm slap in the face from the cold, I knew it was time for stew. Here’s a recipe by Potawatomi Chef Loretta Barrett Oden for the traditional three sisters stew. It has a bit of a twist, as it has corn dumplings, but those are easily omitted if you’re not feeling them.

This isn’t stew, but is another three sisters recipe and is by Oglala Lakota Sioux Chef Sean Sherman. The three sisters dishes gets their name from how three main Native American crops —corn, squash, and beans— would grow next to each other, each supporting the others’ growth as sisters might. Here’s a little more on the Three Sisters legend. I know nothing about agriculture, so I didn’t know that crops could aid each other while growing, but I think it’s interesting how we have to learn how to live more sustainable lives now when— before colonization— Native Americans already were. Sean Sherman has a cookbook called The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, if you were interested. Also, as with many Native American dishes, this can easily be vegan, vegetarian, or meaty.

Now on to the books!

Writing On the Struggle Bus

One thing these books have in common, apart from them being about writers of course, is that the main characters are suffering. These books depict their writer protagonists as unlimited metro card- wielding riders of the struggle bus. Conflict is a very normal component in novels, but the first book being a nonfiction makes me think there may be something to the idea of struggling artists.

Book Club Bonus: What do you think of the struggle contained within these books? Is it just because all novels need some kind of conflict, or do you think that pain and heartache are endemic to writers in general? Is it part of what compels them to write?

The Sinner and the Saint by Kevin Birmingham

Birmingham’s book places Fyodor Dostoevsky’s life alongside that of the man that inspired the murderer from Crime and Punishment: Frenchman Pierre Francois Lacenaire. In addition to being a murderer, Lacenaire just so happened to be a law student and poet. As Dostoyevsky’s fascination with convicts grew while writing his influential novel— no doubt influenced by his own time in the slammer— his murderous protagonist Raskolnikov started to resemble him more and more Birmingham also shows just how much Dostoyevsky went through it, detailing his struggles with epilepsy, gambling, debt, and death in the short sixty years he was alive.

Extra, extra bonus points if your book club reads Crime and Punishment and then Kevin Birmingham’s book. It would be nice to compare your thoughts on the first book with what actually happened in Dostoyevsky’s life. Although it is over 600 pages depending on your edition, so I know I would struggle with this myself *cries in ADHD*.

Seven Days i n June by Tia Williams

Y’all. This took me on a bit of a ride, not going to lie. My current contemporary romance fave Talia Hibbert (she of the Brown Sisters fame) highly recommended this, so I knew I had to go for it. I mistakenly thought it would be the same kind of real but fun and slightly ridiculous, steamy romp that Mizz Hibbert is so good at. It’s another thing entirely, but that’s not a bad thing!

It follows two Black writers who had a really intense week of romance back when they were teenagers. Now, fifteen years later, Eva Mercy and Shane have been reunited on a panel of other Black writers, no less. Shane is the highly regarded, yet enigmatic writer of literary fiction, and Eva has a loyal fanbase for her supernatural romance series (think of theTwilight fandom, but older). The present is told alongside the past, revealing the very traumatic existence they both had and the toxic ways they came to cope. This is definitely a darker kind of romance, on account of all the trauma and maladaptive coping mechanisms, but that may be what makes the ending more satisfying. There is also some great disability representation as Eva suffers from chronic migraines.

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Thirty-one year old Casey arrives in the general Boston area in 1997 with a lot of things weighing on her. For one, she’s still processing the loss of her mother as well as the salacious affair she just had with a fellow writer at a writer’s colony. Now, she’s waiting tables and renting a raggedy room on the side of a garage. Despite everything, she’s still managed to hold on to her dream of being a writer, something many of her previously similarly-minded friends have already given up on. As she continues to work on the novel she’s been writing for the past six years, she becomes romantically involved with two other writers, giving her even more things to figure out. There’s also a great mystery here concerning why she walked away from golf having been a child prodigy, and why she’s estranged from her dad.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

Suggestion Section

The history of copaganda in comics

For when you want your nonfiction nonconformist

Fellow Book Rioter Danika Ellis wrote a *fire* post on how the recent book banning have been targeting queer books: “Pandora’s box has already been opened. Teens know queerness exists. They’re questioning gender no matter how many book bonfires you build.”

