until our next meeting
November's Book
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
Science Fiction
They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.
It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect. Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left. With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again.
Book & Bun Clubbers
“for the buns of course”
“Oh my God I want to go on a hot chocolate prilgrimage so bad”
“the buns make me world go round”
Past Books
Meeting Notes
Rayne recalled her encounter with the spider™ with horror in her eyes. Scottie spoke to the woman next to us about her daughter, of whom she is clearly her number one fan (adorably). Laurel divulged the details of her theory about Black American men who reside in Paris/Europe. The buns were immaculate per usual.
Finishing The Maid by Nita Prose: We all hated the book and did not even enjoy talking about it. Scottie: hates an unreliable narrator, especially if they’re just literally lying to you and there’s no way the reader can think otherwise. Rayne gave it 1 star on Goodreads and also thought the plot twist was not goo . Laurel did not even finish the book.
In a refreshing turn of events, our March book was 5 stars! So many emotions (frustration, love, hate, longing, gut-wrenching sadness, but also hope maybe? I’m sure Rayne, our resident SAT word scholar, has better vocabulary to describe the emotion through the ups and downs of this book) but anyway we had a great convo about the characters, the realities of being a woman in that time period, coloniality, the vulnerability of being undocumented in the US, and so on.
Quote of the evening, “I wanted life to give her the opportunity to be soft”
– Scottie talking about Marcia, the main character, who was hardened by the tragedies of life that she had to endure, mostly alone
We all hope and imagine that Marcia’s new chapter in the U.S. granted her a life where she could be loved outwardly ❤️
We all agree that we appreciate how beautifully poetic the author writes, but agree that we did not connect emotionally with Leila as we did with Marcia (from Til the Well Runs Dry). A heartbreaking book but with a happy ending. We all loved Shiler and would love to learn more about her, possibly read a book from her POV. Also questioning the possible cultural/social significance of the inclusion of the scene of Leila’s mom’s affair with her intersex patient.
No buns but we did have bubble tea earlier 🙂 Unfortunately they remove the cinnamon oat tea so heartbreak was a theme of this day.