August Book Club
We are so happy to announce our August Book Club choices, themed around August 26 being Woman’s Equality Day.
See below for this month’s book club picks.
Fiction pick: Circe by Madeline Miller
Length: ~ 393 pages
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.
Non-fiction pick: The Furies: Women, Vengenance, and Justice by Elizabeth Flock
Length: ~ 304 pages
These three immersive narratives follow Brittany Smith, a young woman from Stevenson, Alabama, who killed a man she said raped her but was denied the protection of the Stand-Your-Ground law; Angoori Dahariya, leader of a gang in Uttar Pradesh, India, dedicated to avenging victims of domestic abuse; and Cicek Mustafa Zibo, a fighter in a thousands-strong all-female militia that battled ISIS in Syria.
Each woman chose to use lethal force to gain power, safety, and freedom when the institutions meant to protect them— government, police, courts—utterly failed to do so. Each woman has been criticized for their actions by those who believe that violence is never the answer. Through Flock's propulsive prose and remarkable research on the ground-embedded with families, communities, and organizations in America, India, and Syria-The Furies examines, with exquisite nuance, whether the fight tor women's safety is fully possible without force.