New Brunswick Women’s (30’s-Early 40’s) Book Social

We'll be reading Yellowface by R.F. Kuang Note the updated book list and schedule below. First quarter 2025 book club dates and picks will be coming in November.

Here's a summary of the book: White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

December 16th: Christmas Presents, Lisa Unger

Back by popular demand, let's end the year with a pile of new books. As voracious readers many of us have accumulated piles of books. Let's take this opportunity to do a book swap.

Bring any books that you're looking to get rid of and swap with some of your fellow book club buds.

Hey Everyone!

Hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner, but I thought to celebrate, we could all grab drinks at Catherine Lombardi- Miracle on George Street.

Miracle is a Christmas-themed pop-up cocktail bar that serves holiday cocktails in a festive setting. It has kitschy holiday décor and professionally developed cocktails- all Christmas-themed, of course!

Hope you all can make it! It will be great to celebrate the holiday season with all of you :)

We'll be reading Christmas Presents by List Unger. As requested, this is a holiday themed thriller! We will be doing our annual white elephant bookswap at this meeting! Bring a wrapped copy of a book that you've enjoyed this year (used is great!) and we'll do a fun holiday swap. Please wear your holiday finest if you feel so inclined!

Here's a summary of the book:
When true crime podcaster Harley Granger drifts into Madeline Martin's bookshop days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up a past that Madeline would much rather forget.

Granger's work has earned him fame and wealth - and some serious criticism for his various unethical practices. Granger also has a lot of questions about the night Madeline was left for dead, the only surviving victim of killer Evan Handy.

Handy, who also murdered Madeline's best friend and is suspected in the disappearance of two local sisters, has been in jail for a decade. Since then, though, three other young women have gone missing in similar circumstances. Is the true predator still out there somewhere?

As Christmas approaches and a blizzard bears down, Madeline must confront the past to answer questions that have haunted her since that day. Is the truth more terrible than she ever imagined?