Category: In The Club

In the Club – 10/16

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date October 16, 2019

Sponsored by Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu, with Fierce Reads

Moxie girls fight back! In Jennifer Mathieu’s empowering novel, an unlikely teenager starts a feminist revolution at a small-town Texas high school.

“Moxie is sweet, funny, and fierce. Read this and then join the fight.” —Amy Poehler; “A feminist call-to-action.” —Bustle; “A winner . . . genuine and satisfying.” —NPR

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

Well, friends. I have stared at this monitor on and off for hours, trying and failing to come up with witticisms to pair with vampire books. I debated disclosing the following, but decided after all to share that my dear grandfather, mi abuelo, passed away this Sunday evening. My heart is heavy.

In my grief, I’ve shockingly turned to books on the subject and decided to share those with you instead. If you too have suffered a loss, whether fresh or less recent, I invite you to join my little We Who Grieve book club and give these books a read.

Nibbles and Sips

At some point this week, if I can find one, I’ll be having a toasted sesame hoagie roll with butter and sugar. I’ll pair it with a cup of Folgers instant coffee prepared with more milk and sugar than actual coffee, and a piece of Mexican pan dulce for dinner because what even are carbs? If I were back in San Diego, I’d head south of the border for deep fried quesadillas and tacos al vapor, then I’d wash them down with an ice cold bottle of Mexican Coke. These are the foods that remind me of my sweet abuelo; that, any anything from McDonald’s.

In case it isn’t evident, there are no fancy refreshment rules in our We Who Grieve book club. Choose comfort, choose solace, choose food and drink that are a hug for your heart.

Reading Through Grief – You’ll notice I haven’t included Book Club Bonus notes this week. It’s not laziness, I promise. I only mean to encourage you to process these books however you personally need to.

H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald – You may have heard of this title if you’ve ever searched for books on loss, it’s a bit of a favorite in the way of grief memoirs. After the death of her father, Helen MacDonald decided to adopt and raise a hawk and document the experience. It’s a lushly descriptive meditation on the connection between animals and man, and a grief memoir filled with some of the most beautiful sentences I’ve read in some time.

Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl – I know this word gets tossed around a lot, but this book is just stunning. It’s a slim little thing, a collection of brief essays weaving the breathtaking beauty of the natural world with the exquisite pain of grief. It focuses on Renkl’s relationship with her parents and the bittersweet transition of becoming their caregiver. In short: it messed. me. up, and it did so absolutely beautifully.

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea – This book is one I’ve been thinking about over and over sine Sunday evening. Septuagenarian Miguel Angel de la Cruz has plans to throw himself one last birthday extravaganza in what he believes to be the final days of his life. When his mother dies days before the giant fiesta, Big Angel turns the weekend into a double-header in celebration of both their lives. Told in two timelines set in Mexico and south San Diego (in the very neighborhood my Abuelo and Abuela lived in my entire life), this book is both a hilarious and heartbreaking reflection on mortality, family, and the immigrant experience.

Suggestion Section

In a spot of brighter news, have you heard? Yours truly is hosting the next installment of Persist our feminist book club run entirely on Instagram.

If you and your book club still haven’t read Where the Crawdads Sing (I haven’t either), here are some book club questions to chew on when (if) you do.

Loved this piece from the Boston Globe on Black booklovers remixing the book club. I especially dig that District 7 Book Club in Roxbury takes place at District 7 Tavern, the site of one of the first black-owned taverns in Boston.

Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with your burning book club questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter, get it on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too (taking this week off).

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

In The Club

In The Club – 10/09

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date October 9, 2019

Sponsored by The Man Who Played With Fire by Jan Stocklassa

Little did anyone know, Stieg Larsson, the late Swedish author of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was trying to solve Sweden’s most notorious unsolved true crime. In 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was murdered on a Stockholm street at point-blank range. Larsson was following a trail of evidence before he died. Now, Journalist Jan Stocklassa dives into Larsson’s archives to pursue the mystery. What follows is the story of an unbelievable true crime and the world-famous thriller writer determined to investigate it. Read The Man Who Played With Fire by Jan Stocklassa.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Your girl is fighting a cold this week with apple cider vinegar, elderberry syrup, oregano oil, and the occasional hot toddy. Blame that last part for any bad puns or jokes!

I really am all about spooky season and stuck with the theme again this week. Last week I hit you with the witchy reads, and this week we’re seeing ghosts.

