Category: In The Club

Reading Ricanstruction

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date May 28, 2019

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

Hola book lovers! It’s the last newsletter of May! The rain is finally clearing up here in San Diego, just in time for my trip to Portland this coming weekend. I can’t tell you how excited I am to gawk at trees and eat tasty things! Now, to convince my mama that she should accompany me to Powell’s and not judge me for what happens therein…

But for now: to the club!

This newsletter is sponsored by The Plus One from HarperCollins 360.

Polly Spencer is single and turning thirty, but seriously, she’s fine. Even if she’s still stuck at Posh! magazine writing about royal babies and the chances of finding a plus one to her best friend’s summer wedding are looking worryingly slim. But it’s a new year, and Polly’s determined that over the next 365 days she’ll remember to shave her legs, drink less wine, and get her s**t together. Her latest piece is on the infamous Jasper, Marquess of Milton, undoubtedly neither a plus one nor ‘the one.’ She’s heard the stories—there’s no way she’ll succumb to his charms…

Question for the Club

Last call! May’s club query is:

Don’t forget, we’ll have a new club query next week!

On A Funny Wavelength – Who here listened to last week’s Get Booked? *pretends to see your hands raised* Awesome! You may have noticed that one reader’s request ties in very nicely with our current QFTC: funny books for book club!

Book Club Bonus: I’ll share some of the responses to Question for the Club in next week’s newsletter, but Jenn and Amanda’s picks for this question got me thinking even more about funny book club books. I wonder how many people, myself included, would immediately have gone for a humor book for this recommendation as opposed to just a book that’s funny. How limiting, right?

On that note: if you’re looking to add more humor to your own book club selections, remember that you don’t have to pick up Jenny Lawson or David Sedaris. Take Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions for example, one of my favorite cozies from the last few years. It is ultimately a mystery, but Auntie Poldi is like a drunk and Polish Sophia Petrillo and her whole character arc would be great for a convo on sex positivity and ageism. It’s also happens to be funny as f…ocaccia.

Comics Curious – While more and more people seem to be getting into comics, plenty of us (and I’m throwing shade at myself here) don’t read enough of them. I’ve encouraged you all to read more comics in the past, but maybe you don’t know where to get started. This piece is a great guideline for getting your comics journey underway.

Book Club Bonus: I recommend the graphic novel series La Borinqueña for book club: it’s by a Latin American creator and features an Afro-Latina superhero! Do a little research and discuss the ways in which the comic draws from Taino myth and addresses the economic and environmental challenges facing Puerto Rico.

You know I love me a little do-gooding with my book club, si? For bonus points, read the sister comic Ricanstruction: Reminiscing & Rebuiliding Puerto Rico. It’s an anthology that teams up La Borinqueña with popular comics characters such as Batman and Wonder Woman! Its hefty list of contributors includes Rosario Dawson, Gabby Rivera, and Greg Pak, but the best part? Proceeds from Ricanstruction go towards relief and recovery efforts aimed at rebuilding the island.

Related: I was pretty stoked to see that Mooncakes artist Wendy Xu signed a six-figure deal for three forthcoming graphic novels with Harper Collins Children’s Books. Okay Wendy, get it! More diverse comics for us to read.

Suggestion Section

Wine Enthusiast shares tips on How to Pick Wine for a Book Club

A New Jersey middle school book club recently read Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime and has a pretty sweet message for the Daily Show host.

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.

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 Celebration of Women

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date May 21, 2019

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

Alright friends, gather round. I need to get something off my chest. Maybe it’s the awareness of my 30s, or maybe it’s the utter disrespect that some of this country’s leaders have for the bodily autonomy of all persons. All I know is that I’ve been feeling super angry and frustrated lately and I think many of you have too.

So I want to dedicate today’s newsletter to all women and persons who can get pregnant, to all those feeling attacked right now. Let’s have some candid and open discussions about our bodies, about sex, about our health, about us. I hope some of the topics today will be of interest, be of use, be a source of healing for anyone who needs it. I’m with you. Thanks for being here with me.

Weird, my eyes are… leaking? Anyway: to the club!

This newsletter is sponsored by Living Lies by Natalie Walters and Revell Books, a Division of Baker Publishing Group.

In the little town of Walton, Georgia, everybody knows your name—but no one knows your secret.