Here are the most popular authors according to Goodreads (and Emily Martin)

Speaking of Goodreads, it’s time to vote in the 2021 Goodreads choice awards

Until next time,

-E

In The Club

Reach For the Stars

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date November 9, 2021

Nibbles and Sips

Chef Elena Terry of the Ho-Chunk Nation is a founder of Wild Bearies, a nonprofit outreach catering organization. She works to uplift the Indigenous Food Sovereignty movement, and also shows us how to make a dish similar to pumpkin pie that she conceptualized. It’s called sass squash, and it uses ingredients that are local and more sustainable to certain parts of North America.

Now let’s get to the books!

The Space Race

I’m sure you’ve heard of the billionaire space race. They seemed to think the earth is ruined and the future for humanity (or maybe just their future??) lies in the as yet barely explored cosmos…? With it being Native American Heritage month, I can’t help but be reminded of manifest destiny when I think about this, and the idea of exploring with the intent to use the resources of the newly discovered area. If we find life in space, do we have a right to it? Do we have a right to any inanimate resources as well?

The books below, two of which are memoirs, find human beings wrestling with the ills of humanity while looking past it to the cosmos.

The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Prescod-Weinstein talks of how the wonder of the cosmos beckons so many, but because of discrimination, few are allowed to pursue careers in the physics and astronomy fields. She’s the first Black woman to be tenured in a theoretical cosmology faculty position, and as a result, knows all too well the roadblocks in the way of inclusive academic environments. In The Disordered Cosmos, she juxtaposes the exploration of her field— her speciality is finding dark matter— with issues that are more earth-bound, like Indigenous peoples’ land and experiments. She describes a hopeful future where the scientific community is able to benefit from the inclusion of all races and genders.

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Astrobiologist Theo Byrne looks to the cosmos for life as his own turns to shambles. His wife died, leaving him to raise their nine-year-old son Robin. Robin is a kind boy who likes to draw pictures of animals, no doubt a hobby developed as a result of his recently departed animal rights activist mother. Robin is also neurodivergent and prone to outbursts of violence, the latest of which he faces expulsion from school for. This is a touching novel that explores a father-son relationship alongside their loves of nature and science.

A Quantum Life by Hakeem Oluseyi

Oluseyi tells of the balancing act he had to achieve as someone who was always academically gifted and interested in the sciences, but grew up in rough areas that required a certain exterior for survival. His nomadic childhood saw him in some of the more dangerous areas in Houston, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, where he eventually learned to adapt by doing things like selling weed to get the target off of his back. Although he’s now an astrophysicist at NASA, the road getting there once he became an adult was rife with drug addiction and other challenges, which he explores in this novel of self-reinvention.

Suggestion Section

Don’t forget to check out our new podcast Adaptation Nation if you haven’t already! The first episode is out already and covers the adaption of Dune.

Brooklyn Public Library Lit Prize Winners Revealed

Here’s a nice overview of the Poet Laureates in the U.S.

Alice Wong: ‘I Don’t Center Nondisabled People’

A good list to start buying gifts

I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_ . You can also catch me talking more mess in the new In Reading Color newsletter as well as choppin’ it up with Kelly Jensen on the Hey YA podcast.

Until next week,

-E

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

In The Club

🎉 It’s Native American Heritage Month! 🎉

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date November 2, 2021

Sponsored by Astra House, dedicated to publishing authors across genres and from around the world.

God of Mercy is set in Ichulu, an Igbo village. Their adherence to tradition has allowed them to evade the influences of colonialism and globalization. But the village is reckoning with changes, including a war between gods signaled by Ijeoma, a girl who can fly. As tensions grow between Ichulu and its neighboring colonized villages, Ijeoma is forced into exile. She is imprisoned by a Christian church. Suffering through isolation, she comes to understand the truth of merciful love. God of Mercy is a novel about wrestling with gods, confronting demons, and understanding one’s true purpose.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.

