A Book Club, Downtown (ABCD)

ABCD Reads Body Language by Meg Howrey.
(RESULTS of the poll for this event.)

:: ABOUT THE BOOK ::
"Sloane, a former actress now working as a therapist, is determined to find a meaningful way through menopause, away from marketing schemes, possibly with the aid of psychedelics. Her sister Laurel is managing her own growing rage and restlessness while engaging in work at an environmental non-profit and raising teenagers. Nanette, the youngest, has answered a long-delayed religious calling and is living as a Novice in a convent. All three lives will be further disrupted when Sloane receives a call summoning her to their mother’s house, Laurel discovers possible evidence of her husband’s infidelity, and Nanette finds herself in the middle of a media frenzy after a spontaneous act of public prayer.
Soon, all three are reunited under their mother’s roof, and no one can seem to agree about anything beyond the Barbara has dementia, as did her mother and sister before her. Will it be an opportunity for the closed door of their very private mother’s inner life to crack open? A lesson in care; a shared responsibility that will be the making of this family, divided by large age gaps, parental divorce, and temperament? Or will a stunning revelation upend not only their mother’s remaining time, but divide the sisters permanently?
With razor-sharp prose and undeniable humor, acclaimed author Meg Howrey brings an American family in the midst of a painful crisis to unforgettable life, interrogating memory and emotional inheritance, the right of a woman’s autonomy, and the indelible bonds even the most disparate of sisters can share." (from Goodreads)

"Howrey is a reliably beautiful stylist, and her slyly funny prose and blade-sharp insights into human behavior really should put her in the same conversation as writers like Ann Patchett and Barbara Kingsolver. Though this novel hits some familiar beats, Howrey manages to haul in plenty of shimmering pearls on the perils and joys of womanhood—whatever that means.
A comfort meal of a novel: poignant and prismatic." (from Kirkus)

:: ABOUT THE EVENT ::
You are welcome to arrive 30 minutes before the event and stay 30 minutes or longer afterward to connect with other attendees outside the book talk.

Please ensure you have read the book before attending (though finishing any book is not a barrier to participating, as long as you don't mind spoilers).

First-time attendees can join for free. If the event is full, we maintain an unofficial waitlist. Please send Michael a direct message for more information, in either case.

We request a $3 contribution from regular attendees to help cover our monthly meetup costs.

:: ABOUT OUR NEXT BOOK ::
At the end of each event, we will ask for nominees for our next book. If you have a good one in mind, please ensure it is between 200-400 pages long, available from the Toronto Public Library, and counts as contemporary literary fiction (though these are not hard and fast rules). When enough nominees are collected, Michael will send the members a direct message with a link where you can vote.

ABCD Reads Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.
(RESULTS of the poll for this event.)

:: ABOUT THE BOOK ::
"A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister." (from BookMarks)

"The chasm between social media and reality runs deep and dark in Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel, “Yesteryear,” which crawls into the psyche of a tradwife influencer so maddening and mesmerizing that Anne Hathaway has already signed on to play her in the movie adaptation.
“Sometimes it actually made me sick,” Natalie Heller Mills narrates, “how perfect my life was, and how good I was at living it.” Note her use of the past tense." (from New York Times Book Review)

:: ABOUT THE EVENT ::
You are welcome to arrive 30 minutes before the event and stay 30 minutes or longer afterward to connect with other attendees outside the book talk.

Please ensure you have read the book before attending (though finishing any book is not a barrier to participating, as long as you don't mind spoilers).

First-time attendees can join for free. If the event is full, we maintain an unofficial waitlist. Please send Michael a direct message for more information, in either case.

We request a $3 contribution from regular attendees to help cover our monthly meetup costs.

:: ABOUT OUR NEXT BOOK ::
At the end of each event, we will ask for nominees for our next book. If you have a good one in mind, please ensure it is between 200-400 pages long, available from the Toronto Public Library, and counts as contemporary literary fiction (though these are not hard and fast rules). When enough nominees are collected, Michael will send the members a direct message with a link where you can vote.

ABCD Reads Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (author of Station Eleven).
(RESULTS of the poll for this event.)

:: ABOUT THE BOOK ::
"From the bestselling author of Station Eleven, Exit Party is Emily St. John Mandel’s epic new story of crimes committed and loves lost across worlds and decades.
2031. America is at war with itself, but for the first time in weeks there is some hope: the Republic of California has been declared, the curfew in Los Angeles is lifted, and everyone in the city is going to a party.
Ari, newly released from prison, arrives with her friend Gloria just as a fragile new era begins. But there are people at the party who shouldn’t be there. Something is very wrong...
Years later, living a different life in Paris, Ari remains haunted by that night. Whatever happened at the party fractured her sense of reality – and may hold the key to a very different world.
Freedom and surveillance, art and survival, love and loss in a broken world: Exit Party is the electrifying new novel from Emily St. John Mandel." (from Goodreads)

"A novel of doubles, shadow worlds, and fractured timelines as a man disappears from a glittering Los Angeles party, and a woman—a gunrunner, an art collector, an operative of the State—searches for answers." (from BookMarks.reviews)

:: ABOUT THE EVENT ::
You are welcome to arrive 30 minutes before the event and stay 30 minutes or longer afterward to connect with other attendees outside the book talk.

Please ensure you have read the book before attending (though finishing any book is not a barrier to participating, as long as you don't mind spoilers).

First-time attendees can join for free. If the event is full, we maintain an unofficial waitlist. Please send Michael a direct message for more information, in either case.

We request a $3 contribution from regular attendees to help cover our monthly meetup costs.

:: ABOUT OUR NEXT BOOK ::
At the end of each event, we will ask for nominees for our next book. If you have a good one in mind, please ensure it is between 200-400 pages long, available from the Toronto Public Library, and counts as contemporary literary fiction (though these are not hard and fast rules). When enough nominees are collected, Michael will send the members a direct message with a link where you can vote.

ABCD Reads American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee (author of Pachinko)
(RESULTS of the poll for this event.)

:: ABOUT THE BOOK ::
"In schools and churches, hotel rooms and nail salons, law firms and fried-fish shops; in cramped, dingy apartments and luxury, gated communities, the men, women, and children in American Hagwon struggle to find satisfaction and meaning in a world that seems to grow less forgiving with each passing year. Once comfortably middle class in Korea, John and Helen Koh and their three children, Bo, DH, and Mido, find their lives upended, first by a shocking betrayal by John's oldest friend, then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis." (from BookMarks)

"At last, the National Book Award finalist and NYT bestselling author of Pachinko returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic: Min Jin Lee has written a masterpiece by turns sweeping and intimate, one that reckons with ambition and moderation, lust and loyalty, personal dreams and familial duty." (from Goodreads)

:: ABOUT THE EVENT ::
You are welcome to arrive 30 minutes before the event and stay 30 minutes or longer afterward to connect with other attendees outside the book talk.

Please ensure you have read the book before attending (though finishing any book is not a barrier to participating, as long as you don't mind spoilers).

First-time attendees can join for free. If the event is full, we maintain an unofficial waitlist. Please send Michael a direct message for more information, in either case.

We request a $3 contribution from regular attendees to help cover our monthly meetup costs.

:: ABOUT OUR NEXT BOOK ::
At the end of each event, we will ask for nominees for our next book. If you have a good one in mind, please ensure it is between 200-400 pages long, available from the Toronto Public Library, and counts as contemporary literary fiction (though these are not hard and fast rules). When enough nominees are collected, Michael will send the members a direct message with a link where you can vote.