Don't Read After Midnight Book Group
Featured Book
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
Contains short stories about the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.
This book will be available for purchase at the event.
About This Event
Our purpose is simple; we’re folks reaching beyond the veil in search of spine-tingling tales. Whether you are new to the genres of horror and thriller, or a devoted consumer of it all, this group just might be for you.
In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.A wife refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses. One woman’s surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella “Especially Heinous,” Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgängers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes .Earthy and otherworldly, antic and sexy, queer and caustic, comic and deadly serious, Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment. In their explosive originality, these stories enlarge the possibilities of contemporary fiction.
About the Venue
Aaron's Books
Founded in 2005, Aaron’s Books is a fiercely independent bookstore, offering new and used books for all ages and interests. As with every good independent bookstore, the store’s focus is on community involvement – providing goods and services that enhance the quality of life in Lititz and throughout Lancaster County. Visit us in person at 35 E. Main Street, Lititz PA!
Visit store pageMore at Aaron's Books
Fic Pick Book Group
A monthly discussion of buzzworthy new fiction. Selections are announced as they're published! Led by Alexis From the author of the multi-award-winning, National Book Award–longlisted, “vivid, fast, funny, way-smart, and verbally inventive” (George Saunders) story collection Heads of the Colored People, comes a sly, spry, literary debut novel about the murder of an infamous moonshiner and the cacophony of true stories a small town can tell about itself. Rich Milford is dead. At last. We find ourselves in 1920’s Oklahoma, just far enough out of Tulsa, just long enough after the Race Massacre of 1921. For as long as anyone can remember, the Milfords have led plentiful lives on the backs of the townspeople of Newville. Now, on the ominous brink of the Great Depression and at the height of Prohibition, Richard Milford was an infamous moonshiner and womanizer who, it seems, finally crossed the wrong person at the wrong time. He’s dead and buried with only his women to mourn him, but a question remains: Who killed him, and why?Top suspects are his four “wives,” Lally, Sophronia, Georgette, and Vivianne. But as their stories burst to light, the very idea of a true story comes apart before our eyes. In an electric follow-up to her acclaimed debut collection, Nafissa Thompson-Spires once again serves up a brilliant distillation of front-of-mind happenings—think, cults of personality, capitalism run amok in politics, and rampant societal distrust—structured like a stupefying line dance. In her uniquely powerful, humorous manner, Thompson-Spires takes on the interdependent clash of the traditional and the newfangled in this gobsmackingly excellent novel.
Long Story Short Book Group
New releases and older favorites, all under 250 pages. For those that don't have time for longer books, but still want to be in a book club. Selections will be across all genres, so get ready to read widely (but briefly)! Led by Sam Virginia Woolf’s classic novel Orlando tells the story of a poet adrift in time; he starts out his life as a nobleman in Queen Elizabeth I’s court, and her story concludes as a thirty-six year-old woman in the present. Jules Scheele’s graphic novel adaptation of this important queer work tells the complete story of Orlando’s journey through history that examines the shifting and changing ideas of gender and sexuality, and plumbs the depths of the human heart. Taking us through love affairs, betrayals and exiles, struggles against conformity and poetry through the ages, Orlando is a fantastical adventure filled with satirical wit. A powerful and essential graphic novel adaptation of a vital British classic.
Shared Stories Book Group
Shared Stories - a Book Club for Middle Grade Readers and their Grown-Ups Whether you like to read side by side, listen to audiobooks together, or pass your books back and forth between you, this club is a space to come together and share the experience, and the joy of reading together! Each month, we’ll pick a book from our Middle Grade section. These will be stories that are kid-friendly but rich enough to spark great conversations for all ages. We’ll keep the mix fresh by including fantasy, mystery, realistic fiction, classics, even graphic novels. After both the kids and the grown-ups have had a chance to finish reading the book, we’ll gather at Aaron’s Books to talk about what we read, enjoy some snacks, and perhaps participate in a hands-on activity inspired by the book. All kids must be accompanied by a responsible adult who read the book. All adults must be accompanied by a child who read the book. (Sorry, no solo adults or unaccompanied minors.)What to Expect: -Relaxed, bookstore-vibe discussions (not too academic) -Light snacks and drinks Occasional creative or themed activities -A welcoming community of intergenerational readers Reading and Discussing - A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi What might happen when an overlooked orphan feels the sudden urge to put down roots? This tender coming-of-age story about friendship, family, and new beginnings is a reimagining of the classic The Secret Garden. Perfect for fans of Other Words for Home and The Bridge Home. For as long as she can remember, Maria Latif has been bounced between reluctant relatives. And it never takes long for her guardians to tire of her. So when old friends of her parents offer to “give her a better life” in the United States, Maria is shipped to a host family across the world. Her new home is full of surprises. Perhaps the biggest is the almost-hidden gate to an off-limits garden. Since she’s never been good at following rules, Maria decides to investigate and discovers something she never thought she’d find: a place where she belongs. Told in rich prose interspersed with evocative free verse poetry, this tender yet incisive reimagining of The Secret Garden will captivate fans of the classic—and widen the appeal for a modern audience. For fans of Karina Yan Glaser, Laura Amy Schlitz, and Chanel Miller.