Reading with the Lot: Three Favorites from Lot Sixteen’s Book Club
We're not quite at Oprah and Reese Witherspoon's level for book club, but that doesn't mean the Lot crew doesn't love a good read. As a firm we started a book club as a way to share some of our most-beloved stories, find new authors and learn things we didn't know. Here's three of our favorites.
Crying in H-Mart is a 2021 memoir by Michelle Zauner, singer and guitarist of Japanese Breakfast (another Lot favorite, what can’t she do!). After losing her mom to pancreatic cancer, Zauner wrote an essay “Real Life: Love, Loss and Kimchi” that was published in The New Yorker. Crying in H-Mart was written as an expansion of that essay. Our readers can confirm you will not finish this book with dry eyes. It left us reflecting on our own parent-child relationships and the core memories that are brought out when referencing or making our families’ favorite dishes.
Detransition Baby is a 2021 novel by writer Torrey Peters, and one of the first novels written by a trans person to be published by a big-five publishing house. The story is centered on three individuals: Reese, a trans woman; Katrina, a cisgender woman; and Ames, a man who has detransitioned. The three of them end up together to form an unlikely and unconventional family unit. The story – separated into sections that move in time from years before to tell the history of Reese and Ames’ relationship to the current day – explores the shifting dynamics of gender, relationships and family as played out in the characters’ exploration of trans femininity. Our readers chose this book for its Pride month selection. We recommend it for one of your next reads if you are looking for a complicated story that will lead to an interesting discussion.
Between the World and Me is a 2015 nonfiction book by writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. The novel is written by Coates as a letter to his teenage son about what it means and how it feels to be Black in the United States. Coates uses his own lived experience coupled with American history to equip his son to navigate life to come. He chillingly reminds us that Black Americans experience bigotry and tragedy at the hands of racism everywhere – no matter the zip code, tax bracket or education status. It’s a story you can’t forget, and nor should you.
Up next in September is Solito. We’re looking forward to diving into the discussion as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. And if you have any recommendations for us, our DMs are always open!
