The Book Society

Name: English Book Club #2 - My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Start: 2026-10-29T17:15:00.000Z
End: 2026-10-29T19:15:00.000Z
Location: Café Votiv

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About us

As you flip through the pages, you absorb the stories, lives, emotions and experiences of the characters within. This little world, trapped within a few hundred pages, inevitably connects with our own emotions, resonating with our dreams, interpretations, expectations, and experiences.

But what happens when you turn the final page and close the book?

The Book Society is an English-speaking book club created to continue the conversation beyond the back cover.

It is primarily designed for women in their late 20s and 30s looking for thoughtful conversation, new perspectives and meaningful social connections.

Once a month, we choose one book and meet in beautiful locations in Vienna to talk about it — a park in summer, a cosy café when it rains, perhaps a drink somewhere in between.

There are no lectures and no right answers. Come curious, bring your questions, disagree politely or find similar visions, change and challenge your mind.

Featured event

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English Book Club #2 - My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Thu, Oct 29 · 6:15 PM CET

Café Votiv, Reichsratsstraße 17, 1010 Wien, Austria, Wien, AT

For the second gathering of The Book Society, we are discussing Otessa Moshfegh's second novel "My Year of Rest and Relaxation," a contemporary piece published in 2018. The book explores the seemingly perfect life of the main character: smart, pretty, successful. Her sense of void, however, is not filled in by the perfect

We’ll meet in a small group of maximum 10 readers in a cosy café. After settling in and getting to know one another, I’ll briefly introduce the novel before opening the conversation with a few questions.

From there, the discussion is free: the characters we loved or couldn’t stand, the choices we questioned, the passages that stayed with us, the ideas and emotions the book brought to the surface.

There are no lectures, no wrong questions and no right answers. Different interpretations, handled with kindness and respect for others' points of view, will be the essence of the discussion.

It would be ideal if you could finish the book before attending, as we’ll discuss the whole novel freely and there will be spoilers.

At the end, we’ll share what we’re taking away from the book and choose our next read together from selected books as well as any voluntary nominations from the participants.

Anything you fancy during the meeting can be ordered directly from the café. Card accepted only for orders higher than 15 EUR.

📖 Book: My year of rest and relaxation, Otessa Moshfegh
🗣️ Language: English (you don’t need to be a native speaker)
👥 Places: Limited to 10 readers