Summer book club! Who wants to read Miranda July's "All Fours" with me?
Space to read women authors in the company of other feminists. What's not to like?
I recently wrote about how women have been force fed a ridiculous amount of stories about and by men their whole lives—from religious texts to the good old white-male literary canon.
No wonder we eat up every Beyoncé album and Taylor Swift easter egg (or song by Chappell Roan, with whom I’m currently obsessed). We are DYING for women’s voices and experiences.
What came out in the comments of those pieces were tons of great recs for books by and about women and queer writers. Book recs got tossed back and forth and liked and re-liked. High-fives were exchanged.
Eventually, it was like, should we read some of these together?! What if we, a bunch of feminists, read books by and about women together??
It’s now officially summer, so let’s officially summer read together.
Welcome to the MR Reading Women Summer Book Club Pilot.
If we like it, it can keep going. Who knows what will happen? It’s like a good book.
The book is “All Fours” by Miranda July. 1 “All Fours” is this summer’s instant bestseller, a heavily autobiographical novel about an artist in her 40’s who announces to her husband that she’s leaving to drive cross-country alone from LA to New York. What follows is “an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel story about a woman upending her life,” says the Times. I’m so excited to read it.
Our first online discussion chat covering the beginning of the book will post in just over two weeks, on July 12th.
So order the book now, or request it from the library, and start reading :)
How it works:
You get the book and start reading. The first week on July 12th, I’ll send out a discussion prompt about the first 7 chapters of the book and and we can discuss online. We will do this every week for four weeks (7 chapters at a time), until the book is finished.
At the end, we will have a structured Zoom conversation together if we have enough interest.
What if I don’t keep pace with the rest of the group? That’s fine—opt in or opt out at your own pace. You can join the final discussion when you catch up if you wish.
What if I don’t finish the book? Also fine—you can just pop into the group chats if you like. No pressure. The idea is to provide a structured discussion among a group of other feminist readers to create a fun convo.
What if I already read this book? Great! Would love to get your impressions and thoughts on it (I’ll remind you not to give spoilers in the chat prompts :)
How do I join the book club? All you need to do subscribe to Matriarchy Report at any level. Then, watch for the Book Club chat to post on the the Matriarchy Substack Chat on Fridays. Then just jump in the conversation!
Note: Most of the book club chats and posts will be free to anyone, but a few will be paywalled as a bonus for paid subscribers. For the full experience, you can upgrade your subscription to paid here.
We are running a limited-time summer discount on annual subscriptions for $39 (that’s only $3.25 a month!)
Some reasons you might want to read with me, if you need them…
In my day job, I teach writing and journalism at a university where I’m on the faculty. Much of what I teach is how to read critically, and respond in an intelligent and informed way. I’ll structure our discussions the same way so that the convo is focused and enlightening and draws thoughtful responses from the group, while keeping it moving.
(This will NOT be a meandering “so what did you like and not like…” book club discussion. If you love those, this will not be for you.)
I have a degree from one of those Ivy League writing programs that I often describe as “advanced book club,” for better or worse. If you’re curious how writers and thinkers structure discussions about books (and as well call them, “texts”) in this kind of setting, this will be a peek into that. I try to take the best of this approach (unpacking the text together, thinking about what the reading enlightens and how to “complicate it”) without the downside (cough…long-winded responses and tangents).
Also, I’m friends with some awesome writers and editors and scholars…if we have interest, we could get some of them to join us sometimes!
Wait, will it be pedantic? Nope, the idea is to keep it fun. It might get nerdy, though! I hope so!
I hope you’ll join us!
Description of “All Fours” by Miranda July
A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey.
Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, “All Fours” tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, “All Fours” transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The New York Times bestselling author returns with an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel about a woman upending her life.
“A frank novel about a midlife awakening, which is funnier and more boldly human than you ever quite expect….nothing short of riveting.” —Vogue
“All Fours has spurred a whisper network of women fantasizing about desire and freedom...It’s the talk of every group text."—The New York Times
“All Fours possessed me. I picked it up and neglected my life until the last page, and then I started begging every woman I know to read it as soon as possible.” —The Cut
“A novel that presses into that tender bruise about the anxiety of aging, of what it means to have a female body that is aging, and wanting the freedom to live a fuller life…Deeply funny and achingly true.” —LA Times
MATRIARCHY REPORT is written by Lane Anderson and Allison Lichter.
Lane Anderson is a writer, journalist, and Clinical Associate Professor at NYU who has won fellowships and many SPJ awards for her writing on inequality and family social issues. She has an MFA from Columbia University. She was raised in Utah and lives in New York City with her partner and young daughter.
Allison Lichter is an associate dean at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. She has been a writer, producer and editor for radio and print, covering the arts, politics, and the workplace. She was born and raised in Queens, and lives in Brooklyn with her partner and daughter.
This book was chosen because I’m dying to read it! And when I polled subscribers on the weekly chat, a lot of them were, too. If we want to keep reading, we can choose the next book together.
Love this idea. I wrote a post about my thought on it (without spoilers) called In Praise of Becoming Unhinged! https://cindyditiberio.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-becoming-unhinged
Me me! I finished it a couple of weeks ago. Lmk if you want any input on discussion prompts. I have many thoughts.