QWord book group: "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies" (organised by QStory)

Our prompt for November is “a collection of short stories" and we've chosen “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” by Deesha Philyaw.

As we’re nearing the end of another year, we’ve been considering how best to choose our monthly reads for 2025. A couple of options are to keep a list of book suggestions from members and then choose one randomly each month, to stick with monthly prompts but have these be broader and ask everyone to contribute a book suggestion that fits each prompt, or to do a mix of these. We will discuss and decide which option we want to go with at this meetup.

About this month's book:

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who nurses a crush on the preacher's wife; the mother who bakes a sublime peach cobbler every Monday for her date with the married Pastor; and Eula and Caroletta, single childhood friends who seek solace in each other's arms every New Year's Eve. With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.

About QWord:

QWord is a book group for local LGBTQIA people, run by QStory Northampton. We read and discuss literature with queer themes and/or written by LGBTQIA authors. The group was originally founded in 2011 and came under the QStory umbrella in 2021. We meet monthly and read a wide range of books, including novels, short stories, graphic novels and poetry, chosen by our members. New members are always welcome and you don’t need to be an experienced literary critic to come along!

You can sign up to get email reminders about QWord meetings as well as other QStory groups at the following link. Choose which emails you want to received and unsubscribe at any time: https://wordpress.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d354a1ff1dac1cc953f8e8354&id=3770c4a5a8&fbclid=IwAR1ISC6NokzmujFkrQpJgFRwGGV-po8-6lL4a3uigoPn9aiSEl3-6g0L6ek