Category: In The Club

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Today it is also a reminder that you (corny sentiment alert!) are not alone. And before we go on, let me say this: if you’re not in the mood to read or talk books, ditch ’em. One day I find comfort in reading and the next I’m too uneasy to focus. Do what you need to do.

If you’re still with me, here’s today’s game plan: first I’m going to share a comfort food recipe made with rice, which I hope you’re able to find. I’m big mad at anyone buying 80 pounds of chicken, a year’s supply of rice, and all the legumes like they’re bonus items on Supermarket Sweep! Next we’ll talk book club strategies that work with social distancing and a few reads to bring you hope. Sound good to you? Cool cool cool.

To the club!!

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Nibbles and Sips for Oneself 

Hey! So! A lot of us suddenly have more time on our hands to cook. I’m all about the healing power of both eating and preparing food and accordingly made a big batch of my abuela’s Mexican rice this week. I thought I’d pass along a similar recipe to comfort you in these trying times.

Jauja Cocina Mexicana is my favorite YouTube channel for Mexican recipes, especially when I’m missing home. Janet Kushner (my internet tia) and her husband live in Texas and started the channel in 2015 as a way for Janet to feel less homesick for Mexico. Janet’s recipe for Mexican rice is almost identical to the way my abuela taught me to make it; pair it with whole or refried beans, warm corn tortillas, and a chunk of queso fresco for a warm, soothing meal of soothing simplicity. Tip: use fresh tomato as directed for this recipe; canned sauce totally changes the flavor! Also, you can totally do this in the Instant pot: use this as a guideline.

Quarantine Book Club

Fly Solo – My first suggestion is to do the responsible thing and cancel most in-person book clubs, then have yourself a book club, party of one! Treat the time you would have spent at book club as found reading time and pick up that delicious pleasure read you’ve been meaning to get to for awhile.

Get a Little Face Time – Those of you who follow Book Riot on the gram may have seen this little gem below. BR staff took a time out for some social distancing yoga. The stretching was good for the body, but the visual component was the extra boost of happy I needed. For those of you having a harder time with this period of isolation, consider holding book club via video call (gentle yoga optional, but highly recommended!). You too may be surprised by how much a simple thing like getting in a little face time can do for the soul.

P.S. I love Yoga with Adriene for free online yoga. Her dog makes frequent appearances in her videos too!

Hope Floats!

If you are looking for some hope-filled reads to tackle on that video chat, may I suggest:

Educated by Tara Westover – Tara Westover is resilience personified. Raised in rural Idaho by survivalist parents who kept her out of school, Tara went on to pursue an education for the first time at age 17 and eventually earned a PhD from Cambridge. That’s the simple summary though; imagine not knowing what the Holocaust is and having a room full of college kids think you’re an a$$hat when you say so, or having to be told by your roommates that you’re supposed to wash your hands after using the bathroom. Imagine all manner of verbal and physical abuse from family, imagine the humiliation of feeling behind at every turn. Now imagine thriving in spite of it all. Imagine hope.

Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian – Told in two timelines—the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the 1990s—this book is such a beautiful story about love, loss, and the horrors of the Armenian genocide. If you like stories about the complex, delicate bonds of family and perseverance in the face of extreme hardship and tragedy, pick this one up. It will also teach you a lot you probably didn’t know (but should) about Turkish history.

 

(Don’t) Call Me Crazy edited by Kelly Jensen – Kelly is of a Book Riot editor, but I’d recommend this book to you even if she wasn’t. Over 30 contributors like V.E. Schwab, Adam Silvera, Esmé Weijun Wang, Libba Bray, and S. Zainab Williams (hmm, where have I heard that name?) weigh in on numerous topics related to mental health and mental illness. I found a lot of solace in these candid accounts of struggle, healing, coping, not coping, and why all of our experiences are valid and fine.

Suggestion Section

We’re rounding up COVID-19 updates from the bookish world in one convenient place. You’ll find everything from free resources for children (story times! drawing lessons!) to news updates and a list of reliable online sources for staying informed.

I don’t think this is supposed to be as funny as I found it, but I hollered at the alias used in this column about a book club invite that didn’t work out. Please refer to me as “Fanny Dashwood” henceforth.

BuzzFeed’s April book club pick is Barn 8; again, no time like the present to engage in an online book club!

CNET’s suggestions for a work-from-home book club with links to author chats.

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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 Tuesday and 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

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 getting speculative! I have a collection of books with major convo potential plus a delicious recipe for book club snacking that I have made more times than is respectable in a two week span. Long live cumin, butter, and books!

To the club!!

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Nibbles and Sips

Today’s snackage has nothing to do with spec fic but is delightfully simple, convenient, and tasty AF. My dear friend Nusrah and fellow Rioter recently made these for me and I’m obsessed!