We’ve got a new podcast called Adaptation Nation, which will be about TV and film adaptations of your favorite books! The first episode features Jeff, Amanda, and Jenn breaking down the sci-fi classic Dune and the new adaptation (it’s also out now!). Subscribe on your podcatcher of choice.

Anyone else have terrible allergies? Here’s actual footage of me for the past three weeks. Like, we’re in an age of technology and I’m allergic to… outside. A week and a half ago, I was commiserating with my friend about our sinuses and we were trying to figure out if it was the change of seasons or maybe just how we had been staying inside more since the pandemic started. Who knows! All I know is that I wish I could breath like a normal person.

While I decide between Allegra or Zyrtec, let’s get to the club!

Nibbles and Sips

Today’s recipe is for fry bread tacos. It’s interesting how much food can tell the history of a people. The invention of fry bread is directly linked to the oppression of Native Americans by the U.S. government. It was born of necessity and the result of the limited rations given to Native tribes when they were forcibly removed from their lands.

Recipes for fry bread have been passed down for generations and now many view it as part of their heritage. Among them is Lawrence West— of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe— who owns the restaurant Watecha Bowl in South Dakota. He gives us a recipe for his fry bread tacos, which are vegan (as a lot of Native food naturally is).

November is Native American History month, and I just have to say it’s absolutely wild how little we’re taught of Native Americans in history classes in America. Like, it’s shameful, really. When I was studying to take the MCAT, there was a passage I read that was talking about how U.S. democracy came to be influenced by Native American government. Here is an article that isn’t the one I read, but speaks on the topic.

It was interesting because I felt I’ve always heard the Ancient Greeks being credited with the entirety of democracy as a concept, even though everyone having a say is the most logical thing for a society, but I digress. Reading the passage was a great example of how history is so routinely whitened, and why we still need heritage months just to highlight what really happened.

The books below help us remedy our lack of knowledge of Native American culture just a bit.

Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo

Harjo was the first Native American to serve as the U.S. poet laureate. In this musical and poetic memoir, she explores the many influences that put her on the path to being a poet who writes towards compassion and healing. Her love of words began with her hiding under the kitchen table trying to catch her mother reciting poetry by the likes of William Blake and others. Harjo mixes prose, poetry, and song in this memoir about grief, compassion, abuse, and justice.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Daunis Fontaine is eighteen, biracial, unenrolled from her tribe, and a bit of a misfit. She wants to study medicine after high school, but puts her dreams on hold to help her ill mother. Her and her Anishinaab half-brother spend a lot of time playing hockey, and one day she stumbles upon a drug trade that is centered on selling a new form of meth. Bodies start to pile up and Daunis becomes involved with the case to the point of going undercover, during which time she conducts her own investigation. This dark thriller has a fairly realistic main character and is a great look into Ojibwe culture.

White Magic by Elissa Washuta

Washuta’s decade-long struggle with addiction, abuse, and PTSD culminated in her being drawn to the spirits and practices of her ancestors. She talks of witch craft and the gentrification of her culture’s practices in the form of plastic-wrapped starter “occult” kits with sage and other traditional Native spiritual tools. She references the pop culture she consumed during her formative years— like Fleetwood Mac, Twin Peaks, and the Oregon Trail video game (I remember playing this in 1st grade!)— and presents them as personal cultural artifacts, drawing a parallel to stories of her ancestors.

Book Club Bonus: What are some things you’ve noticed that we’ve borrowed from Native American culture that don’t get credited as being Native? Also, if you read all three books, what are some things that the Native characters deal with that you weren’t expecting?

Suggestion Section

Noname’s Book Club picks for November are Black Slaves, Indian Masters by Barbara Krauthamer and As Long as Grass Grows by Dina Gilio-Whitaker

The November pick for Reese’s Book Club is The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, with the Fall YA pick being Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood.