Ready? To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips (and Ambiance Tips)

I went to Salt & Straw last October while visiting my now-home of Portland and sampled several of their Spooktober flavors. One of my faves was called Essence of Ghost, a bitter and sweet sorbet with a subtle smokiness reminiscent of “ghouls spooking a foggy graveyard.” I love the idea of smoke evoking ghosts and spookiness, so I’m serving up some more smoky suggestions for today’s nibbles and sips.

When I think smoky, I think of mezcal, which I like to think of as tequila’s cousin who smokes like 12 packs a day. The smokiness of this particular spirit pairs so well with books about spirits. My favorite mezcal cocktail is a spicy jalapeno number like this one.
Confession: if you put any kind of Chex Mix situation in front of me, I will inhale it like I’ve never been fed. Here’s a smoky version of this highly addictive snackage that I highly encourage you to make lots of.
I have never tried this before but my good friend Google suggested it and now I want three of it. It’s a smoked chocolate whiskey cake. WANT.
Create a ghoulish mood and hold the club meeting by candlelight. It’s a little obvious and cheesy, but it’s also super fun.

Spirited Reading

Affinity by Sarah Waters – An upper-class woman in Victorian London attempts death by suicide and begins visiting a women’s prison as part of her rehabilitative charity work. She’s instantly fascinated by spiritualist Selina Dawes, a mysterious woman imprisoned after a seance she conducted went horribly, horribly wrong. Strange things begin to happen both in and outside of the prison the more she gets to know Selina, things that could only be explained by the presence of some kind of spectre. It’s got such a delightfully creepy, unsettling quality to it that kept me turning those pages between chills.

Book Club Bonus: So many of the questions I was going to suggest are plot spoilers, so I’ll leave you with this: discuss how the main character’s privilege plays into… the things.

Slade House by David Mitchell – I’ve been meaning to read this since The Bone Clocks left me looking like the woman in this meme. It’s a haunted house story with the David Mitchell treatment applied: lots of characters, time hops, and interconnected storylines, all wrapped in a story about a house that you never want to leave until you realize you can’t get out.

Book Club Bonus: If you’ve read any other David Mitchell, discuss the similarities and characters or themes that connect all of Mitchell’s works to one another. Unpack the symbolism of doors and the narrative structure; it’s broken up into five parts and is narrated by five different characters.

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey – You know I’m always saying truth is stranger than fiction, and it’s also sometimes a lot creepier. This is a literary road trip through some of the country’s most haunted places with tons of interesting and TERRIFYING history along the way.

Book Club Bonus: If you’re all game, have the group research haunted places near you and share them with the group! I won’t judge you if you want to do this part with the lights on.

Suggestion Section

I’m not saying we need club uniforms, but if we did….

Good Morning America is the next to get in on the book club game. I do love their first pick!

Oprah explains why she partnered with Apple for her book club.

I covered some of these last week, but here’s a more complete roundup of October’s celebrity book club picks.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

In The Club

In the Club – October 2

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date October 2, 2019

In the Club – 9/25

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 24, 2019

Sponsored by The Spiritual Rebel Book Club Guide

Looking for something fun … and deeply meaningful? Try 3 weeks of creative activities perfectly suited to any book club―from meditating with your pets to forest bathing to sacred space crashing. Spiritual rebelliousness encourages readers to tread their individual paths while still understanding the importance of seeking community to help others, the Earth, and its creatures. As seen in Spirituality & Health Magazine’s “100 Books We Love” and BookRiot’s “50 Memoirs to Make You Feel”

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. I’m back in San Diego for some bachelorette festivities, and you best believe I’m eating all the Mexican food. Before I go eat all the avocados, let’s chat about some book club ideas that go along with my favorite season: fall!!!

To the club!!

Welcome to the Pumpkin Spice Book Club, where the lighting is dim, the blankets are fuzzy, and the hot mulled wine flows freely. I’m going to be sharing some autumn-appropriate book club selections as well as some drink recipes and vibe notes for the book club I clearly wish I was a part of.

