Our True Reads Book Club gathered last night to discuss How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee, which we had the pleasure of launching in store last year! 

The previous month, we'd read Michelle Obama's Becoming, and leading up to this gathering there was some speculation on social media about a Chee-Obama match up.... 

The attendees of the club were enthralled by Chee's active use of language, and the poignancy of this book. Loss, belonging, race, inheritance, privilege, writing, the AIDS crisis are written about with subtlety and grace.  'The Rosary' and 'Inheritance' were favorite essays.  

Notes and favourite quotes were shared.

"Most gardens are palimpsests of previous gardens, and the first spring usually has surprises, but it is already clear someone before me planted mint--a newbie mistake, my neighbor points out, as mint spreads rapidly, chocking out everything with long , fragrant rhizome ropes just under the surface of the dirt."  

Next up, on August 19th, we'll be discussing Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer!