The Book Club

The Book Club is an integral part of this movement... is that too grand a purpose? I certainly hope so... The Book Club is the podcast's companion and will examine books that mirror the season's topics either through the protagonist or plot. Art often aides in the digestion of challenging themes and this book club is gonna be our pepto bismal...

This Season's Selection:

This season's Book Club Selection is The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson.

From the short list of books, this one was chosen for a few reasons. Firstly, it is extremely rare to have a perimenopausal black Caribbean woman as a protagonist. Coming from the Caribbean myself, I know first hand that perimenopause / menopause is not spoken about. I found Hopkinson to be a pioneer in this respect. The use of mythology / folklore to mirror the theme of perimenopause / transformation was truly creative and unique. As a sucker for a mystery, the parallel mystery in this book was equal parts metaphorical, moving and enigmatic. This book isn't perfect, but it embraced this season's themes with all the messiness that they come with. A fitting tribute for this inaugural season!

A Summary

"What's in a name? A lot, according to 50-something-year-old Caribbean born Chastity, who has adopted the more fitting moniker Calamity. Now, true to her name, Calamity is confronting two big life transitions: Her beloved father has just died, and she is starting menopause, a physical shift that has rekindled her special gift for finding lost things. Suddenly she is getting hot flashes that seem to forge objects out of thin air. Only this time, the lost item that has washed up on the shore is not her old toy truck or her hairbrush, but a 4-year-old boy. As Calamity takes the child into her care, she discovers that all is not as it seems: the boy's family is most unusual. Then Calamity must reawaken to the mysteries surrounding her own childhood and the early disappearance of her mother."

Conversation Starters

Questions and themes to explore or look at while reading the book:

Calamity refers to her hot flashes as “Power Surges”, what are some other metaphors can be used to flip the narrative associated with this symptom
While at the mall, after being formally diagnosed as menopausal, Calamity feels invisible, do you agree that women past a certain age become invisible / irrelevant to society
“Poor Little Rich Girl’ and “Rich Little Poor Girl” are two narratives that Evelyn and Calamity ascribed to about each other, how does narrative inform Calamity and Evelyn’s perspective of each other
When Calamity begins experiencing her ‘power surges’ she regains a lost trait, ‘the ability to find things’, do you think that you can regain traits you gave up on with this new transformation?
Calamity’s transition into menopause runs parallel to the genesis of the dada-hair woman and the sea people; what thoughts or narratives can be debunked or confirmed in relation to menopause?
Eating tofu and oatmeal compresses are a couple ‘homegrown’ remedies given to Calamity to aid with her symptoms, are there other homegrown remedies that have been passed down to help?
In the fight between Hector and Calamity, whose narrative is more dangerous to perpetuate in society?
In the story of the dada-hair woman, she was turned in by another woman, how does this speak to the myth of sisterhood and feminism?
In the fight between Calamity and Ife, what role did Calamity’s self-narrative play in her treatment of Ife and her role as mother?
Calamity changed her name, Ife noted that Calamity never sought out Agway’s true name, how important is a name to your narrative?

The Runners - Up Club

List of other books considered:

* The Hot Flash Club by Nancy Thayer

*Woman of a Certain Rage by Georgie Hall

*The Change by Kirsten Miller

* My Favorite Midlife Crisis by Toby Devens

*Broken Light by Joanne Harris

Subscribe to the newsletter for book club discussion guides for The Runners-Up Club and start conversations in your neck of the woods. A different book will be featured each issue