Everything Old is New Again.
Are you overwhelmed by the pressure to keep up with the continuous barrage of new book releases? Are you interested in reading beyond the margins of today’s contemporary literary discourse? Do you want to inject a bit of surprise and intrigue into your reading life? Our club is centered around books that have been largely forgotten, the reissued classics and rare finds that have slipped from the mainstream and are waiting to be discovered by a new set of readers.
This month we'll discuss Ursula Parrott's formerly anonymously published novel, Ex-Wife, a story of a divorce and its aftermath that scandalized the Jazz Age.
Shared histories, shared futures.
Hey, you look like someone who's attempting to build community and discover a shared history with your LGBTQIA+ peers. Why don't you pull up a chair? Join us at City Point for our monthly reading of a gay non-fiction offering. No quizzes, no grades; anyone and everyone can participate however they please. I'll be here and queer if you need me!
This month we'll discuss Dorothy Allison's profound portrait of family dynamics in the rural South, Bastard Out of Carolina.
Three chords + the truth.
If you grew up with your walls plastered in posters of your favorite bands, scribbled lyrics all over your notebooks, and carried around a clunky CD player, we're guessing the next time your favorite band rolls into town, you may have a growing concern about the arch support your Vans will give and whether you’ll be home by 11pm. Well, dust off those Vans and join our book club featuring music-centric pieces spanning rock n roll, punk rock, and alternative movements. Don’t mistake us for another forgotten band from 2008, instead The TBR Stacks is actually just AJ and Daniel joining forces to revel in the history and stories of the music we grew up with all while checking another book off the to be read list.
This month we'll discuss Patti Smith's National Book Award-winning, quirky and spellbounding memoir, Just Kids.
On the first Monday of every month, we invite you to join our evolving conversation about literature, history, language, culture, and the intersectionality of diverse global identities and perspectives. Over the years, we've read a wide range of award-winning and emerging authors from all corners of the world. Recent selections include Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov [Ukraine], Mona by Pola Oloixarac [Argentina], and Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai [Japan].
This month we'll be discussing Yewande Omotoso's novel about the blossoming of an unexpected friendship in contemporary Capetown, The Woman Next Door.
Hunger for more.
Have you ever hungered for something more? Or maybe you’ve been told you want too much: too much power, money, food, sex. Maybe you’ve been told you are too much— too fat, thin, hungry, loud, ambitious… We’re curious about appetites. What constitutes too much—or too little; who gets denied what they want, and why. This book club aims to examine the desires of those on the fringes, and what happens when we give in to or suppress those desires. No matter how… unusual these desires may be. We will draw on texts across genres, ranging from memoir to horror to literary and short fiction. Come join us, and sate your appetite for something more.
This month we'll discuss Sarah Gailey's graphic novel, Eat the Rich SC.
with Joylynn.
The Literary Black Book Club will meet every month to discuss mostly contemporary fiction written most often by Black writers, primarily women. (We've reserved wiggle room to include a few other good books.) We'll also share a light snack and hopefully some laughs.
This month we'll discuss Charmaine Wilkerson's transportive novel, Black Cake.
Less is more.
Are you intimidated by the great (and by great, we mean looooooong) novels of Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, Ulitskaya and Tokarczuk? Novels over 500 pages may not be a crime to read, but they can, at times, feel like a punishment to finish. That’s why we're is introducing SHORT(ER) SLAVIC NOVELS, a book club dedicated to Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Belarusian, Czech, etc. novels under 300 pages. All titles will be read in English, so previous knowledge of Slavic languages is NOT required. (Uk)Rain(e) or shine, czech out our Downtown Brooklyn location every month for classic and contemporary Slavic fiction. За встречу!
This month we'll discuss Vladimir Sorokin's philosophical and absurdly violent, Their Four Hearts. We will be joined by translator Max Lawton!
Steamy, Steamier, Steamiest.
The world's on fire but love is still...all around. HEAs and bell hooks for everyone!
This month we'll discuss Tia Williams' truly original quirky, suspenseful, and unforgettable romance, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde.
The hottest new reads.
This month we'll discuss Percival Everett's brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, James.
Decadent, Debased, Degenerate.
