Book Club

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet (November)

he Vignes sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything, including their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. Across the country, the other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, although separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen when their own daughters’ story lines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, The Vanishing Half is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of of race, gender, and identity, and the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s desires and expectations.

A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum (December)

This debut novel by a Palestinian-American voice takes us inside the lives of a conservative Arab family living in America. In Brooklyn, eighteen-year-old Deya is starting to meet with suitors. Though she doesn’t want to get married, her grandparents give her no choice. History is repeating itself: Deya’s mother, Isra, also had no choice when she left Palestine as a teenager to marry Adam. Though Deya was raised to believe her parents died in a car accident, a secret note from a mysterious, yet familiar-looking woman makes Deya question everything she was told about her past. As the narrative alternates between the lives of Deya and Isra, she begins to understand the dark, complex secrets behind her community.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans  (January)

Most mornings Sybil Van Antwerp writes letters to family and friends that help her make sense of the world and her place in it.  She expects her world will go on as it always has with her as mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, and lawyer. Then, a letter from someone in her past forces her to reconsider one of the most painful periods of her life. The Correspondent explores how forgiveness is necessary if one is to move forward.  

Virginia Evans is an award-winning American novelist. Born in South Carolina and raise in Maryland, Evans is a graduate of James Madison University. She has a Masters degree from the Trinity College, in Dublin, Ireland. She lives with her husband and two children in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Writing her first novel at 19, Evans states she wrote seven unsuccessful books over 18 before her first successful novel 

Kin by Tayari Jones ( February) 

Kin is the story of two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana.  Best friends since childhood, Vernice leaves for Spelman College where she becomes a part of a powerful group of Black Women and Annie set off on a journey of peril and adversity to find the mother who abandoned her. Kin is a story of friendship, sisterhood, and  the complexities of being a Black woman. in the South. 

Jones is a seasoned  award winning novelist. She is a graduate of Spelman College, University of Iowa, and Arizona State. She is an Associate Professor in a Masters of Fine Arts program at Rutgers-Newark University. 

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (March) 

In this satirical thriller novel, social media influencer Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle with the nannies and producers kept off camera. Then, one morning she wakes us to a new reality – 1855. A horrible reality where everything is familiar yet off.   As Natalie tries to escape this new reality, Yesteryear explores tradition, fame, faith, and womanhood. 

Caro Claire Burke is an American author with a Master’s in Fine Arts from Bennington Writing Seminars. Growing up in a conservative family, Burke critiques both sides of the modern womanhood debate. She co-hosts the podcast Diabolical Lies that focuses on Our politics and culture. This is her first novel. 

Where the WIldflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris (April)

Leigh has watched all her family die. While her grief hasn’t faded and tragedy haunts her, she is a survivor. So when the transport bus taking her to prison is in an accident that leaves everyone but Leigh dead, she does what is natural – she survives. Leaving the scene of the accident, she finds an unexpected sanctuary on a flower farm in Alabama. But even as the ghosts of the past follow her and secrets from the past threaten, slowly Leigh finds that she may not be too broken for something good. Redemption may be possible. 

Terah Shelton Harris an author and former librarian.  Born in Chicago and raised in down state Illinois, Harris currently lives in Alabama. An award winning author, Where the Wildflowers Grow is her third novel. 

Pick a Color  by Souvankham Thammavongsa (May) 

Giller Prize and O. Henry Award Winner 

A revelatory novel about loneliness, love, labor and class. Pick A Color follows a Ning a retired boxer who now owns a nail salon  and her privileged clients who don’t even know her real name. What her customers perceives belies her rigorous intellect and profound complexity. Souvankham Thammavongsa is an expert chronicler of the immigrant experience. 

Thammavongsa has published short stories, four poetry books as well as novels. She was born in a Lao refugee camp in Thailand and raised and educated in Toronto where she know lives. 

Mad Mabel by  Sally Hepworth  (June) 

A comedic mystery, Mad Mabel tells the story of eighty-one year old Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick. When a little girl moves into the neighborhood,  she stops a nothing to befriend  curmudgeonly Elsie. As she does, Elsie’s past starts coming to light. Told with humor and heart Mad Mabel weaves together the past and the present as it explores the power of justice and redemption. 