The gist of the prep process is very similar to the one here, but the Nusrah Special filling is made of finely shredded chicken that’s been mixed with chopped onions (a whole or half, up to you) that have been softened with about a tablespoon of butter, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and a very precise F#%! Ton of cumin (ymmv here). That whole shebang is then mixed with a couple of teaspoons of flour and 1/4 cup of milk or cream to thicken. Stuff inside that puff pastry (use that recipe for reference), top with an egg wash and sesame seeds and BAM! It’s a party in your mouth.

The beauty of this is that it’s easy to make in bulk, you can make it all ahead, and even freeze the puffs for later. Now back to the books!

Allow Me to Speculate

Before I started working in books, I overheard some colleagues discussing the casting of a live-action Disney remake. One of them suggested that the idea of a Black Ariel really put her off because it “just didn’t make sense, the original Ariel was white!” I said, “You mean the made-up fish girl? That one?” Reader, it took all my self control not to hit her with all the Spanish curses.

We unfortunately hear this all the time. Dragons, mermaids, and aliens: no problem! But throw in a person of color or the faintest suggestion of queerness in those same made-up worlds and everyone’s like “NUH-UH!!” I thought back to that frustrating conversation while reading the first book in my list of suggestions below; in that book’s introduction, editor Patrice Caldwell looks back on her life as a reader and asks a question so many of us have asked people from marginalized communities: why don’t Black people exist in speculative worlds?!

So today we’re going to dive into some reads where queer characters and people of color do indeed get to exist in made-up and near-future worlds of their making.

A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell – The contributors in this collection are just so ridiculously good: Elizabeth Acevedo, Dhonielle Clayton, L.L. McKinney, Ibi Zoboi, Justina Ireland, and that’s not even the whole list! Do yourself a favor and check out these gorgeous, imaginative stories that center Black women and gender nonconforming individuals through fantasy, science fiction, and magic.

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado – I feel like Carmen Maria Machado has figured out a way to bottle the essences of science fiction, fantasy, erotica, and horror, and she keeps them stored in an apothecary cabinet in her queer auntie bruja lair. Her literary superpower lies in a potion she brews from a bespoke blend of those essences that she sips slowly under the eerie glow of a blood moon. I know, I’m being extra, but read this collection of stories then come back and tell me I’m wrong. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi – The book opens in Compton, and young Ella has a gift (curse?) that allows her to see events that haven’t happened—some good, some horrible and tragic. Her younger brother Kev is born in the middle of the riots that explode in the wake of the Rodney King decision, and their family relocates to New York in an effort to escape the violence. Years later, Ella’s powers have grown stronger and less predictable while life in New York has proven no less dangerous than LA; when Kev is incarcerated for the crime of being Black, Ella must decide what to do with the powers she possesses. Let me tell you: this novella is perfect proof that a book does not have to be long to slap you in the face.

Suggestion Section

When I see a post on celebrity book clubs these days, I expect the predictable Oprah-Reese-Emma-Jenna roundup. This piece does include Oprah, sure, but it proved me wrong with the rest of the names who are ALL people of color. Ok then!

• Related: Singer Amerie (please tell me I’m not the only one singing Na, na, na, na, na, oh!??) is a contributor in A Phoenix First Must Burn!

We have a few giveaways going for books that would be great for book club!

• Spirit Run by Noé Álvarez is a debut memoir about the son of working-class Mexican immigrants who fled a life of labor in fruit-packing plants to run a 6,000 mile Native American marathon from Canada to Guatemala.
• Jennifer Rosner’s The Yellow Bird Sings is historical fiction set in Poland during WWII about a mother and daughter who flee their home when Nazis begin rounding up Jews, inspired by the true stories of Jewish children hidden during World War II.

My Dark Vanessa was an Oprah’s Book Club Pick, and then it wasn’t.

On joining a multi-generational one book club

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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 Tuesday and 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

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Since 2020 continues to be a bit of a snot-nosed punk, I dove deep into comfort reading at the end of February. You know what that means if you’ve been rockin’ with me for a minute: mysteries set in Victorian England. Not only did that make me feel better, but I was also inspired to talk to you all about badass lady detectives.

To the club!!

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Nibbles and Sips – If you don’t recognize the names of the women who inspired these snacks and sips, just keep reading (in case that needed pointing out)

• Charlotte Russe – I was approximately yesterday years old when I discovered that Charlotte Russe does not indeed only refer to an (I think) now defunct chain of women’s fast fashion stores that got lots of my monies in high school. Charlotte Holmes refers to this rich European dessert in The Hollow of Fear and now I’m determined to make it!
• Scones for a proper cream tea – My girl Charlotte appreciates just about any buttery baked good, but seems to have a soft spot for afternoon tea. I too share this joy and decided to make my own scones AND clotted cream this week, the latter of which was done in my handy dandy Instant Pot!
• A classic whiskey cocktail – Because it’s what Gethsemane would do (when she’s not drinking her spirits straight up)

Let’s Get Sleuthing! 