The Mood:

The theme here is cozy: dress code is pajamas or comfy loungewear and BYOB (bring your own blanket). Light some delicious autumn-scented candles and prepare some delightful beverages and snacks. I am personally obsessed with the beverage part of this equation, so here are my suggestions for those:

Hot Mulled Wine – Dump a bunch of red wine in a slow cooker with whole spices, an orange, a shot of brandy, and sugar to taste. I like mine with cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves, but this recipe also calls for star anise and swaps the sugar for apple cider. Interesting!
Cafe de la Olla (pronounced ka-FEH de la O-yah) – If your book group is less into the boozy stuff, try one of my favorite beverages: spiced Mexican coffee! I’ve been making this since I was young by eyeballing it, but here’s a handy recipe with measurements & sh*t. You can also make it with decaf if anyon’s avoiding caffeine, and it comes together in all of 15 or 20 minutes.
Spiced Apple Cider – Here’s another non-alcoholic option. Reduce some cider, preferably fresh, with allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. If you do want to opt for the boozy version, here’s a version with some brandy or bourbon.

The Books:

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – on Sale 10/8/19 – I have to include this one even though it’s not out yet! Alex Stern has seen ghosts all her life and has turned to drugs to cope. When she hits rock bottom, a mysterious benefactor offers her a life-changing opportunity: in exchange for a clean slate in the form of a full ride to Yale, she’ll be charged with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret (and occult) societies, the Eight Houses of the Veil. (CW: drug use, violence, sexual assault)

Book Club Bonus: The dark magic, demons, ghosts, and a mystery with multiple reveals, all set in New Haven in fall and winter make this so perfect for fall! As for discussion: talk about the concept of inner versus actual demons: the symbolism of one for the other, how the variety of spirits and magic in this book represent a different kind of haunting. Discuss the consequences at the end of the book, i.e. how privilege is the most magically magic of all potions.

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab – Young Cassidy Blake’s parents are ghost hunters who host a TV show about haunted places. What no one knows is that Cassidy herself actually sees ghosts, a “gift” she acquired after a near-drowning experience. When the show lands the family in Edinburgh, Cass explores the city’s graveyards, castles, and secret passageways. She meets ghosts at every turn, and not all of them friendly.

Book Club Bonus: This would make a fantastic pick for book club for kids. It’s creepy and spooky but still appropriate for a younger audience. Discussion topics could include how we do (or don’t) use the gifts we are given, facing fear to fulfill a purpose, how the dead teach Cass more than the living. Maybe also do a quick, fun history of Edinburgh itself with fun (and creepy) facts about the U.K.’s most haunted city.

The Changeling by Victor LaValle – This begs to be read in October!! In this super unsettling blend of horror and urban fairy tale set in New York City, a man’s wife disappears after seemingly committing a heinous and unforgiveable act of violence against their child. (CW: child harm)

Book Club Bonus: Wow, so…. maybe don’t read this if you’re a new or expectant parent? I’m trying to give you topics for discussion without spoiling the plot… hmm. Discuss how the story is an allegory for parenthood in general, and more specifically the perils of the internet.

Suggestion Section

How Reese Witherspoon has taken over the celeb book club game. I still think Oprah wears the crown here, but take nothing away from what Reese has built.

The L.A. Times’ book club newsletter has deets on upcoming conversations with Michael Connolly and Julie Andrews.

Oprah’s Book Club is now a partnership with Apple, and her latest pick is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer.

Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere makes a great book club read! We have questions ready to go for your discussion.

Meet Renée Hicks, the founder of Book Girl Magic, an online book club that celebrates black female authors.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

In The Club

In the Club – 9/18/19

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 18, 2019

Sponsored by Vintage Books, The Game of Kings, Book 1 in the legendary Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett

Combining all the political intrigue of Game of Thrones with the sweeping romanticism of Outlander, Dorothy Dunnett’s legendary Lymond Chronicles have enthralled readers for decades and amassed legions of devoted fans. “Lymond is arguably the perfect romantic hero,” saysThe Guardian. In 1547, Francis Crawford of Lymond is disgraced and newly escaped from captivity. He returns to his beloved Scotland only to embark on a fantastic journey. Now in beautifully repackaged editions with reset text and oversized format for easy reading.

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

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! While I wear my Hispanic and Latinx pride on my sleeve all day, erryday, I love using this month as an excuse to amp up the love a little higher. That’s what we’re going to do today: explore some of the voices I think you should work into your book clubs.

**We’re technically still calling it Hispanic Heritage Month, but perhaps it’s time for a rebrand?! You’ll see me go back and forth between the two terms in this newsletter; for our purposes, we’ll be celebrating Latinidad on the whole.

To the club!!

First things first: we all know there is a giant disparity in the publishing industry affecting authors of color, which of course includes Latinx authors. But while I can generally find both original and translated works by Mexican authors, South American authors, and Latinx-Caribbean authors, it is still so, so hard to find available books by authors from Central America.

I hope to see this trend shift in the very near future! For now, I want to call attention to this gap and say that I wish I had more picks from you from this beautiful part of the world. Here are my first picks of the month, more next week!

Mexico: Valeria Luiselli, Lost Children Archive

Though she is perhaps most well known for The Story of My Teeth, Lost Children Archive was my intro to Luiselli and I was in love by about the fifth page. Beautiful language and vivid descriptions of sound and scenery beautifully frame this road trip story: a family moves across America and collides with the immigration crisis at the southwestern border.

Puerto Rico: Lilliam Rivera, Dealing in Dreams

I say this every time I talk about Lilliam Rivera: any woman who writes a girl gang into her work and then names it Las Mal Criadas is someone I would like to be friends with. I love me some Dealing in Dreams, a dystopian novel set in a matriarchal society that asks: does power corrupt absolutely?

Also, don’t at me: I’m well aware PR isn’t a country.

Dominican Republic: Angie Cruz, Dominicana

Angie Cruz and I have only just begun what I hope is a long author/reader relationship. Her novel Dominicana arrived at my doorstep this week and I cannot wait to get into it! A young Dominicana agrees to marry a man she doesn’t love at fifteen to begin a new life, both for her and for her family, in the states.

El Salvador: Horacio Castellanos Moya, The She-Devil in the Mirror (translated by by Katherine Silver)

This is a trippy read, yo. Set in an upper-class Salvadoran society, Laura Rivera’s friend has been shot to death in her living room. Laura set out to solve the mystery of who pulled the trigger, and that process is a chaotic, satirical, twisty-turny and darkly comic ride set in post–civil war San Salvador. If you love an unreliable narrator, Laura is that plus filthy rich, paranoid, and super smart. Maddening! But smart.

Book Club Bonus: The character quirks in each of these suggestions provide plenty o’ book club fodder on their own, but dig deeper.

For the stories involving immigrants: in what ways are the immigrant narratives unique experiences, and in what ways are they universal?
For Lost Children Archive, discuss the meaning and symbolism behind the loose notes, maps, news clippings, recordings, pictures, poems, books, etc.
For Dealing in Dreams, is having a matriarchy in power really any better than a patriarchy?
For She-Devil in the Mirror: are all unreliable narrators created equal?
For all: if it’s accessible for you, consider holding your club meeting at a Latinx-owned establishment. Don’t be the person that shows up in offensive costumes or anything! Just give them your business, talk books, and honor their heritage.

Suggestion Section

Ever find yourself wondering what the heck to talk about in book club? Here are some questions to jumpstart the convo.

Speaking of Lilliam Rivera and Latinx Heritage Month: Bustle tapped Lilliam to pick their September book club read and her pick sounds like hot fire.

The American Booksellers Association and Well-Read Black Girl Book Club suggest some adult and young adult book club picks for the fall. If your indie wants to host a WRBG book club, there’s info in this piece on how to do that.

Want to attend a WRBG book club meeting? Check here for a map of host bookstores.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

In The Club

In the Club – 9/11

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 11, 2019

Sponsored by The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar and Harper Perennial

In 1780s London, a prosperous merchant finds his quiet life upended when he unexpectedly receives a most unusual creature—and meets a most extraordinary woman—in this much-lauded, atmospheric debut that examines our capacity for wonder, obsession, and desire with all the magnetism, originality, and literary magic of The Essex Serpent.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Greetings from Portlandia, where the weather is beginning to cool and I am too dumb a Californian to feel anything but happy about it. Bring on the warm, autumny drinks, the falling of leaves, the perfect conditions for curling up with a hot cuppa and a lovely read.

Let me stop dreaming in pumpkin spice for a second to let you in on something sweet: we’re hosting a giveaway of the year’s 10 best mystery/thrillers so far! Enter here to win a big batch of thrilling titles that includes American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson and The Lost Man by Jane Harper.

Shall we? To the club!!

Now that I’ve moved to Portland, I need to find a new primary care physician. I was perusing a list of providers in between monitoring social media came across Kathleen Kenan’s piece about books on the history of illness and medicine. I find this subject fascinating, so it was only too easy for me to ditch my doctor search and instead spend the time adding these to my TBR. That inspired me to talk about a few other related titles perfect for this club thing we love.

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang – I LOVE this book. It’s a deeply personal, thoughtful, and well-researched discussion of mental illness, focusing in particular on the many stigmas and misconceptions attached to schizophrenia. Wang really drives home how both the public and medical community alike still know so little about all that this condition does and doesn’t entail, that it’s not one diagnosis but many.

Book Club Bonus: Before you begin this read, have the group write down five things they know, or think they do, about schizophrenia. When you meet to discuss the book, go over what everyone got right or wrong and what the book has taught them. No judgement here, be honest! The point of the exercise is to shed light on how little we know, and to bring awareness to the importance of increasing that knowledge on a global scale.

Brain on Fire by Susan Cahalan – Susan Cahalan was twenty four years old and life was grand: she was in a new and promising relationship and had just begun an exciting career with a New York newspaper. Seemingly overnight and with no clear explanation as to why, she found herself tied down to a hospital bed in a psychiatric ward: she was deemed violent, psychotic, a threat to herself and others. Her diagnosis? Unclear. What she went through and her eventual diagnosis are at once a riveting page-turner and a maddening peak into the pitfalls of our healthcare system.

Book Club Bonus: I can’t say too much without spoiling the book for you, but I will say this: money talks. Would Cahalan have received the proper treatment were it not for her family’s affluence? Given her situation, how confident do you feel in how we diagnose and treat mental illness at large? How do we address the disparity in care between those that can shell out the dolla dolla bills and those who absolutely cannot?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot – I have a thing for that category of books I like to call “How the Hell Had I Never Heard of This Before?” This is one of them! Who was Henrietta Lacks? A poor black tobacco farmer whose cells, known as the HeLa line, are responsible for numerous medical breakthroughs over the last sixty+ years. These cells are still in use today, but get this: they were harvested from Lacks without her knowledge or consent in 1951 while undergoing cancer treatment at Johns Hopkins, the only hospital that would treat black Americans at the time. I muttered the phrase, “Oh for f&@#s sake!” to myself some twenty times while reading this book.

Book Club Bonus: Have a thorough discussion on the intersection of medical innovation and informed consent. On the one hand, fine, yes: medical waste is not a thing we technically have claim to once it’s removed from our bodies. But does it seem even a little bit right to know that so much medical progress, not to mention millions of dollars, have been made off the cell line of a woman whose family lives in poverty to this today?

Suggestion Section

The UN’s newly formed SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Club is a book club for kids to help them deal with global issues.

I mentioned some of these last week, but here’s a more comprehensive list of celebrity book club picks for September 2019.

Speaking of celebrity book clubs, did you catch this week’s Book Riot Podcast? In Two Feet of Parchment about Moonstones, Jeff and Rebecca discuss the celebrity book club effect and how it’s maaaaybe not as clear as so many make it out to be.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

In The Club

In the Club – 9/4

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 4, 2019

Sponsored by Memories of Glass by Melanie Dobson, new in paperback from Tyndale House Publishers.

Josie and Eliese work together during World War II to rescue Jewish children who are awaiting deportation. But dangerous secrets could derail the entire mission. Seventy-five years later, Ava suspects her great-grandfather was not the war hero he claimed to be, and family members will do anything to keep the truth buried. Inspired by three real-life Dutch heroes who rescued more than 600 Jewish children, Memories of Glass tells a heart-wrenching story you won’t soon forget.

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

Looks like we maaaade iiiitttt. Yes y’all, I have finally, actually, no-really-I-mean-it-this-time moved all the way to Portland! I may not have all of my furniture and my clothes may still be in trash bags, but the books have all been put away and that, my friends, gives me peace.

Speaking of books, let’s talk about em. To the club!!

Today’s theme is very simple: Sh*t I Like. I took more than one warm and fuzzy trip down memory lane while packing up and shelving some of my favorite reads and thought I’d share a few with great club potential.

Let’s Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson – I’m a big fan of funny books that make me cry and “The Bloggess” Jenny Lawson has that combo on lock. One minute she’s talking about a taxidermied mouse, the next she’s sharing her struggles with mental health. I heart her so much for those candid conversations.