 Sally Hepworth is a New York Times bestselling author of nine novels.  She lives in Melbourne Australia with her family. 

More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen (July) 

High school English teacher Polly Goodman can talk about everything and anything with her book club. Indeed, these women are some of her closest friends and biggest supporters. So when they give her an ancestory kit and the results are unexpected, Polly learns that friendship can change your life in the most profound ways. More Than Enough explores how we find ourselves and how relationships help define us. 

Anna Quindlen is an American author, journalist and opinion columnist. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner who began her journalism career in 1974. Her semi-autobiographical novel One True Thing  was the basis for a 1998 movie starring Meryl Streep and Reńee Zellweger. 

Daughters of the Stone by Dahlma Llanos- Figueroa  (August) 

In the mid-1800, Fela was taken from Africa to work on a colonial sugar plantation in Puerto Rico. With her comes the secret that before being taken from her family and sold into slavery, she and her husband had performed a tribal ceremony pouring the essence of their unborn child into a stone. Fela keeps the stone with her waiting to finish what she started. Seeing an opportunity for a better life for her child, Rela allows the plantation owner to act on his desire for her. Thus begins a line of daughters connected by intense love and the stories of a loss land. The stone becomes meaningful to each woman in the line pulling them through times of crisis and connecting them to one another. Daughters of the Stone tells an inspirational story of mothers and daughter and how they hurt and save one another. 

Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. A product of the Puerto Ricon communities of that city her writings draw from her life experience of where she grew up First published in 2009, Daughters in the Stone has won a number of awards. Llanos-Figueroa’s works have appeared in various literary magazines. Since retiring as a librarian, she dedicates herself to writing, speaking engagements and leading workshops. She lives in the Bronx with her husband. 

The Summer Before Dark by Doris Lessing (September ) 

After her four children leave home Kate Brown searches for freedom in a summer of adventure. Engaging in an affair with a younger man, Kat travels aboard and meets an extraordinary young woman who encourages Kate’s own liberation. However, this new life brings a strange unhappiness as a darker journey begins.  The Summer Before Dark takes us on a journey of self-discovery. 

Doris Lessing was born into a colonial British family. Her faither was injured in WWI and her mother served as a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of wealth the family moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). She moved to Salisbury in 1937 and was member of the Communist Party until she  became disillusioned in 1954. In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain’s most important literary awards. She also wone the David Cohen British Literature Prize. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

Our Sister’s Keeper by Jasmine Holmes (October) 

In 1927 East Cobb, Mississippi is an wealthy town that seems almost perfect. Unless one considers the ghoulish walking nightmares that only the women can see. Our Sister’s Keeper is a Southern gothic psychological horror storty that explores Black sisterhood, rage and resistance. 

Jasmine Holmes is an American author who has written for The Gospel Coalition, Dear God, Christianity Today and contributed to Identity Theft: Reclaiming the Truth of Our Identity in Christ and His Testimonies.  She teaches humanities in a Christian school in Jackson, MI. She is married with two sons and is a member of Redeemer Church. PCA. 

Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu  (November) 

Elizabeth Zhang has her future planned, that is until she is rejected by Harvard Law School. Believing the rejection means she is just another boring Asian female, Elizabeth’s life and dreams fall apart. So she sets out to find out why her classmate from Columbia is accepted while she was rejected. Boring Asian Female examines societal expectation, self-inflicted pressure and unlocks the darkest parts of human nature as it examines how far a person will go to achieve their vision of success. 

Xu was born in Nanjing, Chia and moved to the United States at the age of two where she grew up in North Dakota. She is a graduate of Columbia University with a degree in political science and computer science.  Her articles have appeared in outlets like the Washington Post and The Kansas City Star. She has over 3.7 million views of her TED talk Boring Asian Female is her first novel. 

Behind You is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj (December)

This debut novel gives voice to the diverse Palestinian American community in Baltimore as it explores the fares and struggles of three main families – the Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars. Behind You is the Sea confronts stereotypes about Palestinian culture as it considers the rich social fabric of weddings, funerals, broken hearts and devastating secrets. 

Susan Muaddi Darraj is an award winning author and 2016 USA Ford Fellow. She previousl published a children’s chapter book series FARAH ROCKS in 2020.  She is a Philadelphia native who currently lives in Baltimore.