Book Selection for April 2021

[Sheri]

Opening up a thread for thinking about our next book!

Same rules as usual apply:

1) Please don't just list books you're planning to read. Give a sentence or two on why you think we should read a book as a book club.

2) If you made a suggestion before, please re-submit it for this time to be included. I won't be going to past suggestion threads, this is a new round.

3) If someone already listed something you like/what you would suggest, you can "vote " for it by adding support. You can add your own reasoning why you think we should read it.

After that, we'll gather up the books that have the most support and put them into a proper poll for the final selection.

[Shel]

I have a nonfiction suggestion, for something a little different that I thought my fellow nerds might be willing to geek out about? I've been wanting to read The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu for a while. Something for foodies and word nerds alike? It just looks really interesting!

(I also have a fiction suggestion if the nonfiction doesn't appeal so let me know)

[Kassia]

I would like to suggest a book I’m currently reading and really enjoying “The Once and Future Witches” by Alix E. Harrow. It is a story about a group of women who are fighting for Women’s Right to vote and fighting to bring back witching. It is written as an alternative history that mixes fact and fantasy in a mesmerizing way. It includes a diverse group of characters who connect through their struggles against the suppression of men. To quote the end of the introduction, “There’s no such thing as witches anymore, but there will be!”

[Jen W.]

I'm not sure I have anything to suggest right now, but I'd support The Once and Future Witches - it sounds really great and thought-provoking.

[Megan]

Both of the previous suggestions sound great, so I will be on board with whatever is selected. I would like to redeem myself from my last suggestion with something in a completely different direction - Dorohedoro, Vol. 1. I don't think we've ever done a comic/graphic novel/manga together, but I think many/most of us here read them. That one is pretty widely available and has been out for a while, and doesn't require any outside knowledge of other series or characters as far as I can recall. Just throwing that out there for one more option!

[Sheri]

Megan, you don't need to redeem yourself! :) It won the vote, you weren't the only one who thought it sounded interesting. Sometimes books just don't live up to expectations!

[Shel]

Ok that’s really weird because The Once and Future Witches was going to be my fiction suggestion 😂

[Daniele]

I'm starting to sense a trend :) I'm down for witches as well, but I'd also be up for Shel's suggestion for non-fiction.

[Kathy]

What if we read something by Jenny Lawson (aka the Bloggess). While she has a new book coming out next month, I am thinking that her first, Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir, might be easier to get from libraries sooner. She is hilarious, but she also writes about her struggles with depression and other health issues.

[Susan]

I will suggest a short non-fiction that is different than what we've done before. It is Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison. It is a book of poetry. It is short, about 120 pages. Here's one early reviewer's summary: Written during a time when the author was undergoing cancer treatments and had to avoid strong sunlight, early morning winter walks were his only chance to be outside. The poems are short because they were made to fit on a postcard that he sent to a fellow poet.