Nasty Women Bookclub: Chicago Edition

We're thrilled to announce the book for our December Book Club: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of Your Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. Looking forward to seeing everyone and having a great group discussion.

New for December: OPTIONAL HOLIDAY BOOK SWAP! Please bring a book off your shelf that you’d love to pass along to another reader. Gift wrapping not necessary. 📚🎁

Here’s a summary:

In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . .

A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?

PS - thanks for contributing the $2! It helps us cover the cost Meetup charges to run this group. Feel free to bring cash or send via Venmo/Zelle.

We're excited to announce a treat for blustery January - a special event bookclub with a Q+A with Rose Diell, author of Fledging.

We are excited to meet everyone at our fellow bookclubber’s home in Wicker Park (close to the Division Blue Line and 50 Damen bus). The group will discuss the book in group for the first hour, and Rose will join us via Zoom for the remainder of the time.

The book can be purchased online at bookshop.org, Amazon, Borders, or downloaded as an e-Book.

Please plan to bring your book, and snacks/drinks to share with the group.

Looking forward to meeting everyone and discussing this wonderful novel.

Here’s a summary:

It starts as bloating, a hard curvature in my gut that won’t go away. I wonder if it’s my period, but it isn’t the right time. The cramps come slowly at first, like a rising tide, and then grow shorter and sharper, a racing heartbeat.

When Lia lays an egg she doesn’t know what to do. At her age, it’s impossible to escape the baby question, and all her friends seem to be having children. She feels her heart’s not in it – but all the same, there’s the egg, impossible to ignore, lying in a nest of towels in the living room.

Her partner on tour on the other side of the world and her mother diagnosed with a terminal illness, Lia finds herself torn, unsure whether she’s ready to give up on her songwriting dreams; but time is running out, and she must make one of the biggest decisions of her life.

Beautifully written and brilliantly original, Fledging is a riveting tale that asks what it is to lead a meaningful life, and sounds a resounding call for women to make their own choices, whether that means embracing motherhood or living child-free.

PS - thanks for contributing the $2! It helps us cover the cost Meetup charges to run this group. Feel free to bring cash or send via Venmo.