2023 book club

july book(s)

Choose Your Own Book Month

The rules: 1) Choose any book you like, except those on our suggestion list. 2) Keep your book a secret till our meeting. 3) Prepare a brief presentation with a summary of the book and your opinion on it. Slide shows encouraged.

discussion

club meeting date: July 28 @ 7:30pm

the books we chose

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

Still in her teenage years, Nazneen finds herself in an arranged marriage with a disappointed older man. Away from her Bangladeshi village, home is now a cramped flat in a high-rise block in London's East End. Nazneen knows not a word of English, and is forced to depend on her husband. Confined in her tiny flat, Nazneen sews furiously for a living, shut away with her buttons and linings - until the radical Karim steps unexpectedly into her life. On a background of racial conflict and tension, they embark on a love affair that forces Nazneen finally to take control of her fate.

Dark Lover by JR Ward

Wrath, the only purebred vampire left, has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents, but when one of his fighters is killed, leaving his half-breed daughter unaware of his existence or her fate, Wrath must usher her into the world of the undead.

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom

In a heartbreaking yet hopeful collection of personal essays and prose poems, blending the confessional, political, and literary, Kai Cheng Thom dives deep into the questions that haunt social movements today. With the author's characteristic eloquence and honesty, the book proposes heartfelt solutions on the topics of violence, complicity, family, vengeance, and forgiveness.

Trese Col. 1: Murder on Balete Drive by Budjette Tan, illustrated by Kajo Baldisimo

When the sun sets in the city of Manila, don't you dare make a wrong turn and end up in that dimly-lit side of the metro, where aswang run the most-wanted kidnapping rings, where kapre are the kingpins of crime, and engkantos slip through the cracks and steal your most precious possessions. When crime takes up a turn for the weird, the police call Alexandra Trese.

Bad Cree by Jessica Jones

In this gripping, horror-laced novel, a young Cree woman’s dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.

Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey

Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it disrupts and pushes back against capitalism and white supremacy. From the founder and creator of The Nap Ministry, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action and manifesto for those who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of grind culture.

Bloodchild by Octavia Butler

Years ago, a group known as the Terrans left Earth in search of a life free of persecution. Now they live alongside the Tlic, an alien race who face extinction; their only chance of survival is to plant their larvae inside the bodies of the humans. When Gan, a young boy, is chosen as a carrier of Tlic eggs, he faces an impossible dilemma: can he really help the species he has grown up with, even if it means sacrificing his own life?