Club Announcements

Your Wish Is My Command by Deena Mohamed

Hello chill people!

Are you ready for possibly the longest book on your shelf this year? One that might take some time reading? Maybe the whole summer? Maybe the whole life? Maybe even EIGHT LIVES???

Anyway, get ready for the journey that The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili has prepared for us. It goes through Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Georgia, allowing us to follow the lives of Jashi family, who owe their success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified: this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste...

Some say this book compares to War & Peace that meets The House of the Spirits. Kudos for those who read in original German! For those who don't -- don't worry, this book won a bunch of Translation awards thanks to the work of Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin, so it flows smoothly through the entierty of 944 pages.

Don't forget to tell us when you're finished so that we can organise a nice meeting by the end of summer in a Georgian restaurant, where you will finally s̶e̶e̶ g̶o̶d̶ taste Khinkali and Khachapuri...

Hope you enjoy it!

Anna 🕊️

P.S. Sorry for the banter I don't know what's to write my brain is filled with formulas for my exams next week.

Your Wish Is My Command by Deena Mohamed

Hello chill people!

I know our recent poll resulted in a tie, but with warm season coming around, I've decided that in May we will be traveling to busy life of Cairo, Egypt. There, the magical world of Shubeik Lubeik or Your Wish is My Command takes place.

Filled with brilliant illustrations, this lengthy graphic novel by Deena Mohamed explores themes of magic, faith, grief and urban life. This is her debut as an author, and translation from Arabic was done by herself.

It's a first time reading graphic novel for us, but I'm a big fan of comics and graphic novels, so hopefully you will not be disappointed in this format! Reviews praise it for it's artwork, saying that it "bursts with energy throughout: monochrome images of incarceration rub up against bright street corners".

Let's rub that magic lamp and make our wishes come true! Happy reading!

P.S. If you wish you to read the second book The Years by Annie Ernaux, and discuss it in our next meeting, it's totally possible, but the main one will be this one!

P.S.S. I think I will be reading it in digital, but FYI there's one post on Vinted selling the copy of the book, I can send the link if you want

xxx Anna

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Hello chill people!

Is your secret dream to ditch your current career and go to space without anyone knowing? I know mine is... Have you ever wondered how small and unimportant our human lives are from up there? In the grand scheme of things, 80-ish years of our lives is nothing next to 4.6 billion years of our solar system, or 13B years of Milky Way, let alone other galaxies...

Anyway, with our April book -- Orbital by Samanta Harvey -- we will continue our space odyssey and end up on ISS with group as diverse as ours: russians, british, italian, american, japanese... does being in space make them any different?

Winner of 2024 Booker, this book is praised for elegantly discussing the fragility of human life, being a meditative experience, touching on topics from climate change to meaning of life...

Welcome aboard!

xxx Anna

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Hello chill people,

This time the choice was tough – and I get it – many good adaptations out there. Since we ended up in a tie, I decided that Project Hail Mary will be bit more positive and fun, and also it had slightly better reviews on goodreads. And of course it will be super fun to compare it our April pick !

Here's the premise if you haven't seen it yet: Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory slowly returns, he soon discovers he must solve the riddle behind a mysterious substance that's causing the sun to die out. As details of the mission unravel, he calls on his scientific training and sheer ingenuity -- but he may not have to do it alone.

It promises to be a hell of an adventure! The movie comes out March 18th in France, and we may even make a pre-bookclub meeting cinema outing to see how well the fiction was translated onto the big screen (and to see how good looking Ryan Gosling is ) and munch on some popcorn

Happy reading and see you very soon! 🚀

Our Lady Of The Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga

Hello chill people,

This February, we're going on a trip to the Land of a Thousand Hills -- Rwanda 🇷🇼 !

Continuing on with the tone that our January book had set up, Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, brings the light to the consequences of the colonialism, addressing the topics of race, culture, gender.

Fifteen years prior to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, we are immersed in a school for young girls, called "Notre-Dame du Nil". We watch as these girls try on their parents’ preconceptions and attitudes, transforming the lycée into a microcosm of the country’s mounting racial tensions and violence.

In the midst of the interminable rainy season, everything unfolds behind the closed doors of the school: friendship, curiosity, fear, deceit, prejudice, and persecution. With masterful prose that is at once subtle and penetrating, Mukasonga captures a society hurtling towards horror.

Originally published in French and translated to English by Melanie Mauthner, the book won the 2014 French Voices Award, the Renaudot Prize, the Ahamadou Kourouma Award, and was shortlisted for the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award. In 2019, Our Lady of The Nile was adapted into a film by Atiq Rahimi.

The film won the “Crystal Bear” at Berlinale 2020 and was part of the Official Selection for TIFF 2019.

Let's get ready to travel six thousands kilometres south and discover new culture!

🖤Anna🕊️

Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius

Hello chill people,

I have one word for you: Stolen.

What do you know about Sámi people, indigenous people, living Sweden and Finland? This year's January pick is going to reveal us the realities of this minority, their traditions and heritage, their struggles and the overall impact of colonisation on people.

Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius (translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles) is a forceful story of a young Sámi woman battling to preserve the lifestyle and traditions of reindeer herders in Sweden amid a wave of torture and massacre of the animals on whose livelihood they depend.

Get ready for this emotional, realistic, wintery ride 🦌❄️ 🇸🇪

Hello chill people! 2025 comes to its end - it wasn't perfect, but it was fun nonetheless. We had our first meeting as a bookclub back in February, and since then, new faces have joined us in our reading journey. My hope for next year is that our bookclub will continue to grow...

