Bonjour, book lovers! Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read.
Happy November! By the time you read this newsletter, the midterm elections will have taken place and there will hopefully be lots to celebrate! If not, I’m letting you know now that next week’s newsletter will be brought to you by tequila. *casts spells, burns palo santo, prays frantically in Spanish*
For now, let’s have a little bookish fun and talk Nonfiction November, lady monsters, how the US’s hands are a lot o’ bit dirty and more.
To the books!
This newsletter is sponsored by The Man She Married by Cathy Lamb.
A woman whose memory is shattered must piece together her husband’s secrets and reevaluate her life, love, and relationships, in this gripping and thought-provoking novel.
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November Rain – It’s raining themes, dates and causes, yo! We’ve got National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), midterm elections, Thanksgiving, Movember… all the things! It’s also Nonfiction November and Bustle has a list of twelve rad reads that fit the bill. One of them is by a little someone named Michelle Obama… no big deal.
- Book Club Bonus: In a book club with your besties? Girl Talk: What Science Can Tell Us About Female Friendship by Jacqueline Mroz seems like a pretty perfect pick for BFF Book Club. You love your friends, now get into the science of why. Some wine might be nice too, ya know? Do it for science.
- Related: This list of nine nonfiction titles about ghosts, vampires, monsters and such because don’t you just love it when truth really is stranger than fiction?
Monstress, Inc – Oh look! A giant pile o’ Vanessa Catnip: “From Circe to Carrie: 9 Literary Female Monsters You Don’t Want to Mess With.” Go on, get it on this. Catnip courtesy of Off the Shelf.
- Book Club Bonus: I’ve already told you all how much I love it when a female villain is given nuance and depth, and suggested a book club discussion of how a fleshed-out backstory might change our previous perceptions of her. This week, I challenge you all to analyze what it is about lady monsters that make them such a terrifying force. Are they truly monsters? Are we just afraid of women’s anger? Of our power? Of our anger’s power?
Trauma, A Memoir – Recovery from trauma is an intensely personal process and no two people’s experiences are the same. Take these nine memoirs about trauma: each moving and heart wrenching in distinct ways.
- Book Club Bonus: These are all undoubtedly very difficult reads. For those comfortable taking them on, memoirs like these would make for some seriously inspirational reading. More importantly, I think they’ll provide some invaluable perspective on these difficult subjects for folks who’ve never been through them or don’t know anyone who has.
We’re Not Not to Blame – All this fear-mongering talk of caravans reminds me that a lot of people either aren’t aware of, don’t understand, or flat out don’t care about the extent of the United States’ role in destabilizing the countries these migrants come from. It feels like the right time to read this list of books on this very subject from Rioter Romeo Rosales.
- Book Club Bonus: Even the most progressive among us could probably still use a crash course in our government’s problematic involvement in Central and South America. Consider reading one of these titles for book club, especially if one or more of your members have a blindspot when it comes to our treatment of immigrants. A little bit of education and a meaningful conversation among friends could go a long way.
Thanks for hanging with me today! You can find me on both the Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com if you want to say hola or if you have any book club questions, and sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter to get more bookish content by yours truly.
Stay bad & bookish, my friends!
Vanessa