All that comfort reading reminded me how much I love a smart, capable lady sleuth. Make your next book club pick one of these mystery reads featuring clever, formidable women who suffer no fools. Discuss the way each of these women breaks stodgy gender stereotypes and how that defiance changes the flavor of these who-dunnits, especially in the case of my first rec.

Charlotte Holmes from The Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas – Yoooooo, Charlotte Holmes and Mrs. Watson are my new favorite Holmes and Sherlock team! I cannot stress who much I am here for the gender-swapping of both these roles. Their place in society as fallen women is intentional, a push-back to Victorian England’s ridiculous treatment of women. The only thing I love more than Charlotte’s razor-sharp wit, powers of observation, and sex positivity is how much our girl loves her desserts. She shovels them in at every chance she gets and regrets nothing, curtailing the habit only when she’s reached “maximum tolerable chins.” Go off, girl!

• Start with A Study in Scarlet Women

Veronica Speedwell from the Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Raybourn – When we first meet lepidopterist and world traveler Veronica Speedwell, she has just buried her spinster aunt when an intruder breaks into her home and tries to drag her away. A nice German fellow intervenes, a baron who tells Veronica that he knew her mother and that, in case she hasn’t figured it out, Veronica is in grave danger. He insists on escorting her to the city and leaves her in the care of his friend Stoker, a rough-around-the-edges natural historian and taxidermist, until he can decide on a course of action to keep Veronica safe. Before he can formulate a plan or tell Veronica the truth about her parentage, the baron is found dead in his home, sending Stoker and Veronica on the run and leaving them with a mystery to solve.

Much like Charlotte Holmes, Veronica is allowed agency over her own life, in large part because she’s insisted on that agency to the chagrin of “polite” society. She enjoys the company of men unapologetically, makes clear her desire to remain childless, travels on her own terms, and generally keeps a low reserve of #%$!s to give.

• Start with A Curious Beginning

Gethsemane Brown from the Gethsemane Brown mysteries by Alexia Gordon – Classical musician Gethsemane Brown accepts a less-than-ideal position at a school in the Irish countryside, teaching a bunch of schoolboys (maybe?) how to do music properly. The gig is better than being broke and it comes with lodging at a cliffside cottage so it can’t be all that bad, right? Well! The cottage’s previous owner was kinda sorta murdered and his ghost now haunts the place on the regular. No problem, right? He alleges that he was falsely accused of killing his wife (and himself) and asks Gethsemane to clear his name by solving his decades old case so he can rest in peace.

Now you know I love me a British cozy, but ay Dios mio are cozies just THE whitest! At least they have been in the past, but that’s starting to change. This is one of the first cozies I read with a Black woman protagonist and she’s one of my favorite sleuths. She can knock back whiskey with the best of them, too, which only endears me to her further.

• Start with Murder in G Major

Suggestion Section

Eater NY has a book club and their next pick is Iliana Regan’s Burn the Place. The scene where Regan recalls falling in love with food when her dad taught her how to cook chanterelle’s in butter and wine just… that’s my love language right there.

Jenna Bush Hager’s March pick is Writers & Lovers by Lily King.

PBS has selected Dani Shapiro’s Inheritance for their book club.

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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 in on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Tuesday and 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

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 re-reads and movie watchings, which I may just partake in by my literal self because writing it about it got me hyped?

While I decide on my preferred book/film combo, let me share a few suggestions with you. To the club!!

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So you may have noticed that we like to have fun on our podcasts. I know I had a blast breaking down Such A Fun Age with Sharifah and el Jefe, and not just because I got paid to do it! As a listener, I have really been enjoying the main Book Riot podcast’s bonus episodes breaking down movie adaptations. This gave me the idea of bringing back the book + movie club idea. I really want to do this!

Nibbles and Sips 

I have been wanting to have a movie night for such a long time; make it bookish and I’m in times two! Arrange to meet at someone’s house (or some other event space/venue if you fancy) and have a spread of movie snacks at the ready:

• Popcorn – Get the movie theater butter variety, duh.
• Candy – Keep it classic with Red Vines, Milk Duds, Raisinettes, etc
• Nachos – Yesss, melt that delicious fake processed cheese in that Crock Pot and slather it all on those corn chips! Have pickled jalapeños on deck or I’m not coming.
• Beverages – You probs don’t have an Icee machine in house (props if you do!), so go with whatever quenches your thirst. Might just have a bottle of Coca Cola to keep it all the way real.