Are you too hardcore for the current state of American letters? The tragic truth is that most new books seem afraid to shock, experiment, offend, get weird. Is there still a place in this world for the freaky girlies? The answer is yes. Morgan and Enzo are two booksellers at McNally Jackson Seaport who delight in the decadent, the debased, and the degenerate. Now, they open their private reading circle to the last libertines in New York. This won’t be a cozy time by the fireplace. We don’t talk to Reese Witherspoon. We don’t know Oprah. This is Batshit Book Club, and baby, there will be no seatbelts.
This month we'll discuss Virginie Despentes', insane, intense revenge story, Baise Moi.
Everything Old is New Again.
Are you overwhelmed by the pressure to keep up with the continuous barrage of new book releases? Are you interested in reading beyond the margins of today’s contemporary literary discourse? Do you want to inject a bit of surprise and intrigue into your reading life? Our club is centered around books that have been largely forgotten, the reissued classics and rare finds that have slipped from the mainstream and are waiting to be discovered by a new set of readers.
This month we'll discuss Margaret Kennedy's sly, kaleidoscopic, and utterly ingenious novel, The Feast.
Domestic disarray, good for her.
Have you ever watched a woman blow up her life, and thought, good for her? This is a book club for those who seek to disrupt notions of domestic bliss - we want batshit plots, women who don't settle, and eleventh hour plot twists. We want all this packaged into a very literary 300 pages or less. This book club will explore should-be and to-be classics by literary hotties of centuries past. Leave the dirty dishes at home and come indulge with us.
This month we'll discuss Rachel Ingalls' wonderfully weird classic, Mrs. Caliban.
Shared histories, shared futures.
Hey, you look like someone who's attempting to build community and discover a shared history with your LGBTQIA+ peers. Why don't you pull up a chair? Join us at City Point for our monthly reading of a gay non-fiction offering. No quizzes, no grades; anyone and everyone can participate however they please. I'll be here and queer if you need me!
This month we'll discuss Brontez Purnell's brutal, brutally honest, and perversely addictive memoir-in-verse, Ten Bridges I've Burnt.
Three chords + the truth.
If you grew up with your walls plastered in posters of your favorite bands, scribbled lyrics all over your notebooks, and carried around a clunky CD player, we're guessing the next time your favorite band rolls into town, you may have a growing concern about the arch support your Vans will give and whether you’ll be home by 11pm. Well, dust off those Vans and join our book club featuring music-centric pieces spanning rock n roll, punk rock, and alternative movements. Don’t mistake us for another forgotten band from 2008, instead The TBR Stacks is actually just AJ and Daniel joining forces to revel in the history and stories of the music we grew up with all while checking another book off the to be read list.
This month we'll discuss Dan Ozzi's raucous history of punk, emo, and hardcore's growing pains during the commercial boom of the early 90s and the mid-aughts, Sellout.
Under-read New York writers of the 20th century.
Tired of a diluted and anonymized New York City in your books? Wish you could escape lower Manhattan/north Brooklyn continuum? Take a tour through 20th century NYC literature, poetry and nonfiction, and map out new (to you) neighborhoods and cultures, from the communists up in Harlem and out of City College during the Great Depression, to the meatheads roughhousing with one another in postwar Bay Ridge. We’ll see the city through new eyes; poets from Spain stop over, prolific writers from Austria recast the story of Job on Broome Street. If so inclined, perhaps we can hop over to Yonkers or Patterson as well. We’ll reacquaint ourselves with our city via the innumerable experiences therein!
This month we'll discuss seminal Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay's newly discovered final novel, Amiable with Big Teeth.
Diaries, Journals, and Burn Books
We will discuss audience - was this a work intended to be read? To what extent is the author performing for an imagined future readership? Is that a wink at us buried in a book from decades ago? We will discuss self-knowledge - do we trust the account as given? What are they hiding from us? Have they completely lost the plot of their life and the lives around them? And of course, we will discuss what thrills - cameos from notables? Salacious asides? That single sentence from 1935 which you still hear ringing in your ears, weeks after reading it?
This month we'll discuss Audre Lorde's genre-defying intimate accounting of coping with breast cancer and a radical mastectomy, The Cancer Journals.