The MGSW Book Club Returns: Community Style
Hello friends!
As I prepare for a long-awaited winter hibernation in Crestone, I’m looking forward to bringing back some of the community interaction and activity that I had going on in the pre-Substack era.
Traveling over the past year has been amazing, but moving around so much made it virtually impossible for me to maintain the same level of connectivity and output as I had in the previous couple of years.
Truth be told, I’ve really missed you guys, and I’m excited to finally have the time and energy to devote to renewing and rebuilding some of our community activities and gatherings.
So without further ado, I’m here to announce that the book club is back!
Here are all the details…
Five months, five books.
This particular iteration of the book club will be seasonal. From November through March, we will read one book per month, for a total of five books.
Introducing co-hosts!
Since I’ve always considered MGSW to be a community project, I figured the book club should be no different! For four out of the five months, I will be joined by co-hosts who will be selecting books and helping me lead the group Zoom discussion. Three of the co-hosts are close friends of mine/previous podcast guests, and the fourth co-host will be a listener! (More info on that below).
More engagement.
In addition to our monthly Zoom calls, I will also be creating a WhatsApp group chat so that we can discuss the books along the way! Feel free to stay in the group for the full five months, or hop in and out depending on which books you decide to read with us.
Here is the schedule:
November
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Hosted by Anya
December
Die Wise by Stephen Jenkinson
Co-hosted by Maren Morgan
January
Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur
Co-hosted by Erin Ginder-Shaw
February
Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
Co-hosted by Angie Hershberger
March
The Dawning Moon of the Mind by Susan Brind Morrow
Co-Hosted by Jenny Kellogg
How to participate:
You are welcome to join us for some or all of these books, and you can participate in whatever way is easiest for you.
However, regardless of how you’d like to participate, the only way to get access to updates, Zoom links and WhatsApp details is to sign up for the official MGSW book club Substack newsletter, which is separate from what you’re currently signed up for. Here is how to do that…
If you’re currently reading this in your email browser, please click here to be taken to the web version. If you’re already reading the web version, you’re all set to continue…
In the top righthand corner of your screen, you should see the following icon:
Click on it, and then scroll down until you see “Manage Subscription” in the dropdown menu. Click on that.
Once you’ve done that, you will see several things related to your subscription, including the following:
In order to participate in the book club, and get access to the WhatsApp group and Zoom links, you need to click the box next to “Book Club”.
Once you’ve done that, you’re all set!
I've been halfway thru Tinker Creek for two months...I'm excited to have the motivation to focus and complete it
Yayyyy! looks awesome!
Since I was mentioning fiction in the discord previously, I have a few ideas. I was thinking either a Chuck Palahniuk book or a Tim O'brien book (Going After Cacciato, or The Things They Carried). They both have really interesting writing styles but Chuck is a little more explicit haha I can't decide which book we would like better. The first one that comes to mind is Beautiful You. The Tim O'brien books are loosely "war books" about the Vietnam war but he writes in such a way that you're not totally sure which parts are made up and yet it still feels so human and relatable. Both goods choices but I might be leaning towards Going After Cacciato.
I'm not sure what exactly is required to co-host, but I thought I'd put these ideas out there :)