At least that’s what Lane Kent is counting on when she returns to her hometown with her five-year-old son. Dangerously depressed after the death of her husband, Lane is looking for hope. What she finds instead is a dead body.

Lane must work with Walton’s newest deputy, Charlie Lynch, to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when that truth hits too close to home, she’ll have to decide if saving the life of another is worth the cost of revealing her darkest secret.

Question for the Club

May’s club query is:

Don’t forget to get your responses in by May 31st!

A More Inclusive Feminism: “Muslims from all over the globe are subjected to a lot of vitriol, which is rooted in years of internalizing misconceptions about Islam. While every religion has its own unique way of oppressing women, these kinds of sweeping generalizations are baseless and detrimental beyond words. The world needs to see that feminism is not just the monopoly of white women.” Rioter Dee Das shares these sentiments and beloved quotes from Muslim writers that have bolstered her feminism.

Book Club Bonus: Real feminism should be inclusive and not just in support of cis-het white women, yet we continue to see whitewashed versions of the movement everywhere we look. Examine your own biases here: where do you succeed and where do you fall short? Does your feminism include women of all backgrounds or is it purely self-serving?

Related: Need suggestions? Here’s list of reads to get you started.

Anti-Choice Anxiety: Last week felt like getting kicked in the guts, first by Alabama legislators and then by other states that followed suit. Whether you’re already angry or want to read up on the issue, this list of reads on abortion rights and experiences may do the trick.

Book Club Bonus: Pick one of the books on this list and have a thoughtful discussion on reproductive rights. Discuss how anti-choice does not mean pro-life; why bodily autonomy is of such importance; what late-term abortion really looks like and the reasons a person might have one. It’s possible that not every member of your book club feels the same on this issue; that’s what makes this discussion so important.

Some Murder, Some Sex, Some Ancient Burial Chambers: Why yes, I AM going to talk some more about nonfiction! If you didn’t catch me YouTubing last Friday, check out my little vid on three more nonfic reads for great book club discussion. Can a novel kill? Why do we bury the dead? Why don’t we focus on pleasure when talking about sex? LOTS to unpack.

Book Club Bonus: One of the titles I mention in the video is all of that wrapped up in a pretty pink package: Gia Lynne’s On Blossoming: Frank and Practical Advice on Our Bodies, Sexual Health, Sensuality, Pleasure, Orgasm, and More. Consider picking books like this for your book clubs and pick apart all of the negative messaging women have traditionally received about our role in sexual relationships. Talk stigma, talk consent, talk health, talk pleasure-based approaches that aren’t only focused on the cis-het male.

Suggestion Section:

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

Peppermint Petty vs. High Road Hannah: In the Club

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date May 13, 2019

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

Que pasa, gente del club! Things are a little gloomy and rainy here in San Diego, where I have once again been caught dancing in my chair at a cowork space because I just can’t seem to remember that people can, ya know, see me?! Every time it happens, I pull a Hugh Grant in Love Actually and immediately ask a question with as much nonchalance as I can muster to distract the person from the shoulder shimmy, waist twist, etc they just saw. I don’t think it’s working.

Anyway! Let’s talk nonfic recs, presidential homework, and Ramadan reading.

To the club!

Hello Sunshine? Your Book is Selling

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date May 7, 2019

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

Friends… Dios mio! It’s taking everything in me not to turn this newsletter into a Game of Thrones dissertation complete with bar graphs and pie charts. My thesis? How Cersei Done Already Shown You Hard-Headed Fools That She Gives Absolutely Zero F%@&s! Someone help me understand how my dude Tyrion is still out here like, “Come on, everyone, relax! She’s really not that bad!” BRUUUUUH. She wants you dead! And not just dead, dead-by-giant-crossbow dead! If you don’t sit your let’s-give-peace-a-chance butt down…

Problematic but oh-so-addictive television shows aside, we have club business to get to! Let’s chat Barnes & Noble, the celebrity book club effect and more. Shall we?

To the club!!

This newsletter is sponsored by Ignite English, where we inspire your reading.

Ignite your learning, inspire your mind with the Englishbox! A bimonthly book box that brings reading to life! The Englishbox features either a classic or best-selling novel in every box accompanied by an interactive reading guide to help you dive deeper into the novel. You also get 3-4 book inspired items that are curated just for our readers. Each box includes special online access to addition book content and our online book club, so come chat books with us! Sign up for our newsletter for a change to win a free box!

Question for the Club

In case you missed this month’s query, here it is for you again:

I’ll be compiling answers all month long and already have so many great responses!

Meet Me at B&N

Calling all YA fans: Barnes and Noble is launching a YA book club! Meetings will take place on the second Thursday of every month at B&N stores across the country, the first of which is on June 13th to discuss debut author Christine Riccio’s Again, But Better. Those attending will get to take part in giveaways and special promotions, including discounts on tea drinks and select debut young adult books.

Book Club Bonus: This sounds like an awesome summer reading activity for teens and adults alike: a great way to meet some new book friends and an easy entry into this book club life for anyone who’s never partaken. I love the focus on debut authors! This is a practice I challenge you to incorporate in your own book clubs.

Fact from Fiction

On last week’s episode of For Real, our nonfiction podcast, Alice and Kim recommend a whole batch of nonfic reads for super (or even casual… ya know, fly casual) fans of Star Wars. I don’t know much about Star Wars if I’m being honest, but these books sound great even to me!

Book Club Bonus: Lovers of fiction who are skeptical about trying nonfic for book club: find a nonfiction title about your favorite fictional thing! Like I always tell people who don’t think they like nonfiction: there is something out there for you that you will love. That might just mean taking a beloved pretend thing and reading a not-pretend book about that. Now go on, and may the 4th with you even though I’m super late with that!

Hello Sunshine? Your Book is Selling

One minute your book is selling moderately. The next it winds up in the hands of Reese Witherspoon and BOOM! The game is changed. Such was the case for Balli Kaur Jaswal, for whom that little Hello Sunshine logo on her paperback made all the difference in the world.

Book Club Bonus: Adding to what I said earlier, this piece on the impact of celebrity book clubs only further drives home for me the importance of focusing on works by lesser-known, even debut, authors. While picking a debut for your book club may not have quite the impact that Reese or Oprah picking it might, it is still one small thing you can do to amplify that author’s work. Request copies from your local library or purchase a bunch from your favorite bookstore.

Need help picking an under-the-radar read? Ask a friendly book blogger, bookseller, or librarian.

Suggestion Section

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

It’s Gonna Be May: In the Club

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date April 30, 2019

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

It’s May 1st, yo! Since I’m writing this in the last few days of April, I’ve just gotta do it. Whether you’re down with JT or not, one thing remains true:

Now that we’ve all taken a few minutes to sing that lyric aloud in our NSYNCiest voice (you know you did it!), let’s chat complicated histories, city-wide books clubs, and the reasons women stay silent.

To the club!!

This newsletter is sponsored by Cape May by Chip Cheek, published by Celadon Books.

A mesmerizing debut novel by Chip Cheek, Cape May explores the social and sexual mores of 1950s America through the eyes of a newly married couple from the genteel south corrupted by sophisticated urbanites.

Question for the Club

Our QFTCs will be posed in the first newsletter of each month going forward and this one happens to land on May 1st! Here’s this month’s query for you fine people:

This is Why We’re Silent

It never fails: a woman comes forward about her sexual assault and immediately the Why Did You Wait So Long brigade comes through in full force. The pattern is one Rioter Steph Auteri has become all too familiar with in almost two decades of writing about women’s sexuality. She put together a list of books that elucidate the many reasons why women wait to report sexual assault.

Book Club Bonus:

While not everyone who asks “why did you wait?” is necessarily doubting a woman’s account of her attack, it so often feels like the question is an indictment and not one rooted in genuine and compassionate concern. Do the work to read one of these selections at book club and dig in deeply to dissect one another’s understanding of the reasons women wait. This important conversation has the potential to be transformative on so many levels; it could also help those of us who maybe don’t feel like we have the words to explain the concepts to other people.

Just Touched Down in Book Club Town

Forgive me for the Kanye lyric! Estelle’s American Boy still goes so hard, plus that song was from before dude found an affinity for red hats and hair dye. Anyway, focus on this instead: there’s a citywide book club going down in London this month! The festival is called Cityread and it transforms London into one big ol’ interactive book club. This sounds so freakin’ rad!

Book Club Bonus: I was thinking about how fun it would be to take book club on the road and participate in the varied programming available all month long, and then wondered what it might be like to spend a whole year (or half, or a quarter, whatever your comfort level) book-club hopping. Instead of your usual club gathering with your regular crew, switch it up and “crash” a different one every month: one at your local indie, one at your library, maybe an online club or one from a Meetup group. You might find yourself reading outside your comfort zone and meeting some cool new people!

It’s Complicated

I have been meaning to read Chanel Cleeton’s Next Year in Havana since way before I actually went there (yep, stiiiill managing to fit in Cuba talk! #relentless). Now the companion novel When We Left Cuba has hit the shelves and these five reasons to pick up both books are really calling my name. I love that they touch on the diaspora and America’s role in Cuban history.

Book Club Bonus: Speaking of Cuba… It’s hard not to get wrapped up in the allure of the colorful buildings, the music playing in the street, the salty wind blowing through your hair as you drive down the Malecón in a classic car under the warm Caribbean sun. I had to keep reminding myself that so much of Cuba’s complex history – especially the United States’ involvement – has been romanticized for our benefit when it’s decidedly anything but pretty. I’m really into the idea of reading books that explore American contribution to the destabilization of countries that we sort of turn our noses up at now. Hint: our hands aren’t clean. Titles that come to mind (ones I haven’t read but that have piqued my interest: The Killing Zone by Stephen G. Rabe and Inevitable Revolutions by Walter Lafeber.

Suggestion Section

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

The Frizzy, Crunchy, Ugly Years: In the Club

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date April 23, 2019

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

I am back from Cuba, friends! It was so amazing. I danced all night long, read books on the beach, ate all the foodstuffs, and drank my weight in mojitos and Cuba Libres. I’m even a little tan!

Here are a just a few shots from the trip: the first is an adorable bookshop in Old Havana, the second is yours truly on a street in Old Havana, and the final is Hemingway and I enjoying a daiquiri at the famous El Floridita bar.

I’m rested and ready to dive back into our club de libros. Let’s chat classics, hair, and politics this week. Ready?

To the club!!

This newsletter is sponsored by BoGoDo Press and And So We Die, Having First Slept by Jennifer Spiegel.

Marriage, youth, middle-age, Gen X, bath salts, road trips, and a Billy Graham crusade thread together in this “weird, true, and singular” novel (Kyle Minor). Author-penned Discussion Questions (available on her website) help groups explore themes of love, marriage, and faith. Fans of Jenny Offill, Elena Ferrante, and David Sedaris will find this book intimate and honest, raw and redemptive. Reviewers call it “profoundly human, applicable to all,” “a deeply satisfying book that pulses with vitality, dark humor,” “raw and real.” With a society focused on Social Media perfect appearances, this book gives a raw, honest look at life and love.

Question for the Club

Thank you so much for your feedback! I am going through all of your responses now to see what fun stuff we might get into in our club newsletter. Going forward, I’ll be posing a Question for the Club at the top of the month, so look for that next week!

Persist be Persistin’

Thanks to everyone who joined us for this quarter’s edition of Persist, our feminist book club run entirely on the gram. Read up here for our next club pick, date, and host.

Classics in Color

Maybe you’re lucky and went to a high school that taught classics by authors of color as a regular part of its curriculum. For those of us who didn’t go to a unicorn institution of learning, this list of African American classics will help fill in those gaps.

Book Club Bonus: I’m ashamed to say that a year ago I couldn’t even name more than 10ish African American classics, and that I can’t recall reading any at all in high school. Add classics by persons of color into your book club rotation and rectify this imbalance. Discuss the impact that inclusion of more non-white literature might have on the social consciousness of minds young and old.

Hair Club for Women

I was nine years old when I went into puberty and my stick-straight hair turned curly/wavy overnight. Your girl spent a lot of frizzy, crunchy, ugly years trying to figure out how to style this hair, time that might have been a helluva lot less awkward if I’d had these books on curly hair to guide me.

Book Club Bonus: The curly hair community is definitely a thing online, in particular when it comes to followers of the “curly girl method” that I have in large part adopted myself. Find women who are embarking on their curly journeys (or just natural hair journeys in general) and read up on the process together! It’s so helpful to bounce ideas off other women on products, styling, curl types, etc and I’d love to do all that in person.

Politically Speaking

While YA books (and books in general) have always been political, we’ve seen a formidable surge in political YA books since late 2016 (insert obligatory sarcastic comment here). Make space in your TBRs because another ten fantastic pieces of political YA are coming at you.

Book Club Bonus: My indie recently hosted an amazing event with Generation Citizen author Scott Warren. He is also the founder of an organization of the same name, one that seeks to arm teens with access to civics education and thus inform and empower them to engage in politics. Warren brought students who’d participated in the program to the event, and I was surprised to hear how many of them felt like they weren’t “interested in politics;” these were young women who’d organized walk-outs and voter registration days in response to the Parkland shooting but didn’t see how these efforts were political (not to mention incredibly badass and brave).

It is of vital importance to empower our youth and for them to understand the impact of their effort, their voice, their vote. I’d love to reach out to an existing high school book club or perhaps start a new one to get political books in the hands of these young adults. Let’s get them talking and thinking about how they might change the world.

Suggestion Section

The Aggie: Student Book Clubs – a little on UC Davis’ student book club offerings!
TechCrunch: Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is considering book-themed subscription boxes

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

A Zombie Threat Might Not Be Imminent, but…

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date April 15, 2019

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

Hola, friends! I am wrapping this newsletter on the patio of a hotel in Miami en route to Cuba, trying really hard to see the layer of dew on my skin as a “natural glow” and not just the sheen of sweat that 80% humidity will give a person. Same difference, I guess?? I’m working on about three hours sleep and I’m not sure how I’m standing, but with a little cafe con leche, a good book, and plenty of sea, sand & sunshine in my future, I’m one happy girl.

Before I shut this laptop for a week, let’s talk survival skills, craft nights, some bookish getting-to-know-you things and more. To the club!

This newsletter is sponsored by Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, now in paperback from Algonquin Books.

Now in paperback, acclaimed author Jonathan Evison’s Lawn Boy introduces us to recently fired landscaper Mike Muñoz as he tries and tries again to find the prosperity that is his American birthright. Mike battles with class and cultural discrimination, as well as his own self-confidence, as he learns to stand up for his future. “In Lawn Boy, at once a vibrant coming-of-age novel and a sharp social commentary on class, Evison offers a painfully honest portrait of one young man’s struggle to overcome the hand he’s been dealt in life and reach for his dreams. It’s a journey you won’t want to miss, with an ending you won’t forget.” ─Kristin Hannah

Question for the Club

Don’t forget: you have until Monday, April 22nd to send your responses to the current QFTC. Remember to send your replies to vanessa@riotnewmedia.com!

In case you forgot the question:

Book Club Craft Corner

Trader Joe’s already gets a substantial portion of my paycheck; where else can I get well-priced cheese, non-boring salads, and a pretty tasty canned rosé?!? Well they’ve apparently given us all yet another reason to hand over our monies: bookish greetings cards!

Book Club Bonus: This Trader Joe’s post has me thinking it might be fun to do a book club + craft night. Gather round for book chat, have a bit and a sip, then bust out the paints and colored pencils to make bookish greeting cards of your own. If greeting cards aren’t your bag, you could also make bookmarks. Go with the crafting flow and have a little something to take home after book club.

We Didn’t Start the Fire…Those Book Club Kids Did

Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills, Illinois has this book club thing figured out. To get students hype for reading Kat Falls’ Inhuman, librarian Lisa Walsh has her students learning survival skills that might come in handy if they found themselves in a dystopian zombiepocalypse like the one in the book. They’re out here learning everything from how to tell a poisonous plant from one with healing properties to how to start a fire. How cool is that??

Book Club Bonus: Let’s learn from these brilliant librarians and teens and have our own Survivor: Book Club Edition! I for one am sorely lacking in a lot of those basic survival skills and could stand to learn them. A zombie threat might not be imminent, but a girl could go camping one day, you know?! You don’t have to go with apocalypse survival skills though; apply the same idea to whatever theme you select. Learn to bake, learn to cook, learn to change a tire or the oil in a car… use your book pick as inspiration and see where it takes you.

Playing Favorites

I know I’m a bookseller, but I have to confess: I feel like a babbling mess whenever I go to pitch a book that doesn’t fit neatly in one category! In the latest episode of Recommended, Elizabeth McCracken and our very own Rincey Abraham each recommend a favorite read that’s a little hard to categorize. They are thankfully both much smoother at it than your girl.

Book Club Bonus: Speaking of favorites and reading recs, I love getting to know a person by reading a book that they recommend. While I think most of us try to find selections that no one in book group has read before, but how about deliberately going back to our faves? Take turns reading your club members’ most beloved reads and see what fun (or maybe dark & twisty, who knows!) things you find out about each other. Mea culpa in advance if you find out your book buddies are some weirdos. Whoops….

Suggestion Section

L.A Times: Why we’re starting a book club
The Daily Herald: Everett’s museum salutes book club celebrating 125 years

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

In The Club

Baked at Book Club: In The Club 4/10

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date April 9, 2019

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

It’s finally time, friends… I’m off to Cuba! I’ll be on a plane to Miami at the end of the week with Havana as my final destination. I’ve been blasting so much salsa music and reading books set in Cuba to get in the mood. Is it weird that I’m also way excited for all that reading time on the plane?!

Before I depart, let’s talk organization, cooking with cannabis, and more. To the club!

This newsletter is sponsored by Henry Holt , publisher of Trust Exercise by Susan Choi. Available now wherever books are sold.

The new novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Susan Choi, Trust Exercise. A story about the enduring aftermath of the events of adolescence, and about the complexities of consent and coercion among teenagers and adults. Through a narrative twist, Trust Exercise raises questions about the reliability of memory and the accuracy of the stories we tell, and considers the consequences of our memories and our stories across time. One of the most anticipated new books of the year.

Question for the Club

Last week I asked at what age you all first partook in book club. While a few of you clubbed
as early on as middle school (let’s raise a glass for some seriously awesome teachers!), most folks were in their late twenties or early thirties the first time they joined. Looks like there is a lot of room for getting younger folks engaged in book club!

The next question is one I’m going to leave open for a couple of weeks, in part because this girl is at long last headed to Cuba! So take your time answering, you have until Monday, April 22nd. Remember to send your replies to vanessa@riotnewmedia.com!

Book Club: Fix My Life

Spring always does a couple of things to me: it first makes me reach for the Claritin and then sorta guilts me into doing a big spring clean. Whether you’re in the seasonal cleaning cycle or just really love to tidy up for fun, check out these 11 books on organization.

Book Club Bonus – I’m entirely too proud of myself for this next suggestion: can we use book club to KonMari somebody’s home?! Pick a person in book group with an organization project they’ve been putting off or just someone with a home in need of a little love. Read one or more organization books for book club, then use what you’ve learned to tackle that space in a group effort. Barney clean-up song optional.

Baked at Book Club

As the green stuff is legalized in more and more states, the demand for cannabis cookbooks is higher than ever AND I SWEAR I DIDN’T PLAN THAT TERRIBLE PUN! There’s something for everyone on this list of pot-themed cookbooks, no matter where your own cheffin’ skills may be.

Book Club Bonus – You may have baked for book club, but have you baked for book club? It feels like book club may just be the safe space to do it. I for one have been wanting to read up on cooking with cannabis as a means to help my abuela with pain management. Mastering this skill is one I’d love to do in the company of friends, if only to witness the most lit test kitchen ever.

Kidlit Connoisseurship

Don’t forget to check out our latest podcast Kidlit These Days! Hosts Karina Yan Glaser and Matthew Winner are your kidlit connoisseurs, pairing the best of children’s literature with what’s going on in the world today. The second episode is up now and it’s all about historical artifacts. Hooray!

Suggestion Section

The Oregonian: The women started a book club that lasted 50 years, touching the head and the heart
From the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club: Emily Chang’s advice for writers: It’s good not to know all the answers
Book Riot’s SFF Yeah Podcast: Dune Book Club with Ausma Zehanat Khan

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

In The Club

Gather Round the Snapchat: In The Club

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date April 1, 2019

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

It’s April! That means it’s Cuba month for me and I’m starting to get giddy about it! In the meantime, this week I’ll share a rodent-insect romance, muse on memoirs, drop new podcast news on the people, and more, all while wondering whether I am indeed a cusp millennial or solidly in that generational classification.

To the club!

Sponsored by A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian from Algonquin Books.

The eagerly anticipated A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian centers on a circle of friends in a Bangalore slum known as Heaven. Together they wage war on the bulldozers that would bury their homes and the city that does not care. A politically driven graffiti artist. A transgender Christian convert. A blind girl who loves to dance. A queer daughter of a hijabi union leader. “This is a book to give your little sister, your mother, your best friend, yourself, so together you can celebrate the strength of women and girls, the tenacity it takes to survive in a world that would rather have you disappear.” ─Nylon

Question for the Club

Last week I asked whether your book club actively chooses books written by women and what percentage of your reading fits the bill.

Several responses came from members of book clubs made up entirely of women who specifically read books written by women. For them it was a yes and 100%!
The majority of responders said that while they don’t actively choose books written by women, 70% or more of their selection end up being by women. Not bad!

Most of you are reading tons of books by women and that is something to celebrate! If this question were instead about authors of color or reads by LGBTQIA writers: would our reading rank as highly on the inclusivity scale? (For some of you, it already does!) I challenge you all to track your reading more mindfully and see what gaps there might be in your habits. I personally find this a really fun endeavor: I love me a reading challenge!

On to the next one! As always, send your responses to vanessa@riotnewmedia.com.

Kidlit These Days

Cue the airhorns, folks: we have a new podcast! Hosted by New York Times bestselling author Karina Yan Glaser and children’s librarian and host of The Children’s Book Podcast Matthew Winner, Kidlit These Days will pair the best of children’s literature with what’s going on in the world today. Get into it!

Book Club Bonus: The show’s inaugural episode touched on an incident that absolutely incensed me last fall involving Idaho elementary school teachers and some racist costume choices (I just CANNOT). The conversation focused on the importance of inclusive children’s literature to combat a grossly misinformed and increasingly pervasive narrative surrounding Latinx immigrants. The books that Karina and Matt suggest are all ones that I’d love to see in a book club for children. Parents and guardians: gather your littles during playdates for story time and incorporate these beautiful reads to broaden their young perspectives.

Related: Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré taught me about a Puerto Rican folktale involving a mouse and a cockroach who are in love and I’m still not over it! Illustrator Paola Escobar managed to make one of the creatures that freaks me out most in this world cute! The whole scene in the book is just *chef’s kiss.* Seriously – read it if only to learn about mousekroach romance of Perez and Martinez.

Maybe Try a Memoir

If you’re mostly a fiction reader, you might find yourself a little hesitant to make the leap to nonfiction. Fear not! Here’s a list of fascinating memoirs to get you started; some of these stories are so wild, you’ll forget they aren’t made up.

Book Club Bonus: Many moons ago, I was one of those people who only primarily read fiction because I classed non-fic as one giant snooze fest (I know, I know! I was young and naive but have grown). If your book club has avoided non-fiction for fear of pacing and narrative issues, a page-turner memoir is a great place to start. If your club members are anything like me, they might just have one of those “Holy shitake mushrooms, truth really is stranger than fiction!” moments and seek out more nonfiction post haste.

Related: A couple of quick recs from me: I cosign Educated by Tara Westover on the memoir front. Once you’re ready for more, try Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, or The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. At the bookstore, I call these my “what in the actual f*#%?” books, of which there are many, many more.

Millennials Ruin Everything

Lately whenever a news story comes out of Florida, I read it with one eye closed hoping it’s not hot trash (no shade to all my progressive Floridians!). I was rewarded today when I learned of a cool Florida-based book club led by two young librarians at the Mandel Public Library. The club’s name? Millennials Ruin Book Club.

Book Club Bonus: I’ve pitched an idea similar to the structure of Millennials Ruin Book Club where everyone reads a different book and then takes turn sharing their read with the group. This may take a little away from the shared experience, but I appreciate how this looser format takes the pressure off for those with busier schedules. Do any other libraries (or other groups) out there do this sort of thing? It would be kind of cool to just have the option of showing up and talking about whatever the heck I just happened to have read.

Related: I have recently embraced the title of Elder Millennial after watching Iliza Schlesinger’s hilarious comedy special of the same name. Seriously, she took me down when she hunched over and croaked, “Gather round the Snapchat, children. I’ll tell you the tale of… the landline!” Dead.

