Meeting Report: March 2022

The DCBC met on Sunday, March 27, 2022 to discuss March's book: Rage Becomes Her, by Soraya Chemaly (selected by Jessy).

This meeting was a SMASHING success, with Miriam, Jessy, Ashley, Emily, and Sarah attending. 

This book inspired some great discussions of our personal and familial experiences. Rage Becomes Her resonated with each of us, with agreement that it was tough to read at times, given the subject matter. Several of us could only read it in small doses and needed to take some deep breaths to calm down before re-engaging with the world! Our primary critiques were that Rage Becomes Her is heavy on facts, but lighter on analysis for balance, as well as being a lot of information that we pretty much already know. If anyone is not familiar in the ways in which society is biased against (in the best of times) and actively harms women (in the worst), Rage Becomes Her should be required reading. 

We concluded with a homemade rage room in Jessy's yard--thank you to Miriam for the photos and videos, and again, thank you to Jessy for putting this together and making sure we were safe doing it!

The Verdict:

Taken from the average DCBC member ratings on Goodreads who had marked the book as read and rated at the time of this writing:

Rage Becomes Her 4.2 stars

Next Month: April 2022: The Love Hypothesis, by Ali Hazelwood (selected by Tiffany)

🎵 We Had a Marvelous Time SMASHING Everything! 🎶

03/27/2022

    I'll leave the recap to Sarah, but today was very cathartic! Thank you, Jessy, for hosting and providing most of the smashing materials and the PPE!

Photos

The Setup:

Jessy, pre-meeting, ready to RAGE!

Temporarily satisfied with our smashing of the patriarchy:

Videos

Meeting Report: January and February 2022

The DCBC met on Sunday, February 20, 2022 to discuss both January's and February's books. We consolidated two meetings into one due to the omicron surge in January. We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!

The two books we discussed were, for January, In the Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado (selected by Lauren), and for February, She Who Became the Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan (selected by Sarah).

This meeting was cozy, with Miriam, Jessy, Paige, and Sarah attending. (Lauren was feeling under the weather and we hope she is on the mend!)

We had some wonderful discussions of both books. In the Dream House was highly regarded, with many of us agreeing we could barely put it down, even though the subject matter was sometimes challenging. The short, thematic chapters and references to folklore were particularly noteworthy and enjoyable, and the exploration of power dynamics and abusive relationships in an LGBTQ+ context was an important topic to shed light on. 

She Who Became the Sun was challenging in other ways. The political intrigue, battle descriptions, and minor characters could be a lot to keep track of, but the force of Zhu's determination and ruthlessness made for a thrilling read (albeit an often gory one)! The contrast between Zhu's and Ouyang's gender identities/dysphoria was a marked one, and Zhu's relationship with Ma was appreciated, as was the explicit description of their physical conjugation. We had hoped for more related to the spirits some characters are described as seeing or surrounding them, and are hoping this is explored more in the next book of the series.

The Verdict:

Taken from the average DCBC member ratings on Goodreads who had marked the books as read and rated at the time of this writing:

In the Dream House 4.9 stars

She Who Became the Sun 4.3 stars

Club Business:

Sarah and Jessy volunteered to step up to help Miriam coordinate our group's activities, as well as keep up this website. We're looking forward to the next phase of our club's existence so we can all keep reading wonderful books together. Until next month...

March 2022: Rage Becomes Her, by Soraya Chemaly (selected by Jessy)

The Fifth Cycle

Here is the Fifth Cycle of books we are reading in our book club, from Jan 2022-Nov 2022.

Month and Club Member	Title and Author	Cover
January Lauren	In the Dream House, Carmen Maria Machado
February Sarah	She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan
March Jessy	Rage Becomes Her, Soraya Chemaly
April Tiffany	The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood
May Paige	Anxious People, Fredrik Backman
June Ali	What Comes After, Joanne Tompkins
(We’re skipping July)
August Ashley	Portrait of a Thief, Grace D. Li
September Miriam	Comfort Me with Apples, Catherynne Valente
October Melissa	All’s Well, Mona Awad
November Emily	The Princess Beard, Delilah Dawson and Kevin Hearne

Fourth Cycle

Here is the Fourth Cycle of books we are reading in our book club, from Oct 2020-Nov 2021.

Fourth Cycle:

1. The Farm, by Joanne Ramos, selected by Jessy, Oct 2020 
   
   
   
2. Less, by Andrew Sean Greer, selected by Maria, Nov 2020 
   
   
   
3. Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward, selected by Sofia, Dec 2020 
   
   
   
4. The Readbreast, by Jo Nesbo, selected by Paige, Jan 2021 
   
   
   
5. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom, by Yeonmi Park, selected by Sarah, Feb 2021 
   
   
   
6. Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno Garcia, selected by Blair, Mar 2021 
   
   
   
7. Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir, selected by Tiffany, Apr 2021 
   
   
   
8. Queen of Kings, by Maria Dahvana Headley, selected by Lauren, May 2021 
   
   
   
9. Afterlife, by Julia Alvarez, selected by Ali, Jun 2021 
   
   
   
10. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers, selected by Miriam, Jul 2021 
    
    
    
11. The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow, selected by Melissa, Aug 2021 
    
    
    
12. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by T.J. Klune, selected by Kate, Sep 2021 
    
    
    
13. Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, selected by Emily Y, Oct 2021 
    
    
    
14. Tell Me About Yourself, by Holley M. Murchison, selected by Emily V, Nov 2021 
    
    
    

Third Cycle

A look back at the Third Cycle of books read in our book club, Sep 2019-Sep 2020.

Third Cycle:

1. City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert, selected by Sam, Sep 2019 
   
   
   
2. Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions, by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, selected by Krista, Oct 2019 
   
   
   
3. Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, by Casey Cep, selected by Jessie P, Dec 2019 
   
   
   
4. Recursion, by Blake Crouch, selected by Jessy S, Jan 2020 
   
   
   
5. The Spy, by Paulo Coehlo, selected by Blair, Jan 2020 
   
   
   
6. Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi, selected by Kate, Feb 2020 
   
   
   
7. The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, selected by Melissa, Mar 2020 
   
   
   
8. The Poppy War, by R. F. Kuang, selected by Tiffany, Apr 2020 
   
   
   
9. The Gifted School, by Bruce Holsinger, selected by Maria, May 2020 
   
   
   
10. The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, selected by Miriam, Jun 2020 
    
    
    
11. Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah, selected by Emily Y, Jul 2020 
    
    
    
12. Binti (The Complete Trilogy), by Nnedi Ororafor, selected by Sarah, Aug 2020 
    
    
    
13. Wilder Girls, by Rory Power, selected by Lauren, Sep 2020