Read the Book, Watch the Flick

I picked a couple of the book/adaptation pairs that Jeff, Rebecca, and friends have covered on the pod recently as well as a couple of others I think would just be fun.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare – While there are numerous adaptations to choose from here, I think a great one for discussion is Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 Romeo + Juliet. Break down the setting (Verona as part Venice Beach, part Brazil?), the use of the traditional iambic pentameter in a modern setting, the soundtrack, and ALL of the symbolism (Catholic imagery! Drugs! Guns!) as it relates to the themes in one of the Bard’s most famous of tragedies.

Related: Jeff and Rebecca’s rewatch of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton – You know the premise: some smarty pants scientist man finds a dusty ol’ mosquito in a chunk of amber and decides it’s a good idea to harvest the dino DNA therein. The next logical step is of course to bring dinosaurs back and then stick ’em in a theme park. Foolproof plan, nothing could go wrong! I so, so want to do a re-read and rewatch of this one.

Related: I happened to be sitting next to Jeff as he edited the bonus pod episode covering Jurassic Park and was treated to several hilarious transcriptions snafus, recording anecdotes, and a whistled edition of the Jurassic Park theme song. Amanda joins Jeff and Rebecca for this one – check it out!

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – Now might be good time to stipulate that this doesn’t have to be a re-read situation because ehhemI’veneverreadthisbook. No judgement if it’s your first time with a read! Whether you go with the 1966 film version or the one from 2018 HELLO because Michael B. Jordan is fine, there should be plenty to talk about regarding government suppression and misinformation.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – If you’re unfamiliar with this classic by the Queen of Crime, it’s all in the title, boo. There is a murder and it happens (gasp!) aboard the Orient Express. I urge you to pair this re-read with the most recent adaptation featuring Kenneth Branagh as Poirot and a whole lotta other famous people. I know one thing I’d like to unpack is the choice to depict Poirot as a man with a broken heart. He’s just fastidious, bruh. Did that have to be about a woman? Anyway, discuss!

Note: This version does start Johnny Depp which some of you may take issue with, and I get that. If it makes you feel any better—SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER, skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid SPOILERS— ol’ Johnny Boy’s character is the victim of the titular murder so you don’t have to look at him for too long.

Suggestion Section

In Rowlett, Texas, a mother and her son started a book club for members of the young man’s football team. The group of seventh grade teammates started out reading graphic novels (YES, so much yes) and have now incorporated traditional novels. Love this!

Kiley Reid, Tomi Adeyemi, and Jason Reynolds each shared several books for Black History Month with the Good Morning America Book Club. All of these reads are perfect for book club. I’m re-reading Danez Smith’s Homie now!

Club Stuff at the Riot

How to find a queer book club, or start one of your own!

Joining a book club can be an intimidating for an introvert, but it doesn’t have to be!

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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 Tuesday and 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

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This Portland transplant is in an especially good mood as the sun has decided to show itself these last few days! Before I begin to obsessively plot all the nature excursions I’m about to embark upon once spring hits, let’s talk book clubs as an opportunity for a read aloud.

To the club!!

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Before we dive in, have you checked out Book Marks? It’s our brand spanking new reading tracker and journal (complete with recommended reading lists from Book Riot)!

Nibbles and Sips

Imma keep this section short and deliciously sweet, mi gentle. Fellow Rioter Hannah brought in a version of this cake to the office this week and I may have inhaled a giant slice without actually chewing. I regret nothing. Blood orange. Rose. Cardamom. Cake. Do it!

Let’s Get Loud 

Rioter Mikkaka recently wrote a piece on why we should all be participating in read-alouds and I thought this might be a great idea for book club! Some thoughts:

• A read aloud means no one has to read anything ahead of time! All that’s required is to show up and participate, great for anyone who finds themselves without a lot of extra time in their schedule for reading.
• Pick short books that could be read in one meeting, or split the read aloud up into two or more meetups.
• When selecting a read, do keep the “out loud” element in mind. What works best will vary from book group to book group: some of you may enjoy slow plots and gorgeous writing while others may need fast-paced page-turners.
• Discuss as you go!

Here are my suggestions!

A book of poetry: Homie by Danez Smith – I can think of no better form of book to read aloud than a work of poetry, especially when it’s one by such a talented slam poet. This collection is a meditation on the experience of living in a country overrun by violence, xenophobia, and injustice while in a body defined by race, queerness, and a struggle with mental health. It is also very much about the healing power of friendship, a read that both breaks the heart and shakes the soul.