Book Club Bonus: We don’t all have a story about our fathers and taxidermied mice, but we do have funny stories of our own. I, for example, thought Madonna was not a Material Girl but a Cheerio Girl and DEMANDED to snack on the cereal while dancing to it in our living room as a kid. Your turn! Get real with the club and share funny childhood memories! Read your story aloud, or to make it even more interesting: have everyone write or type theirs up, put them in a bowl, then designate someone to read them aloud at random. See if the club can guess who each memory belongs to!
Related: Jenny Lawson recently announced that she’s opening a bookstore and bar in San Antonio!

We Are La Cocina: Recipes in Pursuit of the American Dream by Caleb Zigas, Leticia Landa – If you don’t know about La Cocina, look into this amazing nonprofit now: based in San Francisco’s Mission District, they provide affordable commercial kitchen space, technical assistance and even job placement for women of color and immigrant communities in the food business. This cookbook is a collection of stories and recipes from 40 of the talented women who got their start with La Cocina and I can personally vouch for their food’s deliciousness. All proceeds from sales of the book go right back into helping other women entrepreneurs and the fight for equity in the culinary industry.

Book Club Bonus: If you’re wanting to get away but can’t quite swing a group vacay right about now, dive into this cookbook to take a trip with book club through food. That braised fish recipe from Hang Truong of Noodle Girl Restaurant is the Vietnamese comfort food I didn’t know I needed in my life.
Bonus: Hold your club gathering at a woman-owned restaurant or eatery; if you’re in Northern California’s bay area, go support one of the women from the book!

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie – I re-read this for what has got to be the 20th time recently and its genius strikes me every time (though some bits are problematic; yikes, that original title!). The premise: a bunch of strangers get a mysterious invite to an island mansion and guess what: they die. Shocking! They’re picked off one by one as bits of their shady pasts are revealed. It’s so unsettling and creepy and one of my favorite Christie works to date.

Book Club Bonus: Discuss whether any of the characters were likeable; if they’re awful, did they deserve to die?! Did you see the ending coming? What books or films do you now recognize as drawing from this Chrisie classic?

Suggestion Section

Some more musings on what celebrity book clubs do for writers.

September celebrity book club picks from Reese Witherspoon, PBS, Emma Watson, and Emma Roberts.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

In The Club

In the Club – 8/28

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 28, 2019

Sponsored by Roberto to the Dark Tower Came by Tom Epperson and by Meerkat Press.

Now in paperback, the powerful novel by Tom Epperson, author of The Kind One and Sailor. Roberto, a left-wing journalist in a right-wing country in South America, gets an ominous phone call. He has 10 days to leave the country or die. But as he prepares to leave, he gets a tip on an important story developing in the jungle. Many lives are at stake. He decides to travel into the heart of darkness and risk everything to uncover the truth.

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

‘Sup, club nerds? The time has come! This is the last newsletter I will write as a San Diego resident (at least for the foreseeable future). I’m mostly packed, very excited, and more than un poquito emo as I prepare to say my goodbyes. I’m also nursing one hell of a headache because my going away party’s theme was apparently tequila.

Let’s get to club business so I can go back to avoiding bright lights and loud noises.

Ready? To the club!!

As I prepare to leave the place I’ve called home for most of my life, I’ve reflected on how privileged I am to be moving under these circumstances. For many, leaving home isn’t some fun and emotional adventure; it’s a matter of life and death, a harrowing journey fraught with peril in pursuit of shelter, safety, a chance.

Today’s book club suggestions each examine the immigrant experience: two unique works of fiction on the journey itself and one nonfiction title about Dreamers. They should get your clubs talking about what it means to be an immigrant.

Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera, translated by Lisa Dillman – Yuri Herrera is one of Mexico’s most exciting contemporary novelists. In this tiny but powerful quest novel, a young Mexican woman crosses the border to deliver a letter to her brother at her mother’s request. It’s a border story unlike any I’ve read before; the maybe-magical realism, the play on language, the haunting dream-like quality… so good.

Book Club Bonus: First, and perhaps especially if you do speak Spanish: do yourself a favor and read the translator’s note first. It’s at the end of the book but I don’t feel like it spoils anything. When you’re done, discuss the translator’s word choice as discussed in that note; the author’s choice not to name specific destinations; how the story draws from other quest and hero journeys.

In the Distance by Hernan Diaz – When I tell you I’m recommending a powerful immigrant narrative, odds are you aren’t expecting a western about a Swedish dude. That’s precisely what this Pulitzer finalist novel is though! Håkan is just a boy when he’s sent to America by his father and is separated from his brother when he gets on the wrong boat. He embarks on an eastbound cross-country journey on foot to find him while everyone else is migrating west in the American 1800s.

