‘Indy’ Book Club

October

Book of the Month: The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin

Publisher’s Synopsis: This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Libby, or read the ebook on Libby.

October Book Discussion: Wednesday, October 26, 6pm, on Zoom. Register for the virtual discussion here.

November

Book of the Month: The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Publisher’s Synopsis: A classic science fiction novel by one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man’s dreams control the fate of humanity.

In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George’s dreams for his own purposes.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Hoopla, or read the ebook on Libby or Hoopla.

November Book Discussion: Wednesday, November 30, 6pm, on Zoom. Register for the virtual discussion here.

December

Book of the Month: This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El Mohtar & Max Gladstone

Publisher’s Synopsis: Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Libby, or read the ebook on Libby.

December Book Discussion: Wednesday, December 21, 6pm, on Zoom. Register for the virtual discussion here.

January

Book of the Month: Disability Visibility, edited by Alice Wong

Publisher’s Synopsis: One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Libby, or read the ebook on Libby.

January Book Discussion: Wednesday, January 26, 6pm, Location: On Zoom – Join Here

February

Book of the Month: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, by Roxane Gay

Publisher’s Synopsis: In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Hoopla or Libby, or read the ebook on Hoopla or Libby.

February Book Discussion: Wednesday, February 23, 6pm, Location: On Zoom – Register Here

Roxane with One N: Roxane Gay comes to UCSB Arts & Lectures – Friday, February 25 @ 7:30pm | Granada Theater | Get Your Tickets

March

Book of the Month: Vincent & Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers, by Deborah Heiligman

Publisher’s Synopsis: The deep and enduring friendship between Vincent and Theo Van Gogh shaped both brothers’ lives. Confidant, champion, sympathizer, friend, Theo supported Vincent as he struggled to find his path in life. They shared everything, swapping stories of lovers and friends, successes and disappointments, dreams and ambitions. Meticulously researched, drawing on the 658 letters Vincent wrote to Theo during his lifetime, Deborah Heiligman weaves a tale of two lives intertwined and the love of the Van Gogh brothers.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Hoopla, or read the ebook on Libby.

March Book Discussion: Wednesday, March 30, 6pm, Location: Municipal Winemakers, 22 Anacapa St.

April

Book of the Month: The Topeka School, by Ben Lerner

Publisher’s Synopsis: Adam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of 1997. His mother, Jane, is a famous feminist author; his father, Jonathan, is an expert at getting “lost boys” to open up. They both work at the Foundation, a well-known psychiatric clinic that has attracted staff and patients from around the world. Adam is also one of the seniors who brings the loner Darren Eberheart–who is, unbeknownst to Adam, his father’s patient–into the social scene, with disastrous effects.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Hoopla or Libby, or read the ebook on Libby.

May

Book of the Month: Signs Preceding the End of the World, by Yuri Herrera

Publisher’s Synopsis: Signs Preceding the End of the World is one of the most arresting novels to be published in Spanish in the last ten years. Yuri Herrera does not simply write about the border between Mexico and the United States and those who cross it. He explores the crossings and translations people make in their minds and language as they move from one country to another, especially when there’s no going back.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, or read the ebook on Libby.

June

Book of the Month: Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi

Publisher’s Synopsis: Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief–a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi’s phenomenal debut.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Libby, or read the ebook on Libby.

July

Book of the Month: The Test, by Sylvain Neuvel

Publisher’s Synopsis: Britain, the not-too-distant future.
Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test.
He wants his family to belong.

Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress.

When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death.
How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice?

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library or listen to the audiobook on Libby or Hoopla.

August

Book of the Month: When No One is Watching, by Alyssa Cole

Publisher’s Synopsis: Sydney Green is Brooklyn born and raised, but her beloved neighborhood seems to change every time she blinks. Condos are sprouting like weeds, FOR SALE signs are popping up overnight, and the neighbors she’s known all her life are disappearing. To hold onto her community’s past and present, Sydney channels her frustration into a walking tour and finds an unlikely and unwanted assistant in one of the new arrivals to the block—her neighbor Theo.

But Sydney and Theo’s deep dive into history quickly becomes a dizzying descent into paranoia and fear. Their neighbors may not have moved to the suburbs after all, and the push to revitalize the community may be more deadly than advertised.

When does coincidence become conspiracy? Where do people go when gentrification pushes them out? Can Sydney and Theo trust each other—or themselves—long enough to find out before they too disappear?

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, the ebook from Libby, or listen to the audiobook on Libby or Hoopla.

August Book Discussion: Wednesday, August 31 @ 6pm, On Zoom. Register for the virtual zoom discussion here.

September

Book of the Month: Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead

Publisher’s Synopsis: Harlem Shuffle’s ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It’s a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.

Get Your Copy: Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Libby, or read the ebook on Libby.

September Book Discussion: Wednesday, September 28, 6pm, On Zoom. Register for the virtual discussion here.

December: Romance

Our book of the month is Secrets and Lies by Selena Montgomery. Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Hoopla, or read the ebook on Hoopla.

December Book Discussion: Wednesday, December 22, 6pm, Location: Municipal Winemakers, 22 Anacapa St.

Further Reading Suggestions:

Any Duchess Will Do, by Tessa Dare
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Hoopla, and ebook from Hoopla and Libby.

Float Plan, by Trish Doller
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library and audiobook from Hoopla.

Mangos and Mistletoe, by Adriana Herrera
Available as an ebook from Libby.

A Promise of Fire, by Amanda Bouchet
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Hoopla, and ebook from Hoopla and Libby.

The Upside of Unrequited, by Beck Albertalli
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Hoopla, and ebook from Hoopla and Libby.

Bingo Love, by Tee Franklin
Available as an ebook from Hoopla.

November: Books Written by Indigenous Authors

Our book of the month is An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo. Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Hoopla or Libby, or read the ebook on Libby.

November Book Discussion: Wednesday, December 1, 6pm, Location: Municipal Winemakers, 22 Anacapa St.

Further Reading Suggestions:

Moon of the Crusted Snow, by Waubgeshig Rice
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Hoopla, and ebook from Hoopla and Libby.

Terra Nullius, by Claire G. Coleman
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library and ebook from Hoopla.

Elatsoe, by Darcie Little Badger
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Hoopla, and ebook from Libby.

Too Much Lip, by Melissa Lucashenko
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library.

October: Horror

Our book of the month is Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. Read SBPL Librarian Molly Wetta’s review for the book. Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Libby, or read the ebook on Libby.

October Book Discussion: Wednesday, November 3, 6pm, Location: Municipal Winemakers, 22 Anacapa St.

Further Reading Suggestions:

172 Hours on the Moon, by Johan Harstad
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library and audiobook from Hoopla.

The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Libby, and ebook from Libby.

Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Libby, and ebook from Libby.

Dread Nation, by Justina Ireland
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Hoopla or Libby, and ebook from Hoopla or Libby.

September: Books Written by Latinx Authors

Our book of the month is Dominicana by Angie Cruz. Read Caitlin Fitch’s review for the book. Borrow a physical copy from the Santa Barbara Public Library, listen to the audiobook on Hoopla or Libby, or read the ebook on Libby.

September Book Discussion: Wednesday, October 6, 6pm, on the patio @ Municipal Winemakers, 22 Anacapa St.

Further Reading Suggestions:

Signs Preceding the End of the World, by Yuri Herrara
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library and ebook from Libby.

Fruit of the Drunken Tree, by Ingrid Rojas Contraras
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Libby, and ebook from Libby.

Cemetery Boys, by Aiden Thomas
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Libby, and ebook from Libby.

Furia, by Yamile Saied Méndez
Available in print from the Santa Barbara Public Library, audiobook from Hoopla or Libby, and ebook from Hoopla or Libby.