A YA novel in verse: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – On the same poetry track, try a novel in verse! Elizabeth Acevedo’s debut about a young Afro-Latina slam poet won all the awards for a reason. Acevedo is herself a slam poet and I would very much like to be her friend. But I digress!

A short story: Fox 8 by George Saunders – You have options here: read a standalone short story, one from a collection, or an entire book of short stories. This one by George Saunders is the kind of weird us Saunders fans have come to expect; it’s about a fox who learns to speak “yuman” by hiding in the bushes outside a house and listening to the “yumans” tell their little ones bedtime stories. It’s a dark comedy and cautionary tale of the consequences of man’s quest to tame the natural world. I laughed several times because our friend the fox talks a liiiiiittle like a frat bro.

A novella: Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link – I added this to my TBR when I saw it described as a work of “kitchen-sink magical realism — riffs on haunted convenience stores, husbands and wives, rabbits, zombies, weekly apocalyptic poker parties, witches, superheroes, marriage, and cannons.” Make sure you grab the re-release version of this collection; it includes several new stories as well as a conversation between Joe Hill and Kelly Link.

A straight-up (but shorter) novel: The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon – I want more people to read this book! A slim but powerful dissection of politics, religion, love, faith, and obsession, it’s about a young Korean woman at a schwanky American university who is drawn into a cult’s acts of terrorism.

Suggestion Section

This week on The Handsell (a new weekly bonus of the Get Booked podcast!), Amanda recommends an excellent book club selection.

Speaking of podcasts and excellent book club picks: check out your girl on this bonus episode of the Book Riot podcast! I sat down with Jeff and Sharifah to rant, rave, and make assorted noises about Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age.

Because we all get stuck sometimes: a list of book club questions that will help get the convo off the ground.

Pardon the paywall- I try to avoid linking to paid sites as much as I can! If you do happen to be a Washington Post subscriber, here’s a nice piece on hosting a better book club.

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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 Tuesday and 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

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This week I am fed up with 45 for the 7,572,985th time, whose 2021 budget proposes huge cuts to the arts and the elimination of library funding. I cannot, yo. No puedo! So today we’re making book club all about the library love.

To the club!!

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Nibbles and Sips

I was going to suggest a whole “make your own burger” thing and be like, “It’s a stack. Like library stacks. Get it?!” But I like you all too much to go that far off the deep end; keeping it simple instead with a few book-themed nibbles and sips.

For drink ideas, I love my handy copies of Tequila Mockingbird and Gone with the Gin (shoutout to A Sidecar named Desire). I also love the Atonment Julep in this roundup of book-themed libations.

These library cookies are kind of corny but I heart them. I can throw down in the kitchen but don’t bake much, so feel free to reach out to a local bakery if you aren’t a master baker yourself.

From the Saskatoon Public Library Twitter feed

For the Love of the Library

I don’t have to tell you how important libraries are, you already know. So we’re going to celebrate everything there is to love about libraries and librarians with some fantastic books on these subjects. One is a queer, near-future reinvention of actual historical librarians, one is a history with a dash of true crime, and one is a picture book about an iconic librarian. Discuss the role and impact of librarians throughout history, the evolution of the library in modern society, and share the myriad of services beyond the books that they provide (like these!)

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey – A one-sitting read (or in my case, a one-listen audiobook) about Esther, who’s just been discovered stowing away in the book wagon of the Librarians. She’s trying to escape the arranged marriage her father set up for her, a marriage to a man who was previously engaged to Esther’s best friend who BY THE WAY she was in love with and was just hung for possession of resistance propaganda. This book, yo. It’s Sarah Gailey’s take on the pulp Western, it’s queer AF, and is inspired by the actual horseback librarians of the Great Depression!

The Library Book by Susan Orlean – I listened to this on audio, but I think I’d recommend this one in print if for no other reason than because it’s just such a pretty book. It’s a history of libraries as well as a deep dive into the devastating fire that almost wiped out the entire Los Angeles Central Library back in 1986. It’s thought that arson was the cause of the fire but the case was never solved, and the news should have been front-page news but then… Chernobyl happened. You already love libraries, I already love libraries, but this book turns up the love to the next notch.

Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamuy Denise, illustrated by Paola Escobar – I’m going with a picture book for my last pick because I’m obsessed with it, and because I don’t share enough picks for kid book clubs. This is an absolutely gorgeous book about Pura Belpré, New York City’s first Puerto Rican librarian and the namesake of the Pura Belpré Award. This story is important and wonderful, the illustrations are so detailed—there’s one spread of the library that I legit want framed—but my absolute favorite part is the story Pura Belpré tells about Perez y Martina. Who are they, you ask? A cockroach and a mouse in love! The illustration of this insect + rodent romance with Martina perched on a Juliet balcony is just *chef’s kiss.* This is the one and only time I’ve said “aww” in response to a cockroach, as opposed to my usual “KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!”