Book Club Bonus: What Hernan Diaz does with the immigrant story by making the protagonist a very safe white male is just brilliant. Brilliant, I say! Discuss the language device (yeah, it’s weird, but also kind of genius), the cast of characters he encounters; how Håkan’s physical size as he grows into manhood is a metaphor for his legend; the physical and less tangible characteristics that we use to “other” people.

Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America by Helen Thorpe – I was in my early twenties when this work of nonfiction made me think a little harder about the ways in which the immigrant experience varies from person to person, and that’s coming from the child of immigrants. We meet four Mexican teens, all of whom have grown up in Colorado and two of whom are undocumented. This is an intimate view into their lives and specifically the plight of the Dreamer: poverty, citizenship status, and increasing fear of immigrants are just some of the threats they face in pursuit of an education, and their friendship often suffers in turn.

Book Club Bonus: This book was published in 2009, but I don’t have to tell you just how many of the topics discussed could easily have been plucked from 2019. Compare and contrast each young woman’s situation and the ways in which the system helped or failed them. Do some extra reading on the DREAM Act and DACA while you’re at it.

Suggestion Section

How a tiny Edinburgh book club grew to reach over 20 countries worldwide.

I know many of you won’t need help here, but for those that do: how to start a boozy book club.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

In The Club

In the Club – 8/21

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 20, 2019

Sponsored by The Line Between by New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee—now out in paperback!

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

It’s happening! I’ve officially kicked off my See Ya Later, San Diego tour with numerous farewell activities planned throughout the week while also trying to work, and ya know, sleep? Before I start those “if I go to bed by X time, I can sleep Y hours and not die” calculations, let’s talk a little about book clubs + SFF.

To the club!!

The Hugo Awards were announced this week! Reading about the awards reminded me of our last Question for the Club; so many of you told me that science fiction and fantasy are the genres your book clubs are most reluctant to read. Let’s change that! This week I’m recommending some SFF reads great for sparking book club conversation.

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie – In this latest from award-winning author Ann Leckie, the god known as the Raven protects the kingdom of Iraden. He speaks through a living bird called the Instrument and rules via a human agent known as the Raven’s Lease. The Lease is a powerful position, but comes at a price: when the Raven’s Instrument dies, so must the Lease. Bye bye birdie, bye bye you!

Everything is fine and dandy until someone finds a way to usurp the Lease’s throne, a feat that isn’t supposed to be possible. Feuding gods, a fight to reclaim the throne, blood sacrifice, invading forces… it’s so good.

Book Club Bonus: I love how this book plays with the idea of fate and destiny; talk about that and whether the characters acted from a place of autonomy. Discuss the role of faith and sacrifice and how the plot mirrors that of other well known stories and myths. How did the identity of the narrator work (or not) for you?

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell – I listened to this audiobook while living in a gorgeous home in the English midlands that sat on 18+ acres of woods. I’d audio while I walked through them every morning, which started off a peaceful experience…

In the year 2019 (gulp!), Jesuit priest and linguist Emilio Sandoz leads a team of missionaries on a mission to make first contact with intelligent alien life on the planet Rakhat. In the year 2059, we witness the debriefing and interrogation of the ill-fated mission’s lone survivor, a broken human in the midst of physical and emotional recovery. Details of what occurred are revealed slowly in these alternating timelines. The ending made me stop dead in my tracks in those woods and say, “Oh… hell.”

Book Club Bonus: Talk about the role of love and faith/religion in the story; do you see it as a parable for man’s search for God and/or meaning? Should we be looking for extraterrestrial life? Unpack the reasons for the survivor’s reticence to tell their story. Then there’s the missionary angle: discuss the parallels to this mission with missionary expeditions to other countries with disastrous implications. I COULD GO ON. This book, y’all.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi – This West African fantasy (and one of this year’s Hugo winners) is set in Orisha, where the maji were massacred by a ruthless king who wants all magic erased from the world. Zélie is a diviner with the power to restore magic to Orisha, but she must first outrun the prince who’s after her head. With her brother and a defiant princess by her side, Zélie sets out to defeat the oppressive monarchy and harness her newly awoken magical abilities for good.

