What we’re about
This is a book club for Black women interested in reading and discussing books written by Black women (including but not limited to American, Caribbean, African, and European authors). I started this group to bring together people who love to read and who want to build a community focused on discovering, discussing, and celebrating the literature of Black women writers from across the African diaspora. We read literary fiction and nonfiction. We will meet monthly for book discussions at various locations across the city.
Upcoming events (3)
See all- Virtual Author Event: Q&A with Dolen Perkins-Valdez (author of HAPPY LAND)Link visible for attendees
Join Black Girls Read Book Club for a virtual Q&A with Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of our July book selection Happy Land!
Zoom information will be shared with members who have RSVP'd the weekend before the event. We will have a spoiler-free conversation about Happy Land, so *please* feel free to attend even if you have not yet finished the book. And please come with your burning questions for Dolen!
You can purchase the book here on Bookshop or at your preferred bookseller.
- #105: Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-ValdezPromontory Field House, Chicago, IL
Our July book selection is Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez.
We will meet at Promontory Point, near the Promontory Field House. Our meeting location is in the park by the lake, NOT the restaurant/music venue near 53rd Street. Please leave yourself enough time to find your way, and read the directions under "How to find us" carefully.
About the book: Nikki hasn’t seen her grandmother in years. So when the elder calls out of the blue with an urgent request for Nikki to visit her in the hills of western North Carolina, Nikki hesitates only for a moment. After years of silence in her family, due to a mysterious estrangement between her mother and grandmother, she’s determined to learn the truth while she still can.
But instead of answers about the recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on this very mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen.
It sounds like the makings of a fairy tale—royalty among a community of freed people. But the more Nikki learns about the Kingdom of the Happy Land, and the lives of those who dwelled in the ruins she discovers in the woods, the more she realizes how much of her identity and her family’s secrets are wrapped up in these hills. Because this land is their legacy, and it will be up to her to protect it before it, like so much else, is stolen away.
Inspired by true events, Happy Land is a transporting multi-generational novel about the stories that shape us and the dazzling courage it takes to dream.
***Support Black Girls Read Chicago by purchasing Happy Land on Bookshop (affiliate link).
- #106: Reel by Kennedy Ryan + Summer Picnic and Book SwapPromontory Field House, Chicago, IL
Our August book selection is Reel by Kennedy Ryan. Feel free to bring food and drinks (or even a whole picnic basket!) to enjoy before, during, and after the discussion. Please also bring at least one book to give away or swap.
We will meet at Promontory Point, near the Promontory Field House. Our meeting location is in the park by the lake, NOT the restaurant/music venue near 53rd Street. Please leave yourself enough time to find your way, and read the directions under "How to find us" carefully.
About the book: Neevah Saint is ready for the spotlight. After months as an understudy, this is her night to shine. She never imagined he would be in the audience. Canon Holt. Famous film director. Fascinating. Talented. Fine. Before she can catch her breath, everything is changing. Neevah goes from backstage Broadway to center stage Hollywood. From being unknown, to having her name on everyone's lips when Canon casts her as the lead in a star-studded Harlem Renaissance biopic. But forbidden attraction, scandal, and circumstances beyond Neevah's control soon put her dream in jeopardy. Could this one shot—the role of a lifetime, the love of a lifetime—cost her everything?
***Support Black Girls Read Chicago by purchasing Reel on Bookshop (affiliate link).
