Book Club Reading List (2023)
Hi! I’m Lindsay, coordinator of the Each is Every book club, for which I select our book lists and lead our discussions alongside our other coordinator, Asia.
I have been passionate about reading and storytelling since I was a kid, so I was excited to rise to the challenge when founder and publisher, Chelsea, asked if I would take on this role.
Books, like all humanities, are a powerful reflection of the people and society who produce them. I knew when it came time to select our titles that this was more than light-hearted fun; books are like any other media in that they can shape how we see the world, ourselves, and each other. Every year, I take great care to select books that showcase the full spectrum of human experience: vast, diverse, full of joy, drama, pain and rebirth.
Whether it’s fiction, memoir, or cultural studies, I want to make sure every club member—present or potential—has the opportunity to see a version of themselves in the books we read. Our conversations are always thought-provoking, often funny, and sometimes heartfelt. All are welcome—even those who haven’t finished (or started!) the book or those who’d prefer to just listen in.
I hope you’ll consider joining us from wherever you are; there’s always room for one more!
Learn more about our events here, sign up here, and mark your calendars so you don’t miss a meeting!
this year’s reading list:
Thick: And Other Essays, Tressie McMillan Cottom
Meeting: March 27, 2023
In eight highly praised treatises on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom―award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed―is unapologetically "thick": deemed "thick where I should have been thin, more where I should have been less," McMillan Cottom refuses to shy away from blending the personal with the political, from bringing her full self and voice to the fore of her analytical work.
The Old Woman With the Knife, Gu Byeong-Mo
Meeting: May 15, 2023
The kinetic story of a sixty-five-year-old female assassin who faces an unexpected threat in the twilight of her career—this is an international bestseller and the English language debut from an award-winning South Korean author. At sixty-five, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named Deadweight, to keep her company. There are expectations for people her age—that she'll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,
Gabrielle Zevin
Meeting: July 31, 2023
In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, Zoraida Córdova
Meeting: September 25, 2023
The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—not for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed into a ceiba tree, leaving them with more questions than answers.
Bad Cree, Jessica Johns
Meeting: November 27, 2023
The kinetic story of a sixty-five-year-old female assassin who faces an unexpected threat in the twilight of her career—this is an international bestseller and the English language debut from an award-winning South Korean author. At sixty-five, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named Deadweight, to keep her company. There are expectations for people her age—that she'll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin.