Introducing the MYAM Book Club

Get in girls, we are reading The Farm by Joanne Ramos

I am so excited to tell you all that I’m launching a community book club. 

This idea has been fomenting in my mind for a while, and when The City of Literature reached out to see if I’d launch a book discussion in my newsletter in conjunction with the One Community, One Book initiative, how could I say “no”?

For those of you who don’t know, The City of Literature is the non-profit that manages the Iowa City area’s designation as a UNESCO City of Literature. I’ve been on the board for two years now, and the work we do aims to promote and encourage the love of literature. 

And in a state where book bans are state-sanctioned and rights are being eroded, this work matters. 

The first book we will be reading for the MYAM book club is The Farm by Joanne Ramos. It is a novel about race, power, class, and who is allowed the freedom to autonomy.  The book is a national bestseller and was named one of the best books of the year by media outlets like Time, Glamour, Real Simple, to name a few. The Farm was also chosen by the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights for the One Community One Book program. So we will be reading this book along with other Iowans, during a time when our reproductive rights are being taken away.

Each week, on Thursday, beginning September 7 I’ll post a discussion question about the book. This will go for five weeks, until October 5.

For those of you who live in Iowa, Joanne Ramos will be giving a keynote lecture on October 8, 2023 from 1:30-2:30pm at the Pomerantz Center at the University of Iowa. It’s free and open to the public and is part of my favorite event of the fall, The Iowa City Book Festival.

For those of you who do not live locally, the UI Center for Human Rights is offering a series of webinars, all free, and all on Zoom. These webinars are focused on examining the “relationship between human rights and reproductive justice by interrogating the complexity of factors that impact the ability to parent, gain access to care, and achieve positive health outcomes.”

Normally, Men Yell at Me newsletter discussions are for paying subscribers, but for this book club, I am going to keep the comments open for anyone who wants to participate.

To ensure that you do not miss a discussion, become a free subscriber to this newsletter! 

You are all such an intelligent and engaged group of people and I learn so much from the Monday discussion threads, that I am really excited to continue our conversations on Thursdays.

All the discussion questions will live here in this special section. If you are a subscriber and you do not wish to receive updates about the book club, simply log on to your Substack dashboard, click on “manage subscription” and you should be able to toggle the switch by the book club section.

So, go acquire your copy of The Farm and let’s talk about bodies, justice, surrogacy, race, and class! You know, all those conversation topics that you don’t really want to bring up at Thanksgiving with your weird uncles, but maybe you should.

Also, it’s my plan to take a break in October and then have the next book club launch in November where we will be reading a “classic” work of literature through the holidays. So if you can’t join us for The Farm, maybe you can join us for the next book.