Jenna Bush Hager selects a mafia-drama— The Family by Naomi Krupitsky— as the November book club pick

Still Life by Sarah Winman is the ‘GMA’ November Book Club pick

Here’s a book club focused on uplifting Indigenous voices

The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon is the November pick for Belletrist

I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_ . You can also catch me talking more mess in the new In Reading Color newsletter as well as choppin’ it up with Kelly Jensen on the Hey YA podcast.

Until next week,

-E

In The Club

It’s All Greek to Me

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date October 26, 2021

Sponsored by Astra House, dedicated to publishing authors across genres and from around the world.

Melissa Lozada-Oliva’s Dreaming of You is an absurd yet heartfelt examination of celebrity worship. A young Latinx poet grappling with loneliness and heartache decides one day to bring Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla back to life. The séance kicks off an uncanny trip narrated by a Greek chorus of gossiping spirits as she journeys through a dead celebrity prom, encounters her shadow self, and performs karaoke in hell. Playfully morbid and profoundly candid, an interrogation of Latinidad, womanhood, obsession, and disillusionment, Dreaming of You grapples with the cost of being seen for your truest self.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.

Book club friends! Before we get to the books, I wanted to remind you that it’s the last week to get your hands on some Book Riot anniversary merch that I must say is perfect for fall. The gold sweatshirt is hella cute, by the way.

As for the latest in my bookish life, I just recorded a great Hey YA episode with my cohost Kelly Jensen that includes some YA retellings and airs today *ahem*. Thinking about retellings in general made my mind wander to ones based on Greek mythology, as there are so many. I feel like there are a few that come out each year, and, although I love them, I sometimes wonder why it’s such a popular category. Is it because they’re such good representations of the human condition? Or are people simply reliving familiar tales from their childhood and making them new?

What do you think? As you mull the question over, let’s get to the club!

Nibbles and Sips

A pecan pie with a few slices taken out of the pan

It’s about that time! Time for me to bust out the pie pans and try to recreate that buttery magic my grandmother made all through my childhood. I was prompted to include a great recipe for pecan pie by an article featuring another foodie showdown. This time, the best recipe for punkin pie was at stake (or steak?… heh). For Thanksgiving and/or Christmas gatherings I attend, I like to make both a pecan pie and a pumpkin one. If you’re thinking, Erica, that’s a bit much. Yes, yes it is, and to that I say “and what about it?” I have no shame in my game.

Revel in this delicious tradition (laced with whiskey), courtesy of Toni Tipton-Martin at Texas Monthly. Here’s another one by Jocelyn over at Grandbaby Cakes that doesn’t have a paywall.

Book Club Bonus: Years ago, I watched a documentary on mythologies that said that the harshness in mythology is supposed to represent the harshness of life. The stories where the hero is facing some beast or god were meant as analogies of Man vs. The Elements. I think that same struggle is kept central to the plot in the books I mention below, as they are told from the perspective of people that have been marginalized— whether it be because of race, class, or gender— who are up against their own version of The Elements. Discuss how accurate you think these analogies are. Also, what did these adaptions grant the original story? What did they take away?

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

Isma has been recently freed from the shackles of older-sister-itis— a moment of silence for her, because I honestly feel you, girl. Her role of caretaker to her younger siblings was brought on by the death of her mother years prior. She’s since accepted a mentor’s invitation to finally go after a dream she’s been delaying. She leaves her home in London to start earning her PhD in America, but can’t stop thinking about her younger siblings: the fiery and gorgeous Aneeka and Parvaiz, who wishes to realize his absentee father’s jihadist dreams. In America, Isma crosses paths with Eamonn Lone, whose powerful father wins favor back home with Islamophobic propaganda. As the two families become intertwined, romance, intolerance, and familial loyalty are explored in this retelling of Antigone.

Circe by Madeline Miller

I hesitated to add this one as it is already pretty popular. I decided to, anyway, as I really enjoyed it and I can’t resist mentioning a good witch protagonist.

“When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.”

