NNO Book Club: Several People Are Typing

This is the in-person event. There is also an online version of this event scheduled for 7:30 pm this same date.

If ever there was a circumstance ripe for satire with a touch of dystopia – it is work. We try to read something lighter, shorter, or easier for December as it is usually a crazy month. This December, we are going to check out “Several People Are Typing” by Calvin Kasulke.

***Book summary from Goodreads***
A work-from-home comedy where WFH meets WTF.

Told entirely through clever and captivating Slack messages, this irresistible, relatable satire of both virtual work and contemporary life is The Office for a new world.

Gerald, a mid-level employee of a New York–based public relations firm has been uploaded into the company’s internal Slack channels—at least his consciousness has. His colleagues assume it’s an elaborate gag to exploit the new work-from home policy, but now that Gerald’s productivity is through the roof, his bosses are only too happy to let him work from . . . wherever he says he is.

Faced with the looming abyss of a disembodied life online, Gerald enlists his co-worker Pradeep to help him escape, and to find out what happened to his body. But the longer Gerald stays in the void, the more alluring and absurd his reality becomes.

Meanwhile, Gerald’s colleagues have PR catastrophes of their own to handle in the real world. Their biggest client, a high-end dog food company, is in the midst of recalling a bad batch of food that’s allegedly poisoning Pomeranians nationwide. And their CEO suspects someone is sabotaging his office furniture. And if Gerald gets to work from home all the time, why can’t everyone? Is true love possible between two people, when one is just a line of text in an app? And what in the hell does the :dusty-stick: emoji mean?

In a time when office paranoia and politics have followed us home, Calvin Kasulke is here to capture the surprising, absurd, and fully-relatable factors attacking our collective sanity…and give us hope that we can still find a human connection.

***This month's restaurant selection***
This month we will be meeting at Blaze Pizza near USF on Fowler. This “build your own” thin crust pizza chain offers tons of options including GF cauliflower crust and a vegan GF crust as well as tons of toppings and sauce drizzles to build a masterpiece. You can check out the menu here: https://www.blazepizza.com/.

***Not sure about book club or never been to one before? ***
Read the book (or some of the book). Come to the Meetup. Eat yummy food and chat with folks about what you thought about the book. REPEAT!

***Not sure where to get the book? ***
All books we select have a decent number of copies (at least 3-4 across all formats) at both the Hillsborough and Pinellas County Library. And, of course, you can always buy a copy.

***Didn’t finish/hated this book?***
Come to the Meetup anyway! If you didn't finish - just be aware, there will be spoilers. If you hated it, come and rant! In my experience, the books that generate the best conversations and the books we really love are rarely the same books.