Books to Read in Your Two-Person Galentine Book Club
[source: NBC Universal]
We all have one. The woman who knows we need a hug before we even say a word. The friend whose texts always seem to come at the right time. The confidant who always happens to be reading the same book as us. Our Galentine. And while we’re happy to shower this friend with gifts every February 13th, this year we’re stepping up our game with book recommendations for an incredible two-person book club – guaranteed. It’s a Galentine’s Day you’ll both remember for years to come.
(Source: Penguin Random House)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Kick off your Galentine book club with Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, a wide sweeping novel that follows two Ghanaian half-sisters and the very different lives the they live and leave for their descendants. It reads like a series of linked short stories that span centuries, each one tumbling off the other as Gyasi pushes us forward in time. Together you’ll pour over the novel’s family tree, letting this spectacular piece of historical fiction take over every conversation for weeks. It’s the perfect book to kick off your new two-person book club because it’s impossible to stop talking about this novel.
(Source: Melville House Books)
Trainwreck by Sady Doyle
Reading Trainwreck by Sady Doyle feels like having a conversation with Doyle herself, making it the perfect book for a Galentine book club. This dissection of society’s treatment of unlikable and off-center women throughout history is sure to have you dog earing pages and scribbling in the margins. Grab your Galentine and compare underlined passages as you talk about Britney Spears, Valerie Solanas, and Sylvia Plath. It’s a powerful piece of writing that you’ll keep returning to – thinking of each other every time you flip through the pages.
(Source: Simon & Schuster)
All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister
Next up is Rebecca Traister’s incredibly written All the Single Ladies. You’ll be up all night talking about this phenomenal meditation on unmarried women in the United States. Not only does this book contain the oral history of your favorite podcasting duo – Call Your Girlfriend anyone? – it also deeply interrogates the history of infantile husbands throughout history. This book is the reason the fire emoji was invented. Every page is weighed down with more intensity than the last. And we wouldn’t be surprised one bit if you started referring to this book as your friendship’s bible.
(Source: Penguin Random House)
The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob
Cap off your Galentine book club with Mira Jacob’s magnificent debut novel The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing. It’s a story that runs from India to Albuquerque, from father to daughter, from caretaker to cared for. At just over 520 pages, it’s a novel of epic proportions. And yet you’ll still long for more from these characters – more time, more joy, more life. You’ll miss it when it’s over, the same way you miss each other between hangouts.