So starts the novel, which follows the titular character who is neither powerful like her father Helios, nor breathtakingly beautiful like her mother Perse. Instead, she’s largely seen as unremarkable as she searches for acceptance and love in the world of the gods. When she is banished to the island of Aeaea, Circe realizes her innate magic and takes to learning about herbs and potions as she surrounds herself with lions. I love how Circe’s magic is treated here. It’s a natural, comfortable thing that works as if she were merely having a thought at times. As she continues to step into her own, she takes on several, powerful mythical figures, lovers, and motherhood. Her journey sees her gradually rising above the scorn directed at her by other immortals.

“I did not go easy to motherhood. I faced it as soldiers face their enemies, girded and braced, sword up against the coming blows. Yet all my preparations were not enough.”

As ancient as the character is, many of her concerns are modern.

An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozi Obioma

Young poultry farmer Chinonso intervenes when he sees Ndali preparing to jump off a bridge. In a bid to demonstrate the finality of what she’s contemplating, he throws his two prized chickens off the bridge. The young woman is moved by his demonstration and goes on to have a relationship with him. Issues arise, however, in the form of Ndali’s educated family disapproving of Chinonso’s lowly farmer status. As a result, he decides to go to college, a decision that puts him on a life changing journey that will show how far he’s willing to go to change his lot in life. A lot of traditional Igbo spirituality is incorporated in this reimagining of the The Odyssey. Case in point, it’s narrated by Chinonso’s Chi— or life force— which has been summoned in front of the almighty creator to represent Chinonso in a hearing that will determine his guilt in a serious crime.

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Ariadne and her sister Phaedra are princesses of Crete that grow up knowing the shame of their Minotaur brother’s existence. The product of their mother Pasiphaë’s obsession with a snow-white bull, the Minotaur stalks the labyrinth built beneath the palace, demanding human blood. When Ariadne falls in love with the prince of Athens, who came to Crete as a sacrifice to her half brother, she has to decide whether to help him or stay loyal to her family and country. This story follows Ariadne through her life, showing her position in a world of powerful gods and cruel men. It’s another great addition to the list of well-known myths being retold from their often silent female characters’ perspectives.

Suggestion Section

Here’s an interesting look at the books offered for an important stage in women’s lives
Learn about WonTon the bookstore cat and a library chicken for some feel-good news
Here’s a fun trick-or-treating quiz to help you figure out your next spooky read
A new book club focused on Indigenous stories and histories has been formed in London, Ontario
The November pick for Oxygen’s book club is The House of Gucci by Sara Gay Forden
Stephen Colbert gives us a messy, wine-laden book club of his own. No shade to those of us who have had the kiddie pools filled with White Claw since March 2020. Do you!

I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_ . You can also catch me talking more mess in the new In Reading Color newsletter as well as choppin’ it up with Kelly Jensen on the Hey YA podcast.

Until next week.

-E

In The Club

All Thrill, No Chill

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date October 19, 2021

Sponsored by Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu with Fierce Reads.

From the acclaimed author of Moxie comes a gripping gender-flipped reimagining of The Outsiders that explores the deep bonds of female friendship and what it takes to be a “bad girl.” Evie Barnes and her friends are bad girls. Above all else, they protect their own against the world. So when Evie is saved from a sinister encounter by a good girl from the “right” side of the tracks, every rule she’s always lived by is called into question. Now she must redefine what it means to be a bad girl and rethink everything she knew about loyalty.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.

Friends! Have you been keeping up with Only Murders in the Building? Last week I told myself that I would only watch again once all the episodes were in. Those cliffhangers really irk my soul. Naturally, I watched it anyway and found myself, once again, being upset at those credits rolling. A part from that, though, Jane Lynch in last week’s episode was *chef’s kiss*. I mean, she’s always wonderful in everything she’s in, but her role in this show! Plus, that whole gag about hip motions was sending me. By the time this newsletter comes out, the finale will have aired. We’ll talk more about who killed Tim Kono then. In the meantime, don’t forget to get your Book Riot 10th anniversary schwag that’s only available for a short time!

Now, on to the club!