Of course, still being a comforting place for all members, safe to discuss everything from politics to childhood memories. I hope that next year will bring a lot of nice reads and great discussions.

I have made the schedule for 2026 with some of your suggestions. There will be no pre-chosen books this time - full democracy, at last! So, please do be active in your book suggestions and voting!

Have a lovely New Years celebration and hope to see you all very soon! 🕊️💞🫶📚

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez

Ho-ho-ho chill people! According to our poll, the dark nights of Parisian winter can only be saved by an even more dark and haunting book!

This book explores all sorts of things, from life and death to black magic, superstitions, lost loves and regrets, but there is also friendship, compassion, and humor.

For December, I suggest we read all the 12 stories for each day (starting from 1st and ending with 12th, or from 19th to 31st - you decide). Of course, if you prefer to read it all in one sitting, that's fine too!

This counts to our global literature challenge as a book from Argentina. Read it in original Spanish (Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego) or in the National Book Award-winning translation by Megan McDowell!

All the love and have a merry festive season! 🎅🕊️❤️‍🔥

Ho-ho-ho chill people!

Festive season is just around the corner, and so, in order to get ready in time, we open our suggestion box for advent short-story collection and the deciding poll a bit sooner this month.

The rules for our December pick: we need to find a book, a short story collection, with some amount of short stories that we will read every single day of December, like an advent calendar.

Of course rules are bendy, if you want to read it all in one, you can! I suppose it will be hard finding a collection of exactly 24 short stories, but I suppose anything between 5 and 15 is alright!

It doesn't have to be winter- or Christmas - themed, but it's cool if it is! Can't wait to see your suggestions! ☃️ 🎁 🎄 📚

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Hello chill people! The last poll resulted in a tie, and my vote was deciding - so our next book will be Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (it had better reviews)!

So, get ready for another tea shop (you know I love a tea shop), a good pinch of humour and, of course, solving mystery!

Vera is routine-oriented, meticulous, and full of judgments about the younger generation. She owns a tea shop and spends her days sleuthing—that is, until she stumbles upon a dead body in her tea shop one morning.

Hope everyone enjoys this cosy read! 🫖👵📚🔍

Boo! dear chill people,

We are now in the midst of spooky, chilly, mysterious season. And we have to have a proper suiting book on us.

heck out my suggestions for a book pick, and please do suggest other books in "Books we want to read" section. We will choose it very soon!

Of course rules are bendy, if you want to read it all in one, you can! I suppose it will be hard finding a collection of exactly 24 short stories, but I suppose anything between 5 and 15 is alright!

Still Born by Guadeloupe Nettel

Hello chill people,

Breaking our stillness and semi-inactivity with a blast - our September pick for Trip to Latin America is STILL BORN by a Mexican author Guadeloupe Nettel . Shortlisted for International Booker, this book is "a moving, nuanced exploration of motherhood and the complexity of the maternal instinct. Guadalupe Nettel’s fourth novel, it tells the story of two close friends, Laura and Alina, who are united in their belief that parenthood is to be avoided and that there is no worse fate than to become one of the hordes of ‘zombie-like mothers’ they see around them."

Props to those who would like to read it in original - Spanish; also if anyone is joining our read the world challenge, you could count it for Mexico 🇲🇽 yay! (I'm not biased, promise)

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Hello chill people!

This hot nonfiction summer we will be reading and discussing Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. It's an intimate memoir in which the indie singer explores her relationship with her mother, her Korean American heritage, her emotional connection with food, and forging her own identity in the aftermath of immense loss.

Can't wait to eat Korean food with you during our discussion of this one! 😋

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Hello, chill people!

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

Happy reading and check, mate! ♟️ ♥️

The Psalm of the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

🌷🌸 Spring! What a time to just exist! It is time for reflection, growth, enjoying the nature and tastes that spring brings.

Tag along with us to read The Psalm of the Wild-Built—first book in her delightful Monk and Robot series, that will give you much hope for the future.

So, let us have some tea, go outside, bring this book and marvel at the world around us. 🌅 🥰

Brotherless Night by Akwaeke Emezi

🥰 Hello, chill people! 📚

It's March, and in March we are celebrating women -- the strong, the wonderful, the full of life and love and tragedy.

Brotherless Night is a ''heartrending portrait of one woman's moral journey and a testament to both the enduring impact of war and the bonds of home'', set during the early years of Sri Lanka's three-decade civil war. This book is 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction winner!

Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war tears through her hometown of Jaffna, her dream takes her on a different path. Hope you enjoy the read and we will have a lot to discuss! 🕊️

Hello, chill club!

March is a-coming! And as you know March is an International Women's Month.

One of the most prestigious prizes for English-language fiction is of course "Women's Prize for Fiction", and for this reason I suggest that this month we read one of its winners or short-listed books.

In 2025 the prize celebrates it's 30th anniversary, so let's join them in this occasion by reading and discussing the striking creativity of these women! You can suggest to our "Books we want to read" until 1st of March 🤩 The list of winners is down below, to give you some ideas, but if nothing catches your eye, you can suggest one of the short-listed books on their website

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Hello chill people!

This month we'll be reading a best-selling novel full of love, games and 90s references! The novel follows the relationship between two friends who begin a successful video game company together. It's a unique exploration of friendship, love, loss and self-discovery.

It was a big hit in 2022, even acclaimed by Bill Gates! Happy reading! 📖 🥰