Book Club Bonus: If you don’t immediately pick up on the ways in which this book harkens to current events, Tomi Adeyemi makes sure to smack you in the face with that connection in her author’s note at the end. Discuss how the book addresses issues like racism, colorism, police brutality, and social justice within the framework of this lush and magical setting.

Suggestion Section

How the Great Big Romance Read, book club brainchild of The Ripped Bodice, has driven the @$&# out of Avon’s sales.

How Long Beach, California became a “book club superhub.” The LBC has 130+ registered clubs!

Current book club picks for BuzzFeed, PBS, plus a roundup of celebrity book clubs.

Barnes & Noble’s current national book club pick is Inland by Téa Obreht. Discussions are scheduled for September 10th in stores.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

In The Club

In the Club – 8/14

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 14, 2019

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Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This week, your girl is back in San Diego wrapping up loose ends. I’m counting down the days until I’m no longer living out of a suitcase while also trying not to cry when I thinks of moving away from her nephew. So many feelings!

On a less weepy note, August is Women in Translation month! I’ll be talking about some awesome translated titles written by women for you to add to your club rotations. Tirzah Price and I will also be recommending works by women in translation on the next episode of the Read Harder podcast (airing Tuesday, August 20). If you’re participating in Read Harder or just want to read more translated work, we’re making it super easy for ya.

Ready? To the club!!

So why do we celebrate women in translation this month? First: because they’re awesome. Second: because there is still a huge disparity in publishing between the number of translated works by men and those by women. Shocking! As Rioter Rebecca Hussey states in her recent post on WIT month, “Translated books by men get more review coverage and critical attention as well. We need more books by women in translation and we need to give these books more attention!”

Here are some suggestions to get you started.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, translated from Spanish by Carol and Thomas Christensen – I’m going to recommend this book until someone grabs me by the shoulders and tells me to stop. Tita is the youngest daughter in the De la Garza family; that means she’s bound by Mexican tradition to remain unwed and to care for her tyrannical mother Mama Elena until she croaks. As luck would have it, Tita falls helplessly in love with Pedro and wants to marry him. Mama Elena is like, “Nah, girl,” so Pedro marries Tita’s sister Rosaura instead to at least be close to Tita. Excellent plan with zero flaws! This heartbreaking love story and work of magical realism (Tita cooks her feelings into her food!) is a Mexican classic set during the revolutionary war.

Book Club Bonus: The format of this book is my fave: it’s split into twelve chapters, each of which starts with a recipe that is essential to the plot of said chapter. Make a Mexican feast with these recipes (quail in rose petal sauce!!!!) for book club and unpack how tradition can both be a beautiful set of customs and a cruel trap & killjoy.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones – I’m about halfway through this 2019 Booker prize nominee from the author of Flights. It’s a literary murder mystery about Janina, a reclusive woman in a remote Polish village who minds the homes of bougie, well-to-do Warsaw residents when she’s not translating poetry or studying astrology. When a neighbor’s suspicious death leads to the discovery of several other bodies, Janina finds herself the object of everyone’s suspicion.

Book Club Bonus: From what I’ve gathered so far, this book is less concerned with the who and more with the why: it’s not as much about finding out who committed the crime as it is a study of human behavior, of empathy in particular. Dig into these ideas in book club: is the why just as important as the who, perhaps even moreso? Why we should care about other people?

The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories by Teresa Solano, translated from Spanish by Peter Bush – This is such a slept-on little book! It’s a darkly humorous collection of short stories, the second half of which are linked and explore the city of Barcelona’s darker underbelly. The stories are all kinda weird and super funny, and yes: the titular tale does indeed involve a caveman trying to solve a murder. The twist made me go, “HA!” out loud at the register of the bookstore.

Book Club Bonus: One of the things I enjoyed most about this quirky little book is how it depicts the darker side of Barcelona. I won’t say too much to avoid giving away bits from the linked story portion, but discuss how the stories connect and overlap and what lessons there are to be learned from the narrative on the whole.

Another resource for WIT Month:

15 Discounts and Giveaways for Women in Translation Month

Suggestion Section

NPR recently published a cool piece about silent book clubs. All the bookish communion, none of the pressure to be “on.”

A piece about book clubs where discussion is never about the book; it be like that sometimes! It turns out that’s ok.

If you’re in the UK and looking for a local book club, Bustle is here for you.

Oh boy, this Dear Abby letter made me chuckle: a concerned book club member wants to know how to handle the know-it-all smarty pants in the group (see the second question). Raise your hand if you’ve been there!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page