Nibbles and Sips

I had some drunken noodles for the first time the other day, and let me tell you, they slap. Like many Thai dishes, fresh basil is center stage in the flavor profile. Many add chicken or shrimp, but the tofu I had with mine was delicious. Just make sure your noodles are extra t h i c c. Pai leads us to glory.

SN: the picture is from a different site.

For When You Want a Little Turbulence

…but don’t want to crash. Know what I mean? Here are some interesting thrillers by women to shake you up a little.

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

Learning about the story that inspired this made my blood boil. Grace Park’s family, despite the sheltered life her Korean immigrant parents have afforded her, is broken. Shawn Matthews deals with a disjointed family as well. One that suffered the murder of his teenage sister in 1991. When Grace’s mother is shot in a drive-by, Shawn must provide an alibi. Although he’s eventually cleared, he begins to wonder about his cousin Ray’s involvement, and Grace starts to realize why her sister Miriam hasn’t spoken to their mother in years.

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Here, three brothers manage land in Queensland so vast there are hours between each of their houses. One of the brothers, Cam, never comes home one day and is later found on the stockman’s grave— an old landmark associated with local ghost stories— with his keys neatly placed in the front seat of his car. Cam is thought to have taken his own life, but the unsettling dynamic amongst those in his household as well as family secrets seem to suggest otherwise. Jane Harper always seems to write the Australian settings she uses as other characters, and this one helps to push themes of isolation, which serves to amplify the family drama.

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

This YA novel falls under what the kids call dark academia and secured its twenty one year old author a seven figure book deal. Gen Z just being built different is a reality I often discuss, and clearly, Àbíké-Íyímídé is no exception. It follows head girl Chiamaka and the talented Devon —the only two Black students at a prestigious and very white high school— as they contend with an anonymous texter known as Aces. Aces is hellbent on exposing everything Chiamaka and Devon want to keep secret and takes their torture of the two students quite far in this queer novel that explores systemic racism with echoes of Gossip Girl.

Suggestion Section

If you haven’t read it yet, here’s maybe why you should read The Body Keeps the Score
Here’s a roundup of censorship news from last week
Compare scores from this literary Who Wants to be a Millionaire quiz during your next book club meetup
Uzo Aduba is hosting the new Netflix book club that will focus on books the streaming service has adapted
Sankofa is Reese’s October Book Club pick
We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza is GMA’s October pick

I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_ . You can also catch me choppin’ it up with Kelly Jensen on the Hey YA podcast every couple of weeks. I also write the new newsletter In Reading Color that focuses exclusively on literature by people of color. It’s out every Tuesday.

Until next week,

-E

In The Club

The Witches Have It

Post author By Erica Ezeifedi
Post date October 12, 2021

Sponsored by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

“Beautiful, inspiring, emotional, masterful.”—Heidi Chiavaroli, Carol Award–winning author of Freedom’s Ring and The Orchard House

This dual-time story from Amanda Cox deftly explores the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship, the way the secrets we keep shape our lives and the lives of others, and the healing power of telling the truth.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.

Before we get to the books, shimmy on over here to get some 10th anniversary merchandise that’s only offered for a limited time.

Now, book club besties. I feel some type of way. My little brother and I are trying to coordinate holiday travel. Holiday travel. Already. How is next month Thanksgiving?? I feel like… someone’s been lying to me. Like I need a refund or something. On the other hand, I am ready for a lil Black Friday deal or two, if I’m keeping it real.

Conflicted feelings aside, let’s get to the club!

Nibbles and Sips

Have you ever had chile rellenos? Because you should. They’re basically fried poblano peppers stuff with cheese (usually Oaxacan cheese, but other cheese can work), which sounds simple enough, but they’re boommmb. Isabel at Isabel Eats guides the way.

Now let’s get to the books!

The Witchery

The reason so many fall releases are so much fun to me is because of all the new books about witches. I’ve always loved reading about powerful women, whether their power is based in how they carry themselves or some outward thing (like magic, say).

