Women's Book Club for Introverts (30's & 40's) in Berkeley

For this event, I've chosen this new novel by Virginia Evans. It just came out at the end of April, and the main character is an avid letter writer. I used to write letters in my 20s to an overseas pen pal, and I'm curious to see if this inspires me to start again! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223001257-the-correspondent

"Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle, or, a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain, and even if those links are never put back together, which they will certainly never be, even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion, isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?" - An excerpt from The Correspondent

"Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth." - Kirkus Reviews

Please reach out if you have any questions. Thanks!

For this event, I've chosen Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats by Courtney Gustafson. As a long-time dog fan, I'm challenging myself to branch out and open my mind (and heart) to the idea of 30 (!) feral cats. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216971220-poets-square

"Courtney writes toward a vision of connectedness, showing how taking care of the cats reshaped her understanding of empathy, resilience, and the healing power of wholly showing up for something outside yourself. She takes us from the dark alleys where she feeds feral cats to inside the tragically neglected homes where she climbs over piles of trash, and occasionally animals, and then into her own driveway with the cats she loves and must sometimes let go. Compelling and tender, Poets Square is as much about cats as it is about the urgency of care, community, and a little bit of dumb hope." — Penguin Random House

*Note, this event will be at my place in West Berkeley (near Page and Fifth Street), so it will be super low-key! My apartment is cozy and I have just enough room for 6 of us. It's also not usually hard to find street parking nearby. I will provide beverages and some snacks. Feel free to bring something if you want, but you are not required to! Please be aware that I have a senior beagle mix, Frito, who will be around in case you are allergic/don't like dogs.

Please reach out if you have any questions. Thanks!

For this event, I've chosen Chanel Miller's memoir from 2019. I've been wanting to read this one for a while. Miller writes about her experience being sexually assaulted by then Stanford University athlete Brock Turner in January 2015, as well as the aftermath and subsequent court case. I want to give a heads-up on this one as it involves sexual assault and will be an intense read. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50196744-know-my-name

"When it was published in 2016, Miller’s letter stunned readers with the clarity of her voice, acuity of her rage and expansiveness of her empathy towards those in need of support. Her story offered other victims a shared language; Miller recalls receiving thousands of supportive letters from women recounting their own stories. Her memoir has this same mix of the intimate with the communal, placing her own pain against a backdrop of shared suffering. At the end of Turner’s sentencing, she feels as if she has climbed a high mountain of justice, a climb that many fellow victims have not been able to scale. Exhausted, she imagines looking down, 'where I imagined expectant victims looking up, waving, cheering, expectantly … What could I tell them? The system does not exist for you.' Against a system that leads victims to recede into their own spheres of private suffering, Know My Name creates a space where this pain can sit and receive support from others." — Rebecca Liu, The Guardian

*This event will be held at the Kitava location on Solano Ave in Albany. They have lots of allergen-friendly food options. You can find their menu here: https://www.kitava.com/kitava-albany-menus/

Please reach out if you have any questions. Thanks!