Can't Put Us Down Book Club

Happy January! This month, we will be reading MARTYR! by Kevah Akbar.

About the group: we are a group of nonjudgmental book lovers. Please attend even if you did not finish the book as well as if you finished but did not like it.

About the space: we meet at Unscrewed Theater's training room. Follow the signs! Feel free to bring food/drink for yourself or to share.

About the fee: if you are struggling with the PayPal fee, please message me directly and we can sort it out!

Message me with any and all questions! Happy reading!

About the book (via Goodreads):

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of Tehran in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the Angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

*Please research any content warnings if you have any reading sensitivities or message me with inquiries.

Happy February!

This month, we'll be reading THE WITCHES OF EL PASO by Luis Jaramillo. If you will be attending the Tucson Festival of Books, this book and author duo will be featured so this is the perfect time to read it!

About the group: we are a group of nonjudgmental book lovers. Please attend the meeting even if you did not finish the book or did no like it.

About the space: we meet at Unscrewed Theater's training room. Follow the signs! You are welcome to bring food or drink for yourself or to share.

About the fee: due to Meetup's increased host fee, this book club is now $3 to attend. If you prefer to use cash or Venmo, please message me and we can get it sorted!

As always, please message me any comments or questions! Happy reading!

About the book (via Goodreads):

A lawyer and her elderly great-aunt use their supernatural gifts to find a lost child in this richly imagined and empowering story of motherhood, magic, and legacy in the vein of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina and La Hacienda.

If you call to the witches, they will come.

1943, El Paso, teenager Nena spends her days caring for the small children of her older sisters, while longing for a life of freedom and adventure. The premonitions and fainting spells she has endured since childhood are getting worse, and Nena worries she’ll end up like the scary old curandera down the street. Nena prays for help, and when the mysterious Sister Benedicta arrives late one night, Nena follows her across the borders of space and time. In colonial Mexico, Nena grows into her power, finding love and learning that magic always comes with a price.

In the present day, Nena’s grandniece, Marta, balances a struggling legal aid practice with motherhood and the care of the now ninety-three-year-old Nena. When Marta agrees to help search for a daughter Nena left in the past, the two forge a fierce connection. Marta’s own supernatural powers emerge, awakening her to new possibilities that threaten the life she has constructed.

*Please research content warnings if you have any reading sensitivities, or feel free to message me.