Bonus: This is also available in Spanish (you know this is the version I own) as Sembrando Historias. Perez y Martina forever!

Other library-themed faves:

The Invisible Library by Genevive Cogman

The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Want even more awesome books featuring libraries?

10 Great Books About Libraries

100 Must-Read Books About Libraries & Bookstores

Other recommended reading:

Heroic Librarians: Unexpected Roles and Amazing Feats of Librarianship

5 Ways You Can Support Local Libraries

The Economic Case for Supporting Libraries

Suggestion Section

We have some discussion guides for some noteworthy book club reads! Check out topics for Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls, and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.

You’ve got a friend book club, maybe a work book club, but what about a family book club?

A group of sci-fi and fantasy lovers at 2nd & Charles bookstore in Alabama noticed that SFF gets overlooked in a lot of traditional book clubs. So they started their own online SFF book club with a pretty rad name: Literarily Wasted.

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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 Tuesday and 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

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

We’ve at long last waved adios to one hell of a January and I am proud of all of us for making it through! My man Punxsutawney Phil has done us a solid and predicted an early spring and we have Black History Month to celebrate; I don’t know what the rest of this year brings, but let us revel for now in these two Very Good things.

To the club!!

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Nibbles & Sips

So what I am NOT gonna do is suggest some gross and patronizing food theme for Black History Month. If I logged on during Hispanic History Month and saw someone suggesting everyone make chimichangas for book club, I might have to take these earrings off.

I do however want to highlight a few of my favorite Black food bloggers, chefs, and TV personalities. These are all recipes I’ve made and loved from people I’ve found through podcasts, word of mouth, and my obsessive online recipe search habit because food is life.

Suggestions:

• Easy BBQ short ribs and buffalo mac & cheese by Food Network’s Sunny Anderson
• Lemon panko crusted shrimp, strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream, and Nashville Hot Chicken from Jocelyn of Grandbaby Cakes
• Crispy eggplant bites and pomegranate rum sangria from Wendy & Jess at Food Heaven Made Easy (also, I love their podcast!)
• Cream cheese banana bread from April at Whisk It Real Gud (cream cheese makes everything better, fight me).
• Chil powder cumin roasted chicken from Aaron at The Hungry Hutch

Now for Some Books!

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid – Alix, a white influencer, hires Amira. a twenty-something Black woman, to be her young daughter’s babysitter. A surprising connection from Alix’ past and Amira’s present threatens to undo them both. This is a funny, thoughtful read about race and privilege that will be sure to spark good book club conversation, one that really dives into that whole “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” thing. (Also: Sharifah and I will be joining Jeff for a bonus episode of the Book Riot podcast to discuss this very book. Be on the lookout for that in the next few days; I have feelings!)

Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalists Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America by Dorothy Butler Gilliam – Dorothy Butler Gilliam is the first Black woman to write for the Washington Post, a fact I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t know until last year when I picked up this book. This is a memoir of her life and experience breaking down barriers, but also a sort of crash course on the history of Black journalism in America.

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes – Jerome is a twelve year old boy who dies when a police officer mistakes his toy gun for a real one and shoots him. As a ghost, Jerome befriends Sarah, the daughter of a white police offer and only living person who can see him, as well as the ghost of Emmett Till. He observes the complete devastation his death has wreaked on his family and community, and confronts this country’s long history of violence against Black people. Yes, this is a middle grade read, but don’t let that dissuade you from reading it. It packs a punch and asks a lot of tough but important questions, ones that we need to discuss with children early on.

Suggestion Section

Calling all MythBusters fans! Adam Savage is starting a book club and wants you to join.

February book club picks from PBS and Jenna Bush Hager

Is Reese’s Book Club more potent than Oprah’s?

An orthodontist in Indiana created Connections Book Club, a book club that brings together health-care practitioners passionate about innovation and partnering with other professionals to better treat their patients.

Why one reader skips her book club meetings – sometimes this is just how it goes!

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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 Tuesday and 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

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

Well, friends. You’ve probably all heard of the controversy surrounding American Dirt. I’ve been frustrated, hurt, baffled, angry, more angry, and crushingly disappointed, both for reasons that are probs fairly obvious and others more complicated. So today’s In the Club is dedicated to looping you into some important goings on in the larger conversation, but also to equipping you with a big, badass list of Latinx lit with authentic representation to discuss in your book clubs instead. I’ve got a surreal border story, a suspenseful domestic drama, and a new take on the American road trip novel for you, and so much more.

To the club!!

