The votes have been counted and Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo is our May Book for our AAPI themed Book Club! #CannonBookClub will be taking place on Friday May 20th and Saturday May 21st. We have a lot of new Cannonballers participating this year, so here are some answers to a few of the typical questions about our book discussions. Feel free to post your questions or comments about #CannonBookClub below.
So how does #CannonBookClub work?
I’m so glad you asked! Now that the book is announced you have just over two months to read Last Night at the Telegraph Club if you want to participate. We encourage everyone to try to get their review posted sometime before Book Club convenes. Make sure to tag your post with the CannonBookClub tag to make your review findable with the other book club reviews. Even if you can’t get your review up in time you are welcome to come chime in on our Discussion Post which will go live on May 20th, at our Zoom Meeting on May 21st at 1pm Eastern, or on our social media pages.
What’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club about again?
Here’s its synopsis:
“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.
America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Suggestions on where to find the book?
We love libraries! We know the eBook and Audiobook versions are available on Libby, but make sure you check your options soon – this award winner is popular. You can always choose to buy a copy if you like, and we like Bookshop.org since they support independent booksellers.
Are we going to have other #CannonBookClubs this year?
You bet! We’ve got our dates and theme picked out for our September Book Club so mark your calendars: September 16th – 17th we’ll be discussing Banned or Challenged Books just ahead of Banned Book Week (September 18-24, 2022). Our plan to celebrate our freedom to read is to take on a selection of challenged books for this discussion. We’ll have a vote to narrow down a list, and then you can read one or more – up to you! – and we’ll have discussion posts for each book. Keep a lookout for voting on that in May.
Anything else I should know?
As always I hope that if your vote wasn’t our final choice that you’ll make the time to read both at some point during this Cannonball Read. It was a great group and AAPI Heritage Month is a fantastic excuse to read a few. If you have any questions at all about Book Club and how we do it here, feel free to reach out or comment below. And if you feel like it you can always take a stroll down our Book Club page or the #CannonBookClub tag to find out what books we discussed in the past and get a feel for previous discussions.
Happy reading!