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

Katrell is a mess. Period. It’s not her fault, though. Her mother is even more of a mess and exploits her daughter’s ability that allows her to speak to the dead. The money Katrell gets from connecting people with their departed loved ones goes towards paying for said deadbeat mother and whoever her mother’s abusive loser-of-the-month boyfriend is. All while (barely) going to high school and working a low-wage job. Bless her heart, you know how much I would be charging with that power?! I would have what they call eff-you money. Katrell is young and doesn’t know any better, though, and it shows. She’s warned one day by her best friend’s dead grandmother during a session to stop communing with the dead, but she doesn’t listen. And, it gets bad bad.

Book Club Bonus: Talk about the type of family trauma that binds and why Katrell seemed to keep making the same mistake over and over. Why do you think some people hurtle towards self-destruction?

Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore

This is set in a small town in England in 1643. While I feel there’s a lot written about witches during this time, this felt a little different because Manningtree is a place where there is a dearth of men on account of the war. Women are left to their own devices. That is, until Matthew Hopkins arrives dressed in head-to-toe black, asking what the women in town are up to. To which I say: Sir, if you don’t mind your damn business. You can imagine what happens next. Whispers of suspicion, betrayal, covens, and pacts converge as the independence of the women of Manningtree starts to be realized.

Book Club Bonus: Female independence and sexuality are often viewed contentiously in witch stories set in Puritan settings. It’s obviously sexist, but why do you think that is? What do you think is it about these things that Puritans found so threatening?

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

This technically came out last year, but you’ll still want to bump it up on your TBR, especially since Atakora used interviews from formerly enslaved people collected by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s to inform her writing. It’s set on an isolated former plantation in the south after the Civil War. Rue is the reluctant local midwife and occasional setter of curses (upon request), continuing on her beloved mother’s position in town. One day Rue helps to deliver a baby that’s got the whole town pressedT. He’s born with a caul and strange, black eyes. Then other children start dying. Whispers of Rue being a witch rather than a healer start to circulate, and people seek comfort in a preacher. Rue has to determine if this preacher is for her, or not, as she tries to keep her own secrets hidden.

Book Club Bonus: It’s interesting how a lot of witches throughout history have had a close tie to medical things. Many times a connection to witchcraft may be drawn to midwives, healing women, etc. Even the potions and tinctures of the craft may be likened to medicine (and were the only medicine available at times). Discuss: Would a man doing similar things as witches (mixing herbs, delivery babies, etc.) be considered a witch or something else?

Suggestion Section

At Book Riot: What real witches do during the Autumn Equinox
Also, a great list of the most influential sci-fi books ever
Kelly Jensen on the disappearance of queer stories in Nebraska
Mikkaka Overstreet gives us some spoopy books for kids
Also, Britney Spears wants to write a book about a ghost . Go ‘head, Britney!

I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_ . You can also catch me choppin’ it up with Kelly Jensen on the Hey YA podcast every couple of weeks. I also write the new newsletter In Reading Color that focuses exclusively on literature by people of color. It’s out every Tuesday.

Until next week,

-E

Nibbles and Sips

End of the Year Roundup

Cultish by Amanda Montell

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

Suggestion Section

Nibbles and Sips

❄️+☕️+ 📚=😌

Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated by Aneesa Higgins

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Death in D Minor by Alexia Gordon

Suggestion Section

Nibbles and Sips

In Other Words, I Need to Read More Nonfiction

Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

Disfigured by Amanda Leduc

Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome

Suggestion Section

Nibbles and Sips

Writing On the Struggle Bus

The Sinner and the Saint by Kevin Birmingham

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Suggestion Section

Nibbles and Sips

The Space Race

The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

A Quantum Life by Hakeem Oluseyi

Suggestion Section

Nibbles and Sips

Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

White Magic by Elissa Washuta

Suggestion Section

Nibbles and Sips

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

Circe by Madeline Miller

An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozi Obioma

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Suggestion Section

Nibbles and Sips

For When You Want a Little Turbulence

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Suggestion Section

Nibbles and Sips

The Witchery

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

Suggestion Section

Seven Days i n June by Tia Williams