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Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera, translated by Lisa Dillman – This short, beautifully strange read is one I read twice back-to-back to feel like I really understood it. Makina is a switchboard operator in an unnamed village in Mexico who is sent across the border by her mother to try and find her lost brother. The journey, from preparing to leave to being smuggled across the border and then arriving at her intended destination, borrows from the legend of the Mexica world of the dead and its ending is one that has always resulted in interesting book club dissection for me. I highly recommend reading the translator’s note as well as this piece (and an interview with the author therein) as background, especially if you have trouble recognizing the symbolism or just want to learn something interesting.

Chasing the Sun by Natalia Sylvester – Set in Lima, Peru in a time of civil and political unrest, this is a suspenseful read about a husband who suspects his wife has left him—again—only to learn that she’s actually been kidnapped by terrorists. At first he thinks he’ll do anything to get her back, frantically trying to collect money for her ransom while caring for their two young children. Then begins to ask himself: is what they have ultimately worth saving?

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli – A nameless mother and father set out on a cross-country trip from New York City to Arizona. They’re both documentarians; he’s recording sounds at Apacheria, the place the Apaches once called home, and she hopes to return to New York after the journey is complete to finish up a project involving missing child refugees. The road trip brings the couple and their two young children face to face with the immigration crises at the southwestern border.

I could go on for days and days. Out of respect for your eyeballs, I’ll just include a sample of other important reads below. This is a mix of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from well-known and debut authors alike.

• The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande (full disclosure: Reyna Grande blurbed American Dirt, and that is her choice. I still think her memoir is a powerful read worth your time)
• The Devil’s Highway and The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea (and really anything in his catalog!)
• Dominicana by Angie Cruz
• They Call Me Güero by David Bowles
• Homelands: Four Friends, Two Countries, and the Fate of the Great Mexican-American Migration by Alfredo Corchado
• Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
• Tell Me How It Ends and The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli

Suggestion Section

I was moments away from penning a very ragey reaction to this whole business when contributor Romeo Rosales stepped up to the plate. Here’s his piece on American Dirt and it’s problematic premise, execution, implications, etc.

Oprah has come out and said that the conversation on the book will go deep, that “[I]t’s clear that we need to have a different kind of conversation” about the book.

I encourage you to look up the #dignidadliteraria hashtag, a nationwide call to action initiated by David Bowles, Myriam Gurba, and Roberto Lovato. Click the image below to be taken to the original Tweet.

You know I like my foodstuffs and adult beverages when I do book club, but consider switching putting the snack funds towards a cause as I’ve suggested before. Susana Sanchez-Young of The Designing Chica and Myriam Gurba have teamed up to create a scholarship for Latinx writers. If you buy the $35 illustration print pictured below (click to purchase!), 95% of the proceeds will go towards the scholarship.

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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 Tuesday and 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

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Today I’m switching it up and talking less about what to read in book club and more about the howlers chat a little about the logistics of book club when all the book clubbers aren’t in the same city.

To the club!!

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Book Club Goes Long Distance

Even before relocating to the Pacific Northwest, I was in a book club with a group of my amigas who all lived at least two hours away from my place in San Diego. We met in person when we could, but relied on technology more often than not for our chats. I thought I would share my tips for long distance book clubbing for anyone in the same boat!

Structure is largely up to you. I do recommend designating one person to at least kick off the conversation (and maybe to reel it back in if the feelings get out of hand!), but tailor the participation level to your group.

Good Ol’ Fashioned Email – There was one month when the gals and I were just too busy to organize a chat of any kind and took book club back to email. Here’s how: 1) We appointed one person (me) to send out a batch of questions; everyone was asked to answer within a week of finishing the book. 2) Questions were of varying levity; some were fun (who would you cast in the movie adaptation of Gone Girl?), others more thought-provoking (discussions about women as unreliable narrators). 3) I compiled everyone’s answers (with a bit of humor and creative flair) and emailed that summary to the group. This worked well for all of our busy lives and was fun to read at each of our leisure. The email chain of our reactions went on for weeks!

Group Chat Goes Lit – Run book club via text, iMessage, WhatsApp, Google Chat, AOL Messenger if you’ve hopped in your time machine (side note: if you run into 2001 me, tell her to ditch the loser boyfriend and stop over-plucking her eyebrows). Pick the messaging platform that works best for you and then agree on a time when everyone has at least 30 minutes to chat. Simple, and technically doable from just about anywhere with reliable wifi or cell reception.

Call Me, Maybe – Set up a multi-way call, whether with just voice or video is entirely up to you. Personally, I love video calls (FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype, etc) so I can see everyone’s facial expressions along with the lively discussion. My tip here depending on the time of day you chat is to create a whole vibe by having food and wine, coffee, tea, champagne, etc “together.” Of course, if a voice call is all you can manage, that’s perfectly fine as well. Pants are optional for both, so that’s a win.

The Odd One Out Is Still In – Of course, now that I’ve moved to Portland, all of the ladies in my book club have moved back to the general LA area. I’m the only real long distance member left, although in LA it can take as long to get from one zip code to another as it would take for me to fly in… Anywho! While all of them will likely pick a place to physically meet up, I refuse to miss out on our discussion of Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age. Remember that you too can insist that your friends set you up on a phone or iPad and participate virtually through the wonders of modern technology. They’d better not turn my volume down is all I’m saying.

Suggestion Section

A young man founded a book club when he was just ten years old (Books N Bros, amazing!), so he could talk to other boys about books. The club has grown to include over 250 “bros” and celebrates Black culture and African American lit. It’s no wonder he’s been turned into a Marvel Superhero!

Such a Fun Age is Buzzfeed’s February book club pick. Good job, Buzzfeed! That’s a good one.

Book club questions for Tommy Orange’s There There

This New York based book club aims to improve literacy about incarceration.

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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 Tuesday and 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

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Vanessa here, fresh off of playing in the Portland “snow” that came down for all of 15 minutes. The locals were like, “Yeah, it’s frozen water coming down from the sky, we know;” meanwhile your girl jumped around in the street living her best life.

Here’s to finding joy in everyday things. To the club!!

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Yo…. Harry and Meghan put a “Dear Liz, Nah.” letter on the internet and told the monarchy to go kick rocks! The extent of my interest in the royals doesn’t normally go beyond my obsession with The Crown, but Megxit reminds me how much I enjoy a good royals-defying-expectations (and sometimes giving-their-stuffy-families-the-finger) narrative. This week’s book club recs are thus about royalty acting up and out.

Discussion points: These books that include queer representation, characters of color, and a queen whose historical characterization I find overly simple. Discuss how these narratives depart from what comes to mind for you when you think of the Royal Family. Talk about the function of the monarchy and its place in modern society, and whether the trappings of life as a royal are worth having to life your life a certain way.

Nibbles and Sips

Did I pick a royals theme just so I could suggest a proper afternoon tea in this newsletter? Perhaps. Have I suggested this at least once before? Possibly. I’m a sucker for a tea party, what can I say? Here’s a sample menu:

Savories: Some mini sausage rolls with Branston pickle and an assortment of tea sandwiches, like cucumber + cream cheese, egg salad, and cranberry chicken salad.

Scones: A plain but quality scone, one that stands up to a beautiful, rich clotted cream and bright, delicious jam. I love this recipe and the delightful 88-year-old lady in it!

Sweets: Grapes, strawberries, or some sliced apples and two or more mini desserts depending on the size of the party, like a classic Victoria sponge or some petit fours.

Next you’ll need a pot or two of tea. I always serve at least one black tea  and one low (or no) caffeine option, something herbal or a nice white tea. Serve it up with some cream (or your favorite non-dairy alternative) and sugar and/or honey.

A Royal Mess

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston – I’m shielding my eyes as I confess the following: I still have not read Red, White, and Royal Blue! I feel confident recommending this title based on many a colleague’s glowing review. This is a rom-com in which Alex Claremont-Diaz, the First Son, falls in love with Henry, the Prince of Wales. When a scandal of big ol’ nternational proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends, complicated feelings (insert sexy saxophone music here) ensues.

Nocturna by Maya Motayne – This epic #ownvoices fantasy (the first in a trilogy!) is inspired by Latinx culture and tradition, so you know I’m on board. Alfehr is a young prince hellbent on finding the brother that was taken from his family in an attempted coup. It is believed by most that the brother is dead, but Alfie believes he can get him back through the use of dark, forbidden magic. One night, his path crosses with that of a face-shifting thief in a high-stakes, magical gambling ring; that chance meeting changes both of their lives when Alfie kinda accidentally unleashes a terrible, ancient power that will bring about the end of the world if not contained.

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff – This is the book that made me a die-hard Stacy Schiff fan; she writes non-fiction that reads like fiction and that teaches you a ton. This is a deep dive into the legacy—and infamy—of the enigmatic queen of Egypt. I tend to describe it with a line from the television gem that was MTV Diaries: “You think you know, but you have no idea.” I stand by that pitch: this fascinating historical figure is so often reduced to the sum of her womanly wiles, but she was a strategist, a shrewd negotiator, and though sometimes messy, a powerful force.

Suggestion Section

Have you heard? We recently relaunched Book Riot Insiders! It’s a new year with new perks, including a group read at the Epic level. It’s basically a book club with Book Riot friends!

Speaking of that “New Year, New Me” state of mind: some thoughts on revamping a book club or maybe starting one altogether.

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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 Tuesday and 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