Suggestion Section

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

In The Club

Let Me Put On My Surprised Face

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date March 26, 2019

Hola, friends! Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This week we’re talking food, romance, and pregnancy. You’d think the three were related but… nope! Book club is just funny that way.

To the club!

This newsletter is sponsored by Meerkat Press and Smoke City by Keith Rosson.

“Rosson tackles the big life questions in this book, picking apart themes of purpose, redemption, suffering, forgiveness, addiction, passion, talent, guilt, the unknowable nature of life and death, the ways in which we help each other and the ways in which we hinder, the joy of living and the anticipation of death, and the absolute necessity of an examined life. His talent is staggering, his craft is meticulous, and his story is one of the quirkiest but most heartfelt I have ever read. He will clench your heart and drag you through his landscape of horror and bliss. You’ll be so utterly grateful for it.” – Dianah Hughley, Powells.com

Question for the Club – I asked, you answered: do you only consider a book a “good” pick if everyone liked it? I definitely don’t think so and everyone who wrote in seems to agree! Here are some of your thoughts:

One of my core book club beliefs is that people are free to dislike the book–so long as they share why.
I find it to be more fun when at least one person DOESN’T like the book! When everyone likes it, the conversation can die quickly.
I think that if everyone likes the book it feels like a win, but the discussion is more flavorful if there are some who didn’t like the book and are willing to share why.
A good pick for us is one that most of us were interested enough to actually read… some of us will dislike or hate it, and this is when we have the most interesting discussions.

Our next club query is:

Email your answers to vanessa@riotnewmedia.com!

Let Me Put On My Surprised Face – I briefly mentioned this story in this Sunday’s edition of Today In Books, only under the headline, “Here So White, There So White, Everywhere So White White” because whyyyyyy? As Jess Pryde explains with more precision and finesse, the finalists for the RITA and Golden Heart awards were announced and they’re supes blanche. What’s more, they seem to stay this way year after year after year.

Book Club Bonus: Courtney Milan asked her followers if they’d be interested in an online book club wherein all selections will be RITA nominated titles by POC. There’s already a URL, social media and a hashtag in place! If you’ve been looking to get into romance with book club, this would be a great place to start.
Related: “Been looking to get into romance with book club” sorta sounds like you’re tryna date someone in book club. That’s not what I meant! Although hey, maybe I just fed you a sweet, sweet pickup line? #ReasonsVanessaIsSingle

Babies on the Brain – As Rioter Anna puts it, “Advice about pregnancy isn’t hard to find, but good advice about pregnancy may as well be made of gold.” We think these new and upcoming releases are a great place to start.

Book Club Bonus: I actually think errbody should read up on pregnancy and would encourage book clubs to do so. It is astounding how little most folks know about even the basics of pregnancy, and how little many of us know because we flat out weren’t ever told. This feels like one small step in improving how we approach everything about parenting: pre- and post-partum care, maternity leave, child care…. Let’s start at the beginning and go from there.

Hunger Games: Book Club Edition – I have some travel coming soon (Cuba!!!) but I’m impatient as hell, so I’ve been choosing books set in faraway places to sort of satiate my wanderlust in the interim. The trouble is so many of them have included mouth-watering descriptions of food! The rose and cardamom-flavored Parsi delights in The Widows of Malabar Hill and the fragrant rice dishes and ALL the coconut things in The Night Tiger??? I’ve been staring at my own basic AF meals with sheer and utter contempt for weeks.

Book Club Bonus: You do not want to know how much time I spent on the internet trying to find Parsi and Malaysian food near me. Not easy since the dishes I want come from books set in the 1920s! I’ve suggested book/food pairings plenty of times, but this might be a tall order when the cuisine isn’t widely available. Have a go at preparing the foods yourself if you can find some good recipes and ingredients. You could also find a local or online market and at least buy some treats from whatever region you’re looking for; I sure as sh*t ordered some Malaysian pandan layer cakes from an online store and I have no regrets.

Suggestion Section – For those that missed last week’s trial run, Suggestion Section is where I’ll drop links to news, celeb book clubs, online book club announcements, lists for book groups, etc. Basically related content not otherwise talked discussed in the “meat” of the newsletter. Enjoy!

Vulture: Oprah Winfrey is Reviving Her Book Club for Apple

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa